OUR LUMBER INDUSTRY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVII, Issue 42, 20 February 1903, Page 6 (Supplement)

OUR LUMBER INDUSTRY.

hierensftd CoiiGnmjitlon and Steady

Demand Have Cmrrled tp Prices,

, In the iiscal year 18SG the exports Of forestry products, of .which,; lumber vnis, of course, the., ciiief item, amounted to $20,000,000. In 1897 .this had risen to. $40,000,000, and frcuY pi-envjnt Indications the expoi-ts will exceed this year $30,000,000. Lumber dealers Bveryyrhere throughout the country report that the demand for all grades of lumber is greater than at any time In recent years. Yards are running night and day, with two shifts of laborers, loading and unloading. Every uort of seaworthy vessel that can be hired or bought, says the New York Bun; has been pressed into service by the lumbermen on the great lakes, and ocean shipments of lumber from southern ports are enormous.

Railroad side tracks are run into all the large lumber yards, and these are crowded with cars in process of loading, the demand for flat freight cars in the west and south severely taxing the resources of the companies. Some lumbermen, it is reported, are obliged to hold back their orders on account of the present obstacles to prompt shipment. -

Exclusiye of furniture, the value of wliich is an inconsiderable . item in American export commerce, the chief shipments of American lumber are to England and Canada and of^ timber sawed and hewn to England and Germany. Information has reached Washington that thp Canadian lumbermen are urging the propriety of putting a tax on lumber coming from the United States into Canada. American logs and i lumber are : now admitted free., On the average 30,000,000 feet of logs are cut In Minnesota and Wisconsin every , year and are shipped .to Winnipeg.

The chief cause, however, of the enlarged American lumber market and of the increased prices for American forestry products does not arise from the' extensive trade between this country and Canada, but from the Increased local demand for American lumber for building purposes. There has been a great boom in building operations throughout the United States during the first six months of .1899 as compared with the first six months of 1898. TJie rate of increase is fully 33 per centv The cities showing a large increase are New York, Cleveland, Kansas, Boston; New Orleans and Toledo. Washington, Milwaukee, Chica.go and Minneapolis show a large but a less proportion of increase, and the only American cities which to July 1 fell off in the building record of a year were Philadelphia and Louisville. It is estimated that §200,000,000 was expended in building operations in American cities in the first six months of 1899, a considerable Item of such expense being for lumber.