HARDWOOD RECORD 



could hardly reeoguize any other tune, and 

 consequently it took two years of steady ham- 

 mering before they could be made to realize 

 that the company was actually willing to go 

 to extra expense to pick up inferior material. 

 The waste of logging occurred in the high 

 stumps left standing; in large tops left in 

 the woods; in dead or fallen trees, part of 

 which were available, not being taken, and 

 in merchantable logs being used for sMdways 

 and camps. The forester in charge of the 

 operation, after two years ' enforcement of a 

 rigid policy, found that the total loss and 

 waste in 1.5,600,000 feet cut by six crews was 

 250,000 feet, or 1.47 per cent. The gross 

 gain from close inspection alone, without 

 reference to written orders, he believes to have 

 been at least 1,000,000 feet out of the 15,600,- 

 000 feet above referred to, which in a cut of 

 70,000,000 would represent a stumpage value 

 of $25,000. 



This experience only serves to show what a 

 vast saving might be effected in many log- 

 ging operations, not confined by any means 

 to spruce timber, and that such economy is 

 not only desirable but necessary will not be 

 disputed by any one in these days of our 



- rapidly decreasing timber supply. In con- 

 sidering the advisability of conservative cut- 

 ting the company referred to took into con- 

 sideration all factors for and against it, and 

 formulated in their own minds what they be- 

 lieved was the best poLiey to pursue in their 

 logging work. Gertjin tracts where the fire 

 risk was great, especially bordering railroads, 

 they determined to cut clean. Land very ex- 

 pensive to operate they disposed of in the 

 same way. Other tracts not seriously jeopar- 

 dized by fire, and where drivable streams and 

 the lay of the ground made lumbering fairly 

 cheap, they determined to cut more lightly, 

 with a view to a second crop, and perhaps 

 later ones. This poUcy was the company's 

 own, and to every one qualified to judge it 

 seemed before trial, as it seems now, a sound 

 one, and one which may well serve as a mat- 

 ter of careful study and emulation by lum- 

 bermen who are able and willing to take some 

 active part in the conservative policy neces- 

 sary for perpetuating the timber supply. 



The illustrations accompanying this article 

 are from Hough's Handbook of the Trees, 

 and were made in the Adirondack Mountains 

 of New Tork. 



Builders of Lumber History. 



NL.MBER LXVU. 



Buidis Anderson. 



(Sec Portrait Supplement.) 



A commercial organization which, though 

 A comparatively new one, has nevertheless 

 done wonders for men engaged in a special 

 phase of the lumber business, is the Xational 

 Veneer and Panel Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion. Though only about three years old, the 

 association is composed of sincere, well-posted 

 men who have the good of their industry at 

 heart, and who are willing to sacrifice no end 

 of time and money toward making it a live 

 up-to-date organization, and a power in the 

 general lumber trade. 



One of the prime movers in this work, and 

 one to whose efforts much of the success al- 

 ready attained may be attributed, is Burdis 

 Anderson, chairman of the first meeting ever 

 held by single-ply veneer manufacturers in 

 February, 1906, and now president of the 

 National Veneer and Panel Manufacturers ' 

 Association, whose portrait is herewith pre- 

 sented in supplement form to the readers of 

 the Eecord. Mr. Anderson is a lumberman in 

 the strictest sense, having been trained for 

 that work ejiclusively and having made it 

 his ' ' calling ' ' since a very young man. 



He was born at Paw Paw, Mich., Feb. 27, 

 1869, and is justly proud of his ancestry; he 

 is a direct descendant of the Scotch house of 

 Douglas and the lords of Kilbourne Manor, 

 Yorkshire, England. His father is the Eev. 

 D. B. Anderson, pastor of the Congregational 

 church of Two Eivers, "Wis., a man well 

 known in religious work in the middle West, 

 having been state evangelist of Illinois for 

 several years. 



Mr. Anderson attended high school at 

 Eacine, Wis., and later went to Northwestern 



University at Evanston, 111., for two years. 

 During his school days he studied vocal and 

 instrumental music at the Eacine School of 

 Music, under well-known Chicago and New 

 York instructors, so that he was able while in 

 college and afterward, to turn his ability to 

 considerable account financially by singing 

 and playing the pipe organ in church, manag- 

 ing concerts and like work. 



