Page 402

402                  The Wisconsin
GOOD ADVICE TO THE TRADE.
The Lumberman's Gazette, our en-
terprising contemporary on the east
shore of Lake Michigan, has assumed
the form of a large eight-page weekly
and instituted many marked improve-
ments. We shall continue to be
proud of it, notwithstanding its pros-
perity, so long as it gives those en-
gaged in the lumber trade such sensi-
ble advice as this:
Among the lumber manufacturers
there is and has been for some time,
a difficulty which must sooner or
later be corrected, and the sooner the
better, perhaps. There are too many
of them doing business on an almost
exclusive credit system, and others
who have been in. the habit of receiv-
ing very heavy lines of credit, con-
sidering the extent of their business.
The banks are inclined to curtail
those credits, and unless sales of lum-
ber are made promptly, and for cash
to meet current expenses, there is a
cramped condition for the manufac-
turer. Whether or not the banks are
as accommodating as they might and
ought to be, is a question we suggest
for their consideration, but we do in-
sist that the business in lumber
should be reduced to a proper and
legitimate basis, instead of carried on
after the inflated fashion of the past
few years. For the present year
there is, or will be, a demand for
every foot of good lumber manufac-
tured in America, and at prices which
will leave a reasonable margin for the
manufacturer. Courage in the face
of facts, courage to meet any depress-
ing influence which may arise, or
which may now exist, courage to limit
business to the means employed, and
courage to abandon the complaining
spirit, will do more for the health of
trade and commerce than any imagi-
nary results of legislation affecting
currency, whichever way an increase
in the circulating  medium  might
affect the country.
t Lumberman.
TIMBER AND WATER IN TEXAS.
A correspondent of the Fond du
Lac (Wis.) Commonwealth, gives the
following information about Texas:
Texas is well supplied with streams
of living water, and they comprise
some of the most magnificent rivers
in thetworld, many of them naviga-
ble for steamboats and other large
crafts, for hundreds of miles, go
coursing on their way through the
state to the great Gulf. Commencing
with the Red River, which forms the
northern boundary of the state, we
have the Sabine, Trinity, Brazos,
Colorado, Gaudalupe, Nueces and the
Rio-Grande, which forms the south-
ern and south-western boundary, with
their innumerable tributaries, consti-
tuting at once the grandest irrigating
and drainage system in the world,
and furnishing a never failing supply
of the best of water for stock and
other purposes. Good living well
water can be obtained in most parts
of the state at a depth of from four-
teen to fifty feet, while bright, spark-
ling springs of that health-giving
beverage come bubbling up through
the bosom of mother earth, or trick-
ling down the sides of some bluff as
if to say, man need not thirst or fly
to any subtle, soul-destroying substi-
tute of art, for reliet  Nearly all
these water courses are lined with 8
belt of timber extending from a few
rods to six or eight miles in width,
and large groves embracing thousands
of acres of excellent timber for build-
ing and other purposes are found in
the interior prairies, even in the
poorest timbered portion of the state,
which is the western counties. The
eastern counties are said to be unsur-
1 passedfor the abundance and excel-
lent quality of their timber. The
*f principal varieties are pine, cypress,
cedar, black walnut, white oakc, elm,
ash, hickory, pecan, mesquit and
bois darc.
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