29 



men, less from the landowner. The whole country ia beginning to feel the 

 want of timber for buildings. The demand for lumber is now so great that 

 in the midst of the pineries of this state, a poor man cannot to-day build his 

 wooden house for the same amount of money, that ten years since he could 

 have built the same, after the-'lumber had been carried from 400 to 600 

 miles by water and rail from that same pinery. It now talies four t'mes the 

 money to buy the lumber for the house, and consequently four times the 

 number of days' Work to earn the necessary money with which to do it. The 

 poor man is therefore no longer the owner of the house he lives in, but he is 

 a renter, paying often fifty per cent, upon the cost of the building. These 

 men of all others require cheap lumber in order to give them cheap houses. 

 The walls of the house may be formed of stone, or brick, or grout or even 

 adobes, but still there exists the same unvarying need of lumber for the 

 floors, roofs, doors, casings, &o., which will coat as much as the walls them- 

 selves, if brick or stone, and more than the grout and adobes. For these 

 purposes, dear as lumber is, no other material so cheap and good as wood can 

 be substituted for it. If it be the duty of government to legislate for the 

 contentment and happiness of the people, then it is its duty to do all in its 

 power, without serious oppression to other interests, to furnish the people 

 with cheap lumber. This it can do by encouraging its growth. 



Since writing the above the circulai*'of Woolner and Garrick, lumber deal- 

 ers at Chicago, dated August the 1st, 1867, has come to hand, in which is the 

 following table, showing the amount of lumber received at that port : 



RECEIPTS. 



Receipts for I860,. 

 Keceipts for 1S61, . 

 Receipts lor 1862, . 

 Receipts for 1863,. 

 Receipts lor 1864, . 

 Receipts lor 1865, . 

 Receipts for 1866,. 



Taking this table as a basis of calculation, and allowing that one hundred 

 feet of lumber is equal to one thousand pieces of lath or shingles, and we 

 then have lor .the 78,555,000 laths, and the 899,038,000 shingles, 4,715,930 

 feet of lumber ; Which being added to the 698,048,715, makes ihe whole 

 amount 702,764,645 feet received during the year 1866. Comparing the 

 years from 1860 to 1866 inclusive with each other, it will be found that 

 there has been an annual increase since 1860 of 63,710,969 feet of lumber, 

 which will give for 1867, 766,475,314 feet. The table of receipts up to Au- 

 gust 1st, compared with former years, indicate that it will exceed that 

 amoimt. 



