EUROPE 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



NATIVE VS. AMERICAN WOODS. 



From the very best information I can gather, this country is not quite 

 yet ready to use American lumber to any great extent. The American 

 lumber exporters should realize that here in Europe their only com- 

 petitors, especially for German, French, and Italian consumption, are 

 the Austro Hungarian lumber dealers. 



Up to the present time, nearly all of the staves used for wine in 

 France and Italy, passed through the hands of the Austrian merchants, 

 and the same can be said of those used in the breweries of Germany. 

 The forests remaining in Austria proper, are nearly all used up, and it 

 is from the Hungarian portion of this empire that most of the lumber is 

 exported. The Hungarian forests are mainly owned by the Govern- 

 ment, and city and village communes. 



About three years ago, the Government, which controls the cutting 

 of forests in Hungary, curtailed the number of trees to be felled, so that 

 at their annual sales less lumber was offered than was required for 

 home and export wants. Some well informed parties maintain that 

 this was a ruinous policy to pursue, as it not only fictitiously advanced 

 the value of lumber in Austria, but it compelled lumber dealers to look 

 elsewhere for a good portion of their wants, thus hastening the intro- 

 duction of foreign lumber, which might have been delayed some ten or 

 twenty years. 



At the same time when this happened, many breweries were being 

 started in Germany and the demand for staves in Italy and France was 

 unusually great. Since then the prices of lumber have fallen. This is 

 undoubtedly due to a lesser demand, and to the introduction of Amer- 

 ican lumber. 



"To sum up the matter," as a very well informed lumber dealer 

 explained : "We do not fear the United States for consumption for the 

 next thirty or forty years; we have also enough oak in this empire to 

 carry on a large export trade for ten years to come. At the end of 

 this time our supply will be so reduced that it will be impossible for us 

 to compete with the United States in foreign markets. The only way 

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