here
has been on contract, there has been no great fluctuation in the
market at this point. On the first of July the rates by the cargo were
$25a$26 for clear and $19a$20 for second clear; on the first of
October, $24 for clear, and $18 for second clear.

Last winter and spring were very unfavorable for lumbering. Owing to
the small quantity of snow, but few logs were got out, and many of
them being on small streams, owing to the failure of the usual spring
freshets, were not sawed, so that upon the whole the mills of the
State turned out only about half the amount of their capacity.

The market opened in the spring with flattering prospects. Buyers from
a number of important points in the Eastern States, previously
deriving their supplies from Maine, visited our State, anxious to
secure contracts for choice lumber, and the opinion prevailed that the
demand would exceed the supply. The prospect encouraged manufacturers
to make unwonted exertions in turning out all the stock that could be
rendered available, which involved increased expense. In some places,
as was the case at Saginaw, a very large amount was got out in the
early part of the summer. About the close of June, the market
experienced a sudden and unlooked-for depression, after which prices
tended speedily downward, falling to such a low point before the close
of the season that manufacturers on the west coast generally suspended
their shipments. Those on the east coast continued to ship, but their
shipments to a very great extent still remain unsold. We are cognizant
of 7,000,000 feet held in that way by only four manufacturers.

The accounts this winter are very favorable, but the idea that
obtains, fixing the amount at a very high figure, is vague and
erroneous. The true state of the case is, that manufactures, as a
general thing, in view of the depressed condition of the trade, have
been making calculations to do a light business, and got out their
logs sooner than they expected, and will on the whole do rather more
than they had anticipated, having gone into the woods lighthanded. The
most experienced judges concur in fixing the amount of logs got out
this winter on River St. Clair, at Port Huron and Saginaw Bay, but not
including the rivers above, at 175,000,000 feet. In the Saginaws, it
is ascertained that about 100,000,000 will be got out. Taking the
entire east coast, it is thought the logs this winter would exceed
those of last by fifteen to twent