248 AMERICAN LUMBER IN FOREIGN MARKETS. 



Iii Barcelona there are also many furniture factories. Beds and 

 chairs are produced in large quantities, and the common kinds are very 

 cheap. Much wood is imported into Spain for ornamental articles, and 

 also considerable expensive furniture is procured, entirely finished, from 

 France. The most famous woodwork in Spain is that of images, which, 

 for centuries, have been carved here with signal success, and are always 

 in great demand in the South American republics. 



So far as I can learn, Barcelona is the only Spanish city that pro- 

 duces billiard tables, balls, and cues. They are not worthy of compari- 

 son with the same articles manufactured in the United States, but they 

 have to serve their purpose because of the high protective duties. 



Spain being a great wine country, barrels and casks are made in 

 large numbers. Most of the staves come from the United States and 

 Austria. The wood for corking purposes is produced in Spain. She 

 has large cork forests. In the provinces of Gerona and Barcelona 

 corks are made annually to the value of about $8,000,000; moreover, 

 $6,000,000 worth of cork wood is annually extracted from the forests 

 in those provinces. In Andalusia there are also extensive cork forests, 

 but American purchasers would do well to secure their corks from the 

 province of Gerona, as there orders can be more rapidly and satisfac- 

 torily filled. 



Very little attention is given in Spain to cultivating forests, and yet 

 the constant freshets and inundations throughout the peninsula should 

 make the advisability of planting trees apparent. Lately, some desul- 

 tory attempts to introduce the eucalyptus have been made, and very 

 likely in time this wonderful tree will be found to be worth more to 

 Spain than are any of her colonies. 



HERBERT W. BOWEN, 



Consul- General. 

 BARCELONA, August 24, 1895. 



WOODS OF PARAGUAY. 



Of next importance to the yerba industry in this country is its tim- 

 ber. Immense forests of various classes of woods are to be met with 

 in all parts of Paraguay, whether it be inland or on the shores of the 

 two greater rivers, the Alto Parana and Paraguay. These woods are 

 chiefly exported in the shape of squared logs, and are transported con- 

 siderable distances, often as much as 40 or 50 miles from the interior to 

 the railway, or sent down the rivers in rafts or large barges. They are 

 now finding ready markets in Itosario, Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, and 

 Europe, more especially in Germany, Belgium, and France. They ma\ 

 be divided into two classes, viz, hard woods (madera de ley), which do 

 not float, and soft woods, whose specific gravity, as a rule, is less than 

 that of water. 



The hard woods are chiefly used by the railways for sleepers, bridge 



