AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 179 



GENERAL BUILDING. 



Considerable house, ship, and railroad building is carried on in this 

 district, and in this respect I would refer to the enormous growth 

 of the cities of Hamburg, Alton a, and Kiel, the new North Sea and 

 Baltic Canal, with its many locks, bridges, and railways, and to the 

 shipbuilding yards of Hamburg, Kiel, Ltibeck, Mensburg, and Eos- 

 tock. 



EXTENSION OF LUMBER TRADE. 



I find that the general opinion of those engaged in the importation 

 of lumber from the United States is that the American dealers do not 

 pay sufficient attention to the desires and wishes of the German 

 importers ; that they very often ship qualities inferior to those ordered, 

 and are inclined to class as prime what the German dealer would call 

 only medium lumber. 



In order to extend the lumber trade of the United States the ship- 

 ments of inferior lumber must be stopped, as far as practicable, so as to 

 allow prices to recuperate. At the close of 1892 the stock of walnut 

 logs in Hamburg was 1,400 ; at the close of 1893 it was 10,000. This is 

 sufficient to supply the demand for some time to come. Notwithstand- 

 ing this overstocking of the market, I am told that prime walnut logs 

 are always salable at fair prices, the larger the logs the better the 

 prices. Small logs are difficult to get rid of. 



The low freights at which small sailing vessels carry lumber, and 

 especially sleepers, from Sweden to the North German ports, almost 

 preclude the competition of countries as far distant as ours. 



CHAS. H. BURKE, 

 Vice and Acting Consul. 



HAMBURG, February 7, 1894. 



NORWAY. 



NATIVE WOODS. 



Southeastern Norway, where this consulate is located, was formerly 

 well covered with natural forests. Lumber has, consequently, for sev- 

 eral centuries past been a staple export. Norway, as a whole, is still 

 well wooded, and it is estimated that 77,000 square kilometers (24 per 

 cent) of the superficies of the country are still covered with forests. 

 But they have gradually become very thin in many districts, especially 

 on the high mountains and in marshy places. In the western districts, 

 along the extensive seacoast, the forests have now disappeared alto- 

 gether, and the only woods left are at the inner extremity of the deep 

 and narrow fjords, sometimes over 100 miles from the open sea. 



