Canadian Forestry Journal, July, iqi6. 



639 



However, at the beginning- of the 

 year 1915 an awakening took place 

 in the timber market. This was 

 caused by Italy, who, not being able 

 to obtain from Austria the materials 

 which she obtained from there in or- 

 dinary times, asked Switzerland for 

 the stock of planks and timber that 

 she could deliver. 



Export to France. 



After the disaster of Avezzano the 

 Italians had recourse to Swiss pro- 

 duction, and a large quantity of con- 

 struction timber came through the 

 Gothard and especially the Simplon. 

 At that time, too, requests for treat- 

 ed posts came from France. It may 

 be said that from the beginning of 

 May the exportation of Swiss tim- 

 ber into France was organized on a 

 large scale and that is gradually be- 

 came greater, the price of certain 

 kinds of sawn wood having increas- 

 ed from 50 to 80 per cent., compared 

 wtih the condition of sales ten 

 months before. 



The Federal Government has re- 

 strained to a certain extent this 

 trade, and in order to obtain equiva- 

 lents in other materials the exporta- 

 tion of building timber is now gov- 

 erned by special formalities, and lat- 

 terly the exportation of walnut, ash 

 and other species, which our coun- 

 try cannot do without, has been pro- 

 hibited. 



The war has produced a complete 

 upheaval in our timber market, for 

 Switzerland was previously depen- 

 dent on foreign countries and incap- 

 able of producing the building ma- 

 terial which it used, and behold her 

 now providing it fo rher neighbors 

 on the west and on the south. On 

 the ot'her hand. Germany and Aus- 

 tria have almost completely stopped 

 their exportation of wood materials 

 into Switzerland, so that what is 

 sent to France and to Italy is entire- 

 ly of Swiss production ; our statis- 

 tics prove it, and we make a point 

 of stating this to our French cus- 

 tomers. 



High Prices Offered. 



At the moment of writing these 

 lines the demand for planks, boards 

 and other kinds of sawn material is 

 so strong that even the smallest 

 sawyers, especially of Romanic and 

 Central Switzerland, receive visits 

 from French merchants or their 

 Swiss agents, who collect at any 

 cost boards, paneul-wood, etc., often 

 without insisting on a choice of 

 which particular material they will 

 receive. One readily pays at the 

 present time for boards from 2 

 francs to 2 francs 30 per square 

 metre, F. O. B., and lots of spruce 

 logs in the forest are sold at public 

 auction or by written tender from 20 

 to 30 francs per cubic metre, accord- 

 ing to the distance from the nearest 

 railway station. 



If we look now at the market for 

 wood of small dimensions that can- 

 not be used as logs or posts we have 

 a very interesting statement to 

 make, and that is in direct connec- 

 tion with the production of paper. 

 Before the war the pulp and cellu- 

 lose mills obtained from foreign 

 countries a large proportion of the 

 raw material, and naturally a defici- 

 ency resulted a short time after the 

 declaration of war. Then the manu- 

 facturers were obliged to tempt the 

 owners of the forests by the most 

 advantageous prices. In that par- 

 ticular part of the timber market the 

 increase in price is from 20 to 30 per 

 cent. The fact should not be over- 

 looked that our manufacturers ob- 

 tained six months ago public au- 

 thority to prevent the export of fire 

 wood.' for the tenders from France 

 seemed about to paralize that branch 

 of our industry, and the manufacture 

 of paper in Switzerland would prob- 

 ably have been ruined. 



We other wood producers greet 

 this development with legitimate 

 satisfaction, for now our manufac- 

 turers of cellulose and wood pulp 

 have discovered that they can ob- 

 tain the materials they require in 

 Switzerland on condition that they 



