AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



127 



LUMBER MOST USED. 



For uses requiring long and strong timbers, say for scaffolding, joists, 

 rafters, and the like, especially where uniform strength is needed with- 

 out too great weight, " Oregon pine," or what is known in the Pacific 

 States as " fir," is most highly prized and most extensively used. It 

 comes chiefly from Washington and Oregon, and in the rough state. 



Eedwood is a favorite timber for inside work, as it works so much 

 more easily than the native woods and finishes as finely. It is imported 

 in the rough and dressed at the local mills. 



As a rule the native woods of Australia are very hard and heavy. 

 While many of them take a very fine polish and can be richly finished, 

 they are hard to work and to handle. Ironbark stands first on Lloyd's 

 estimate as a shipbuilding timber. 



For flooring the Kauri pine of New Zealand, of which there are con- 

 siderable forests, is regarded as very good, and is much in use, though it 

 is inferior to the fir of the Pacific States when the latter is sawed with 

 proper regard to the grain. The Kauri pine has little strength, as 

 there seems to be a lack of continuity of fiber, and it is certainly less 

 durable than fir. 



There are complaints that the Oregon pine (fir) flooring, when worn 

 sometime, splinters or scales up, but that comes from its being sawed 

 without proper regard to grain. The Australians want the best of 

 everything, and I feel confident that the long, clear flooring of the 

 Pacific Northwest fir, sawed properly and dressed to, say 4 inches 

 in width, would take the market when there is one. 



For cabinetwork, carriages, carts, vehicles, and most machinery 

 the strong and heavy native woods are chiefly used, while for cooperage 

 the timbers of New Zealand and Tasmania are preferred. 



IMPORTATION OF LUMBER. 



The importations of 1893 were 8,118,925 superficial feet of dressed 

 lumber, valued at $271,036, and the importations were distributed as 

 follows : 



Of rough or undressed lumber (all of what we in the United States 

 call "lumber " is here called " timber," and it is reckoned by the hundred 

 superficial feet instead of by the thousand) there was imported in the 



