AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



171 



iron and steel. Few new railways are in construction, and the princi- 

 pal demand for ties is for repairs to the lines already in operation. 



Building lumber, viz, rafters, sheathing for slate and tiled roofs, 

 doors, and window frames, painted wainscoting, and the underlaying of 

 parquetry floors, is uniformly of pine and fir. Frame houses, shingled 

 roofs, weatherboarded walls, board or picket fences, and wooden side- 

 walks are all practically unknown in German cities and villages, and 

 as iron joists and girders and fireproof stairways are now exclusively 

 used in all good buildings the use of lumber or timber of any kind in 

 building is reduced to a minimum. The trusses and framework of 

 roofs, rafters, and beams of sizes larger than 6 inches square are gen- 

 erally made by hewing with broadax, the straight, slender young 

 pines which grow so profusely in the Government forests. 



Oaken split staves are used for wine and beer barrels and kegs and 

 for the large casks used in breweries and wine cellars. The smaller 

 staves, up to a length of 4 or 5 feet, are obtained in Germany or 

 imported from Austria- Hungary and Kussia. But large oak trees are 

 becoming scarce and costly in most parts of Europe, and the larger 

 class of oaken staves, those from 5 to 10 feet in length, are now imported 

 in considerable and steadily increasing quantities from Missouri, Arkan- 

 sas, and Tennessee. The best American oak staves are exceedingly 

 tough in fiber, clear and even in grain, and so far as can be ascertained 

 are uniformly preferred by all German coopers who have used them to 

 the large staves of European origin. There are but few large oak trees 

 left in Germany that are available for cutting, and their value may be 

 inferred from the fact that a single tree which was cut some months 

 ago in the Spessart, a forest region near Frankfort, was sold for 1,200 

 marks ($285). 



IMPORTS OF LUMBER. 



The amount of lumber imported into Germany in 1892, and during 

 the first eleven months of 1893, was as follows, in metric tons of 2,240 

 pounds. 



Imports of 



