444 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Chicago as a Lumber Market 



Lucius E. Fuller, editor of the Lumber 

 World, in the Pioneer Western Lumberman, 

 describes Chicago as the "premier lumber 

 market of the world." He states that the 

 largest wholesale lumber yard in the country 

 is located there, and that there is a stock on 

 hand at all times in the pine and hardwood 

 yards of from 300,000,000 to 380,000,000 feet 

 of rough lumber. He also notes the quantity 

 of hardwoods and the great variet}^ of all 

 kinds that maj^ be called for. The receipts 

 of lumber at Chicago by rail and water in 

 1909 aggregated 2,578,309.000 feet, an in- 

 crease of 509,675,000 feet, or twenty-four per 

 cent, over the receipts during 1908. Of this 

 amount 1,614,000,000 feet were consumed in 

 the city for purposes of various kinds. The 

 shipments from Chicago in 1909 were 969,- 

 000,000 feet, being nearly 200,000,000 feet 

 larger than in 1908. 



These figures, Mr. Fuller says, are far 

 ahead of the reports furnished by New York, 

 and fully double the figures emanating from 

 other markets where any record is kept of 

 the lumber movement. 



^ % &' 



Making the Most of the Log 



A subscriber for the American Lumberman 

 directs attention to the large amount of 

 stumpage that well could go into higher uses 

 that is being sawed into low-grade products 

 by men who are not directly engaged in the 

 lumber business. In the east such operators 

 are buying areas of timber, logging them, 

 and turning the entire product into goods 

 for their specific requirements, with the in- 

 evitable result that a large amount of high- 

 grade stock goes into this consumption along 

 with the low-grade timber that is properly 

 suited thereto. They are satisfied because 

 they can manufacture these articles at a low 

 cost, even with the high grades in, since the 

 operation is all their own and the profits of 

 manufacture their own exclusively. 



Yet a question arises as to whether they 

 are not throwing away good profits in sawing 

 up No. I pine or spruce into low-grade ar- 

 ticles. Unfortunately, not only they are the 

 losers, if such be the case, but the public at 

 large is a loser. Their own loss is their own 

 lookout, and the man who ignores the oppor- 

 tunity to take a larger profit receives but 

 scant sympathy. In recent years, however, 

 the men who are cutting the forests of the 

 United States have had it indicated to them 

 that they have responsibilities larger than 

 that they owe to stockholders or themselves. 

 Every good log that is used for a baser pur- 

 pose than that to which it is suited is a loss 

 to the lumber industry of the United States 

 and to the consumers who are dependent 

 upon that industry for their lumber supply. 



It is difficult in this practical age to preach 

 altruism, but perhaps a demonstration of the 

 sacrifice of profit in this indiscriminate use 

 of timber might appeal to such a timber 

 consumer and thereby serve the higher pur- 

 pose of saving high-class stock for high-class 

 purposes, now certainly sufficient to consume 

 all of the upper grades that are available 

 without permitting them to be manufactured 

 into articles that can as well be made from 

 lower grades. — American Lumberman. 



)^ )^ «? 



More Money for Fire Protection 



The state forestry commissioner believes 

 that if the legislature and the forest fires 

 would occur at the same time, the state would 

 be better equipped to fight the latter. At the 

 present time, there is available each year 

 $14,000 to support the work of protecting the 

 forests of the state, a sum by far too little 

 if the work is to be eflfective in seasons when 

 there is the greatest danger. The proper ex- 

 penditure of a much larger sum would save 

 many times as much in property that is now 

 wiped out annually by fires in the timber 

 sections of the state. — Mississippi Valley 

 Lumberman (Minneapolis, Minn.). 



