26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



The Biggs-Wilson Company has been incorpo- 

 rated under the laws of West Virginia and will 

 do a general wholesale lumber business and buy 

 and sell timberlands. The office of the company 

 is located in the Frederick building, Huntington. 

 G. N. Biggs is president and treasurer : Joe L. 

 Wilson, vice president and general manager ; 

 S. G. Biggs, secretary ; these, together with 

 S. M. Trimmer, constitute the board of directors. 

 Mr. Biggs is well known to the trade and has 

 been in the business for many years, having 

 been connected with the most prominent lumber- 

 men in the state. With such men as these at 

 the head of the company it will have unbounded 

 success. _^_^_^^ 



of all kind: 

 ing timber. 



Ohio News Items. 

 The Domestic Lumber Company of Columbus, 

 although only a few months old, is booking 

 some fine orders, and indications at this time are 

 that they will have all the business they can 

 care for in the very near future. Mr. Taylor, 

 president of the company, said : "We are get- 

 ting a good fair volume of business and cannot 

 see why the carlot lumber trade will not reach 

 sixty-five per cent of last year during this sea- 

 son. As matters now stand we feel that all the 

 people need to have done to them is to have 

 their confidence in values restored, when they 

 will buy for their full needs and anticipate to a 

 certain extent. Unquestionably there are quite 

 a number of items in the lumber catalog today 

 which are worth more than money in the bank. 

 Up to now it has been hard to get buyers to 

 understand the real situation. Did they realize 

 the scarcity of stocks in the field they would 

 not hesitate to load up on present basis of values, 

 as by so doing they would make the biggest rate 

 of interest they ever did in their lives. Good 

 luck to all lumbermen." 



In a recent Interview Albert Brlgardner of 

 Columbus, who has extensive holdings in the 

 forests of West Virginia and Kentucky, and 

 who is well qualified to speak of the situation 

 from the standpoint of an owner and operator, 

 said: "In my opinion it will not be a matter 

 of more than tweuty-five years until the timber- 

 land of the South will be cut almost clean. 

 This section of the country is now supplying 

 probably one-half of the United States with 

 timber, but at the rate it is being cut there is 

 little probability that it will last longer than a 

 quarter of a century. There arc thousands of 

 acres of timberland, but there is a remarkable 

 demand for all that is cut. Our two mills In 

 this district turn out more than 800,000 feet of 

 lumber in a month each, and oftentimes It runs 

 as high as a million feet. We have demand for 

 almost all of it each month. Corporations and 

 firms are entering the huge forests on all 

 sides and building railroads over high gorges, 

 overcoming the greatest difficulties to get this 

 lumber out to where it can be shipped to various 

 parts of the country. The timber in these dis- 

 tricts Is secured ouly at an enormous expense and 

 it does not pay a man to try to cut a few hun- 

 dred acres. The great expense entailed to get at 

 lumber and the cost of operation Is a great 

 factor in the high price of lumber today. The 

 timber In our possession consists mostly of oak 

 and poplar, but we have everything from walnut 

 to pine. Oak and poplar are holding their prices 

 while pine seems to be declining. There was a 

 time when one could have purchased an acre of 

 valuable timberland In this district for $G or $7. 

 It Is a great deal higher than that now, I can 

 assure you, and it Is going higher. The land, 

 however, once rid of timber, is practically value- 

 less as a farm. It sells cheaply and often goes 

 for .'f2 an acre nowadays, the owner reserving 

 Uie mineral rights." 



The Cleveland-Oconee Lumber Company, which 

 was recently Incorporated under the laws of the 

 slate of Ohio, for $100,000, with $75,000 paid in. 

 Is having a very satisfactory business. The gen- 

 eral offices of the company are at 233 The Ar- 

 cade, Cleveland, with mills at Oconee, Ga. It 



; and wholesales hardwood lumber 

 and has about 2.400 acres of stand- 

 The mill is newly equipped with all 

 modern machinery steam niggers, Fay-Egan 

 band mill, etc. There is a standard gauge rail- 

 road of twenty-five miles with cars and engine. 

 The timber is very large and said to be of the 

 finest quality in the South, and is one of the 

 most desirable tracts in the state of Georgia, 

 and very accessible for export trade as well as 

 domestic. The officers of the company are : 

 President, George E. Meier ; vice president. Will 

 Mace : secretary. Xeal M.itr : treasurer, M. Pow- 

 ell. The company was ..ii:anized by Mr. Meier, 

 who is also pr.si.Jtnc an.l manager of the Inter- 

 state Lumber Cumpany "i Cleveland. 



Owen McNally of the McXally Lumber Com- 

 pany, manufacturers and wholesalers at Os- 

 wego, X. y., was in West Virginia and other 

 EOUtheastern states this month placing orders 

 lor three million feet of basswood. 



Suggestions for Careful Consideration. 

 A quotation, from a report of the United 

 States Forest Service, issued In September, 1007, 

 is as follows: 



•We have apparently about a fifteen years" 

 supply of hardwood lumber now ready to cut. 

 Of tne four great hardwood regions the Ohio 

 Valley states have been already almost com- 

 pletely turned Into agricultural states, and the 

 lake states and the lower Mississippi Valley are 

 rapidly following their example. 



■'In the Appalachian mountains we have ex- 

 tensive hardwood lands, which have been culled 

 and greatly damaged by fire. These are prac- 

 tically all in private hands, and while they con- 

 tain a large amount of inferior, young timber, 

 they are receiving little or no protection, and 

 even such young timber as exists Is making 

 but slight growth. Even if these cutovcr lands 

 be rightly managed they cannot greatly Increase 

 their yield of merchantable timber Inside of 

 thirty to forty years. 



