THE FARMERS LUMBER QUESTION. 



per pound, as a sample of the common level of quotations. In 

 like manner we are excluded from employing the year 1858 in the 

 calculation ; for then lumber had dropped to figures unprecedent- 

 edly low. The Daily Press and Tribune , of this city, in its annual 

 review of the trade and commerce of Chicago for that twelve 

 month, said : 



The lumber trade during the past year has been very much depressed. The 

 heavy shipments of 1857, being followed by a general stagnation of business, 

 owing to the monetary crisis, left us on the 1st of January last with an immense 

 stock on hand, and very little demand either from the interior or by the city. In 

 the month of February, however, dealers saw the necessity of reducing the prices 

 of lumber, and from that time up to the close of the year common lumber sold 

 freely at $6@,$8 per thousand feet. The manufacturers, however, did not recover 

 from the depression, and not more than one-third of the amount sawed in 1857 

 was turned out during 1858. Nor indeed could they have done so with any ad 

 vantage or profit to themselves, even had they cut the logs; for, at the prices 

 which ruled here, unless the mills were economically run, manufacturers could 

 scarcely clear expenses. As will be seen from the tables which follow, the re 

 ceipts during 1858 were 186,618,692 feet less than they were in 1857. 



Considering these peculiar surroundings of the case, we shall 

 compare the years 1868, 1869 and 1870 with the years 1855, 1856 

 and 1857, in order, as far as practicable, to avoid exceptional 

 elements of the problem to be considered. In .some respects, 

 these two periods offer an apt contrast, since each of them is re 

 moved to an almost equal distance from the beginning of a Pro 

 tective era, on one hand, and of a Free Trade era, on the other; 

 with this advantage against Protection, that prices of lumber in 

 1857 the panic year were very much less than they had been 

 during the preceding years. 



The Annual Review of the Trade and Commerce of Chicago 

 for 1858, published by the Daily Press and Tribune, gives the 

 range of cargo prices for lumber, and the highest and lowest prices 

 for corn on the first day of the month for five years. From that 

 source we have derived our figures for the period of partial Free 

 Trade. The quotations for the Protective period have been taken 

 from the official reports of the Chicago Board of Trade. In each 

 instance we have adopted the highest price as the one most sensi 

 tive to the depressing touch of surrounding circumstances, and as 

 manifesting the greatest purchasing power that could be main 

 tained during the month. It should be added that prices for 1855, 



