AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



195 



All the houses here are built of stone, and wood is only used in the 

 interior, pine, principally. Oak and maple are used in public and expen- 

 sive private buildings ; hickory is used only in mechanical appliances 

 and golf sticks. White wood or poplar is used for cabinetwork ; the 

 only superior wood which displaces it is red cedar, which is more expen- 

 sive. The pine most sought after conies from the western coast of the 

 United States, and is called here Oregon pine. 



IMPORTS OF LUMBER. 



I have had some difficulty in getting certain information upon this 

 subject. The collector of customs here could not give it, unless he made 

 a special compilation. I find, however, in a return to the House of 

 Commons of trade and navigation, the quantity of lumber and timber, 

 and value of the same, imported into the United Kingdom for the eleven 

 months ending November 30, 1893, which I here give: 



* A load equals 50 cubic feet of squared timber; 40 cubic feet of unhewn timber; 600 superficial feet 

 of inch planking. 



The following statement shows the amount and value of hewn wood 

 and timber imported during the first eleven mouths of the years given: 



Our principal competitors in hewn timber are Sweden and Norway, 

 Russia, Germany, and British North America, in the order named ; and 

 in manufactured lumber, Sweden and Norway, Eussia and British 

 North America, in the order named. 



It will be noticed that 1893 falls below both 1891 and 1892, percep- 

 tibly 1892, in value of the imports from the United States. 



The timber and lumber from Eussia is principally white and red fir. 

 It is used for flooring ceiling, and sheathing, and is considered inferior 

 to American pine. 



The timber from Germany is mostly fir also, but none of it comes to 

 the west coast of Scotland. 



The timber and lumber from Sweden and Norway are also fir, of much 

 the same character and quality as that from Eussia. 



