202 



AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



imported on the west coast principally because of the great industries, 

 such as the cotton and woolen industries, which require packing cases, 

 etc. On the east coast the country is mainly agricultural and the 

 consumption of timber is chiefly for building purposes, for which the 

 Baltic woods are preferred. The latter are cheaper and said to be 

 more suitable. The Baltic woods come in longer lengths, and for build- 

 ing purposes are considered to be more durable than either pine or 

 spruce. The oak most used is from Sweden and Odessa. 



Formerly a quantity of lathwood used to be imported from Quebec 

 and St. John's into Hull, Liverpool, and Bristol, but of late years little 

 or none has come. The only reason given for this is that the Eiga 

 and St. Petersburg lathwood is considered to be better. 



According to one authority there is very little hard wood used in 

 Hull. In yellow-pine deals the trade is likely to decrease in the local 

 market for the reason that the prices are being considerably advanced 

 on account of the increased consumption in the United States, hence 

 there is a demand for pine deals from Sweden. Pitch pine finds an 

 increasing consumption and is likely to further increase, according to 

 the authority just alluded to, because it is so cheap. 



The Hull Chamber of Commerce gives the total imports of timber 

 during the last ten years, as follows: 



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

 wide planking. 



The imports of deals and timber have shown a marked and steady 

 increase except in the year 1893, when, from several unfavorable con- 

 ditions, the trade received a severe check. No sooner had the Baltic 

 trade opened than the dockers, timber men, and deal carriers struck work 

 at the instance of the Dockers' Union. This strike (a report upon 

 which I transmitted to the Department of State*) lasted some seven 

 weeks, during which time a large proportion of the seamen refused to 

 sign on. The dockers' strike was followed by an extensive strike 

 among the coal miners, which paralyzed once more the whole trade of 

 the Humber ports. The timber trade suffered in common with all the 

 other trades of the port with the result that there was, during the year, 

 a total reduction of 66,000 loads of hewn timber as compared with 1892, 

 and sawed timber deals, etc., fell very considerably from the same 

 causes. There is, notwithstanding, every reason to believe that the 

 import trade will completely recover in 1894. 



Published in Consular Reports for November, 1893, No. 158, p. 368. 



