The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1895-08-22
Oregon and Washington Com
ing Lumber Markets.
THERE ARE NOT CARS ENOUGH
Railroads Forced to Build More in
Order to Take Care of Lumber
Z" and Wheat of Northwest.

Some little time ago In one of the
evening papers appeared an article com
menting upon the numbering Industries
OF this territory in which the writer
stated that railroads would be OF no
benefit to the 1umbermen OF the Pacific
Coast; that 1t was impossible for this
coast to compete with the numbering
states of the East The writer If the ar
ticle must certainly have been under a
misapprehenslon. 1t is only this week
that a large party of eastern numbering
men arrived IN Seattle and are now
making a thorough inspection OF the for
ests Of Washington with a view to pur-
chasing stumpage. They have stated in
interviews that the forests were rapidly
being depleted in the East, and that lum-
bering interests were compelled to seek
other sources of supply. Coupled with
this is the fact that one mill alone on
Gray's Harbor last month shipped 1l3
carloads of lumber to the Eastern mar
ket 1.-The same company have sailing YES
sells plying between San Francisco and
other ports from the Gray's Harbof
country. There are hundreds Of mills all
over the state of Oregon and Washing
ton that are doing the same business,
and the fact Is notorious that at a re-
cent conference of railroad officials in
the East II was decided to largely in
crease the rolling stock of their several
railroads in order to meet the demand
made by the lumber manufacturers of
the Pacific Northwest for cars in which
to transport their products this fall to
the Eastern market.
Upon the completion of the railroad
to Astoria 1t cannot be doubted but that
the great timber preserves of the Ne
halem and Columbia river valleys will be
opened up and their products shipped TO
the far East Colorado, Nebraska, and
Kansas offer a large field now already
partly occupied by the lumber mills on
the Sound, and large consignments of
both lumber and shingles have even been
made TO the Atlantic coast, The follow
ing from a Sound paper speaks for Itself.
THE Post-Inteligence of Tuesday last
says that within the next few months
more than 100000 feet of Washington
fir and cedar will be worked up into box
cars for the Great Northern Railway,
which has just let to the Haskell & Bar
ker Car Company, of Michigan City,
Ind, an order that win run into thCus-
ands of cars. The step has been taken in
anticipation of the enormous tonnage the
road expects to handle during the lar-
vest. The contract provides that the
woodwork be entirely of Washington
fir, with the exception of the roofs, which |
are to be of Washington cedar. Already |
orders have been placed for the lumber,
among six mi.ls, tour of them in this |
city and vicinity and two on Gray Har-
Dor. In aid there will be required at
least $50 car loads"
1t Is almost safe to say that the earn
ings on lumber traffic which will be |
handled by the Astoria railroad will go a |
long ways towards paying operating ex-
penses The industry is rapidly increas-
ing on the Sound and Oregon manufac-
turers have only just begun to get into |
the business
The field Is n broad one and lessons |
from the history of the timber forests |
In the East, where more lumber has an
nually been destroyed by fire than was |
manufactured and which threatens to be |
repeated in Oregon, should be so inn
pressed upon the lumber men of Ore
gon and Washington that no efforts |
should be spared to foster tlis great in
dustry. The proposition that the two |
states named could not compete with the |
East In this Industry Is not tenable. |
Only u cursory investigation into the |
subject Is necessary to confrm this. Let |
the lumber men take heart, and know
that a market for their product viii never
be lacking,