In 1S91, soon after leaving the university, 

 Mr. Anderson began his preparatory training 

 for the lumber business, going to Boardman, 

 N. C, to take a position with the Butters 

 Lumber Company, which had one of the 

 largest and most complete plants in the South 

 for the manufacture of rough and dressed 

 lumber. In four months he was made man- 

 ager of the company 's lai-ge general store, 

 and a year later was given control of the gen- 

 eral office and the buying of all materials and 

 supplies. 



His various duties placed the young man in 

 a position to take advantage of many condi- 

 tions and circumstances, which enabled him to 

 learn the practical side of the business, scal- 

 ing logs, inspecting lumber, etc., and he made 

 the problem of costs in every department from 

 stump to car a matter of careful study. 



In 1895 the Butters interest sold out to 

 Boston capitalists, and Mr. Anderson re- 

 mained with the new owners seven years. At 

 the end of 1902, after having spent eleven 

 years in the lumber business, he resigned to 

 undertake the development of some rice lands 

 near Wilmington, N. C. A superabundance 

 of rains, high tides, and the competitive Texas 

 product soon convinced Mr. Anderson that 

 Carolina rice lands were not the bonanza he 

 had imagined, and in May, 1904, he decided 



17 



that his wisest course was to remain in the 

 lumber trade. Accordingly he accepted an 

 offer to go to Grand Marais, Mich., and act 

 as trustee for the Walker Veneer & Panel 

 Works, an enterprise which was at that time 

 in financial distress. 



Under Mr. Anderson's capable management 

 this company was reorganized as the Great 

 Lakes Veneer & Panel Company, continuing 

 to operate under that name until the autumn 

 of 1906, when Mr. Anderson organized the 

 Great Lakes Veneer Company, with increased 

 capital, which purchased all rights and prop- 

 erty of the old company. The business was 

 transferred to Munising, Mich., where abun- 

 dant timber supply and more favorable 

 freight rates were to be had, and an up-to- 

 date veneer plant was erected at that location. 



The company 's timber supply is secured by 

 long-term contract with the Cleveland CUffs 

 Iron Company, one of the largest holders of 

 hardwood timberlands in this country. The 

 desirable logs are taken out by Mr. Ander- 

 son's woodsmen, ahead of the choppers for 

 the iron company's furnace operations. The 

 company manufactures the chief species of 

 northern hardwoods, both the plain and fig- 

 ured varieties, into high-class face veneers, 

 panel centers, cross-banding, drawer bottoms, 

 pin blocks, lining stock, etc., for the piano 

 and furniture trade. It makes a specialty of 

 bird's-eye maple, and was awarded a medal 

 for this stock and birch veneers at the James- 

 town Exposition. The company has large 

 contracts for bird's-eye maple stumpage, and 

 three solid concrete kilns for bleaching and 

 drying this special product. The plant is 

 equipped with three rotary machines, two 

 Proctor automatic dryers, barking machine 

 and all other necessary appliances for turn- 

 ing out the very best kind of material. 



The officers of the Great Lakes Veneer 

 Company are William Chandler, president; 

 E. L. Stanley, vice president; Burdis Ander- 

 son, secretary, treasurer and manager; these 

 officers, with George Kemp, M. J. Weaver 

 and S. T. Handy, form the board of direc- 

 tors, and are all residents of Sault Ste. Marie, 

 Mich., with the exception of Mr. Anderson, 

 who is in active charge of the plant at 

 Munising. 



Mr. Anderson married a daughter of the 

 late Horace Butters of Ludington, Mich., and 

 has three children. He is a Knight Templar, 

 and very prominent socially, being known to 

 a large circle of acquaintances in and out 

 of the lumber trade as a famous host and 

 clever entertainer. Although extremely fond 

 of outdoor sports, as evidenced by the fact 

 that he is president of the Grand Island Eod 

 and Gun Club, he is equally fond of study and 

 has a fine private library, in which he spends 

 much of his spare time. 



Mr. Anderson makes an ideal presiding 

 officer, and in his association work as well as 

 in the management of his business, is a be- 

 liever in thoroughness and taking infinite 

 pains with even the minutest details of the 

 work at hand, a trait which makes his author- 

 ity count wherever it is exerted. With regard 

 to personality, Mr. Anderson is unique and 

 wonderfully attractive in that he possesses 

 to a marked degree the rare combination of 

 practical, hard-headed business ability with 

 versatility and the festhetie sense. 



