THE PANAMA CANAL AND THE LUMBER TRADE 



89 



SITKA SPRUCE LOGS IN THE SAWMILL, Box FACTORY AND BOAT BUILDING PLANT AT PORT GRAVINA 



ISLAND, ALASKA. 



products are concerned, but even now 

 the West is gradually taking over the 

 trade in heavy timbers since the South, 

 which formerly supplied a large part 

 of this class of material, finds that its 

 supply of stumpage suitable for this 

 purpose is largely exhausted. The 

 eastern market for flooring, finishing and 

 common construction lumber will not 

 be surrendered without a struggle, and 

 it is doubtful if a large part of the trade 

 can be wrested from the southern pine 

 manufacturers until their supply of 

 stumpage becomes so depleted that they, 

 of necessity, must give up some of their 

 more distant markets. 



It is not anticipated that fir lumber 

 can influence to any degree the yellow 

 pine trade in the great prairie states of 

 the Middle West, which for many years 

 received vast quantities of lumber from 

 the Lake States, but which in recent 

 times have relied on the South to supply 

 their needs. The mills in Arkansas and 

 Louisiana, for instance, now get into 

 the Chicago market on an average rate 

 of 24 cents per 100 pounds, while the 

 rail rate from the coast is 55 cents. 

 Even though a very favorable water 

 rate were granted from the West via 

 the Canal, Pacific Coast lumber could 

 not get into these markets as readily as 

 yellow pine, since the railrate from Gulf 

 or Atlantic ports would be equal to the 



rate now paid from southern mills and, 

 in addition, the western product would 

 have to pay the water rate and handling 

 charges at the point of transfer. From 

 the standpoint of the yellow pine 

 operator, in fact also from the standpoint 

 of the Coast manufacturer as well, a 

 most hopeful sign is that the home 

 demand for lumber in the southern 

 states is increasing at a very rapid rate 

 and in another decade it is reasonably 

 certain that a very large per cent of the 

 lower grades produced at southern pine 

 mills will be marketed at home on a low 

 freight rate, thus automatically with- 

 drawing this product from competition 

 with Douglas fir in other sections. 



There is little likelihood of any im- 

 portant movement of timber via water 

 from the East to the West, although a 

 new field for southern hardwoods will 

 be open on the Pacific Coast. The very 

 high freight rates now charged for 

 transporting hardwoods from the Missis- 

 sippi valley to the westeni part of the 

 United States practically precludes their 

 use except in the best class of buildings. 

 It is now cheaper to import hardwoods 

 from Asiatic countries than it is to 

 bring native hardwoods over the Rocky 

 Mountains by rail. 



While the" western tide-water mills 

 will probably be benefited directly to a 

 greater degree than the interior mills 



