JONDITIONS IN PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES. 315

buy through London brokers, or their American connections, or else
through independent New York brokers. In a few instances orders
have been placed with the mills, but this is unusual. The importing
houses in turn supply the local retail yards, as well as consumers.
In the case of fir, most of the purchases are made through brokers
located at San Francisco, or Seattle, who in turn place the orders
with the manufacturers. At each port on both east and west coasts
the control of the lumber importing business is in the hands of a few
firms who, from time to time, have agreements as to their buying and
selling policies.
In the fourth largest market for American lumber, Oceania, most
of the lumber went to Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand.
Shipments of fir to these three countries for the year ending June 30
1914, amounted to about 227,000,000 feet and of redwood to about
50,000,000 feet. The two woods formed 96 per cent of all lumber
exported from the United States to those counties. A recent report
of Franklin H. Smith, published by the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic
 Commerce (Australasian markets for American lumber), describes
the present situation. Cooperative buying is done through the
Sydney &amp; Suburban Timber Merchants’ Association, the Timber Merchants’
 Association of Melbourne and Suburbs, the Timber Merchants’
Association of South Australia (for Adelaide and the surrounding
territory). There are combined buying agreements of the lumber
importing firms at Perth and Fremantle (western Australia), and
Hobart and Launceston (Tasmania), and the Auckland Sawmillers’
Association, in New Zealand. The purchase and distribution of
cargoes passes through the cooperating hands of importing firms at
Christ Church and Lyttleton, New Zealand. These cooperative
buyers are almost wholly in control of the local channels of distribution.

Canada, which took over 16 per cent of the total exports in the year
ending June 30, 1914, is the only foreign market in which the manufacturers
 deal, to any extent, directly with their customers, and not
through the medium of brokers. In most of the remainder of the
export trade their product passes through the hands of one or several
 brokers before it reaches the retailer or large consumer. Direct
representation of the manufacturer in this section of the export
trade is of the highest importance for the development of a profitable
and permanent business.

COOPERATION IN THE LUMBER EXPORT TRADE.

The various lumber manufacturers’ associations have from time to
time collected and distributed to their members statistical information
 which bore in part on the export trade. Also attempts have been
made to establish standard grades for export lumber. A few cooper-