AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 131 



strength, and soundness is very far superior to any of the soft woods 

 that come from Norway or New Zealand. The dealers and consumers 

 here are good judges, and they want the best there is. With them it is 

 cold business. 



Then it seems to me that owing to the hardness and great weight of 

 native woods here, our light, tasteless, and odorless spruce should be 

 used exclusively for fruit-packing purposes, whether the package be 

 a crate, a box, or a barrel. Considering lightness, neatness in color, 

 tastelessness, and all the qualities necessary for packages for eatables, 

 1 believe the Pacific slope spruce much superior to any other material 

 available for this market. 



There is another suggestion I venture to make regarding a possible 

 increased lumber trade in these colonies, and that is a reciprocal 

 exchange of timbers or remission of duties. Our merchantable tim- 

 bers are soft; theirs are hard. Ours are suitable for cottages, build- 

 ings, floorings, scaffoldings, joists, shipbuilding, etc., while theirs are 

 superior for pavements, furniture, tine implements, etc. Sydney is 

 better paved than any American city, save Washington. It is almost 

 entirely paved with wooden blocks. A careful test of many years has 

 been made. Experiments with different woods, as well as various 

 metal and stone cubes, on the chief streets where there is the heaviest 

 and most continued traffic, have been made, and the wood pavement has 

 proved its great superiority. 



It seems that turpentine, black butt, mahogany, and tallowwood 

 have proved the better woods for the purpose. As compared with 

 blue-stone cubes, the stone wears at the rate of 1 inch per year, and 

 the better woods but one-twelfth of an inch. Besides being much more 

 durable, they are less noisy, less destructive to vehicles, easier on 

 horses, and in every way more desirable. 



Add to this the fact that they are also cheaper, and that a wood 

 pavement makes a drive superior to asphalt, and why should our people 

 not enjoy this luxury? There may be climatic objections in many 

 American cities, but there certainly are not any on the Pacific coast. 



Considering population, the people of New South Wales are the 

 greatest commercial people on earth. They believe in trade. They are 

 anxious for a market for every merchantable product of the country. 

 I believe if our people would open up a market for the hard woods of 

 this country, if they would experiment with and finally use this New 

 South Wales paving material, which I believe to be the best in the 

 world in suitable climates, it would result in reciprocal trade and give 

 our lumber dealers the market of this country. 



There are two other suggestions that I desire to make relative to our 

 trade with Australasia, a little outside of the circular instructions, but I 

 think not so foreign to the subject as to subject me to criticism, and 

 one is that our people should be not only very careful in the shipment 

 of all articles for this market, but they should be sure that every article 