"The Inevitable conclusion Is that there are 

 lean years close ahead In the use of hardwooC 

 timber. There Is sure to be a gap between the 

 supply which exists and the supply which will . 

 have to be provided, llow large that gap 

 will be depends upon how soon and how effec- 

 tively wc begin to make provision for the future 

 supply. The present Indications are that in 

 spite of the best we can do there will be a 

 shortage of hardwoods running through at least 

 fifteen years. How acute that shortage may 

 become and how serious a check It will put upon 

 the Industries concerned cannot now be fore- 

 told. That It will strike at the very foundation 

 of some of the country's most Important Indus- 

 tries is unquestionable. This much Is true be- 

 yond doubt— that we are dangerously near a 

 hardwood famine and have made no provision 

 against It." 



Why cannot the hardwood operator assist the 

 government In establishing a system whereby 

 conditions which we believe are of vital Interest 

 to the consumer as well as the producer may be 

 kept normal? Although January, February and 

 March each showed an Increase In business over 

 the preceding month since December — compared 

 with last year — there is a decided decrease in 

 the amount of business in the aggregate, which 

 will hardly be overcome during the next nine 

 months, for the reason that former business con- 

 ditions will not become markedly apparent much 

 before the end of the year, if at all. It Is fig- 

 ured that only about 60 per cent of the business 

 secured last year will be realized the present 

 year. 



Now, since this condition exists, there should 

 be no more lumber produced tlian that amcunt. 

 A large production means a series of low values 

 and a slower movement of material. The costs 

 of manufacturing have not been lowered suffi- 

 ciently to meet such conditions without a tre- 

 mendous loss to sawmill operators. The rivef 

 mills are In a peculiar position : they are forced 



to saw all their logs which came out with the 

 winter tides and were felled in the woods last 

 year. These mills will continue sawing, but 

 they are not logging, and are running on high- 

 priced timber purchased last year when there 

 was a scarcity of logs. The interior and moun- 

 tain mills ate only running on logs they hav.- 

 cut in the woods to save them from worms and 

 rot. This condition is more prevalent in th.' 

 Mississippi Valley section than in any other 

 portion of the country. It seems a hardship to 

 the mountaiu or Interior mills to shut down 

 while the river mills are running, but as river 

 men are not logging this year, and will no doubt 

 be forced to carry over certain stocks for next 

 spring, the mountain mills will be doing busi- 

 ness while the river mills are awaiting their log 

 tides the following season. 



This condition has existed In the past, and is a 

 fair one to follow on the "turn-about" principle 

 — while one section is running the other should 

 not necessarily follow suit, and vice versa. Lnm- 

 l>er cut now. If held too long on sticks, will go 

 to waste, owing to the climatic conditions ; there* 

 by the opportunity of marketing the cut will be 

 lost. 



Forest methods are natural ones, and the wis* 

 course, based on past experience and a knowl- 

 edge of present conditions, would be to cut down 

 trees only when they are needed. By such 

 methods our forests would be preserved, our 

 needs of consumption would be better regulated 

 and the Industry as a whole more up to date and 

 provided with fresh stocks. Lewis Dosteb. 



Annual Southern Cypress Manufacturers' 

 Association. 

 The fourth annua! meeting of the Southern 

 Cypress Manufacturers' Association will be held 

 at the New Grunewald Hotel, New Orleans, on 

 Wednesday, May 20. at 10 A. M., and will con- 

 tinue during that day and the next. It will be 

 the first meeting held by this organization for 

 some time and a large number of important mat- 

 ters will come up for consideration. President 

 Frederick Wllbert and Secretary George E. Wat- 

 son urge that there be a full attendance, and 

 believe that In view of the present dull times 

 no business engagements should be considered 

 of sufficient Importance to keep those Interested 

 In cypress manufacture away from the confer- 

 ence. Details and program of the meeting will 

 be announced later. 



Handle Trade Notes. 



The Ferguson & Wheeler Land. Lumber & 

 Handle Company of Poplar Bluff, Mo., has been 

 incorporated by William Ferguson. George P. 

 Wheeler and William S. Welsh. It Is capital- 

 ized at $300,000. 



The El Dorado Hardwood & Manufacturing 

 Company of El Dorado, Ark., has Increased Its 

 capital stock from $10,000 to $25,000. C. S. 

 Jackson, president of the company, is an active 

 member of the Handle Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion. 



The Marmaduke Handle Company of Marma- 

 duke. Ark., has filed articles of Incorporation 

 with the secretary of state. The company Is 

 capitalized at $1,500 and the incorporators are 

 Jacob Glasscock, W. E. Tallcy and A. E. Bendol. 



Dispatches from Shreveport, La., say that 

 another factory for that city may be secured 

 within the next few days in the Hugo Handle 

 Company of Poteau, Okla., and that a repre- 

 sentative of that concern recently visited Shreve- 

 port for the purpose of acquiring a site. 



Indiana Still in the Bing. 

 The Smith & Randall Lumber Company of Fort 

 Wayne has Just shipped three carloads of the 

 largest timbers that have been sctn from Fort 

 Wayne In a single order for many years. The 

 shipment was made to Point St Charles, Canad.i, 

 and the lumber was for the Canadian government, 

 to be used for locks In the construction of the 

 large canals now building there. 



