HARDWOOD RECORD 



Lumber Company on conditions recently, Mr. 

 Dickson exhibited a letter he had just received 

 from an English connection, mainly devoted to 

 the effects of the consignment evil upon the 

 foreign market. This epistle stated that the 

 quay, which is seven miles long, is completely 

 filled up with this consignment material. It 

 would also be judged from the tenor of the 

 communication that the author does not believe 

 there will be anything like normal buying for 

 a number of weeks to come, and then only In 

 driblet lots. It is the opinion of Mr. Dickson 

 that the remedy for the situation lies in the 

 fact that brokers have now refused to honor 

 any more drafts for consigned material, which 

 will of course eliminate any further trouble on 

 that score. Consignees of much of this mate- 

 rial must have sutfered losses by having their 

 shipments refused after arrival, leaving them 

 with only that compensation for their product 

 ■which was represented in the drafts made. Mr. 

 Dickson does not see any upward trend in the 

 domestic market, and states that prices on an 

 average are much lower than they were at the 

 same time last year or at any period since. It 

 seems probable, however, that a noticeable im- 

 provement in demand and prices will occur 

 within the next sixty to eighty days. 



The Ferd Brenner Lumber Company have 

 completed the work of transferring their ofiBce 

 from Norfolk to Cincinnati, and now operate 

 only a sorting shed in this city. 



J. L. Durham of the North Carolina Lumber 

 Company, Tillery, N. C. : Ralph Souder of Ell 

 B. Ilallowell & Co., Philadelphia, and J. A. 

 Berryman of the Canton Lumber Company, Bal- 

 timore, were recent Norfolk visitors. 



The recapitulations for the month of April at 

 the Export Bureau shows the following totals : 



3,975,000 feet sawn timber .^ $252,723 



Log's and other timber 44,237 



39G,G00 staves 27,200 



_ $324,160 



Recent visitors to this city were : Mr. Warbur- 

 ton of D. L. Gillespie & Co., Pittsburg, Pa.: D. 

 H. Ellington of Ellington & Guy, Richmond, Va. ; 

 Londsley H. Shepperd of William Whltmer & 

 Sons, Boston, and Henry Whelpton of the Owen 

 M. Bruner Company, Philadelphia. 



R. P. Baer of R. P. Baer & Co., Baltimore, 

 who has been covering the territory in the 

 vicinity of Asheville, N. C, has returned to his 

 home city. Mr. Baer stated that he found 

 business generally dull. 



L. J. Baltes of White, Frost & White, North 

 Tonawanda, N. Y., was a Norfolk visitor last 

 week. He went from here to New York City, 

 where he will take an office at No. 1 Madison 

 avenue, which will put him in more direct touch 

 with Mr. Frost. 



A number of the lumbermen of this city are 

 taking an active Interest in a whirlwind cam- 

 paign being conducted to raise $150,000 within 

 fifteen days for a new Young Men's Christian 

 Association building. W. B. Roper, treasurer of 

 the John L. Roper Lumber Company, is cap- 

 tain of one of the soliciting teams, and is work- 

 ing energetically for the project. Committees 

 of lumbermen have visited their brothers in 

 the trade, and the net amount subscribed by 

 the fraternity will form a respectable portion 

 of the whole. 



Carl Murlouski of Bultalo, N. T., expects to 

 begin the manufacture of pianos in Tomahawk 

 ■within a few weeks. He will start on a small 

 scale, but expects to employ about twenty-flve 

 hands before long. He has been employed for 

 thirty years in leading piano factories as 

 foreman. He is not asking for bonus, site or 

 other assistance from Tomahawk citizens. 



The Ashland Stave Comp.any. Ashland, is 

 enjoying the greatest prosperity since its 

 organization. Heretofore most of the output 



has been sold to Minneapolis flour mills, but 

 since A. Pihl assumeld the management the 

 concern has been sending its product in other 

 directions as ■well. One order for 500,000 staves 

 had been sold to Detroit parties, and another 

 of 800,000 to a Chicago concern. About 60,000 

 are being manufactured daily. Except when 

 elm is cut, when the daily output is increased 

 10.000, the company employs sixty hands and 

 has a year's supply of logs on hand. 



The Keil 'tt'oodenware Company has com- 

 menced operations in its new plant in Mellen. 

 The concern cut a million feet of lumber dur- 

 ing the winter. 



The .A^utomatic Sprinkling Company of Mil- 

 ■n-aukee will soon have completed a $4,000 

 automatic sprinkling system in the plant of 

 the Nehrboss Casket Company of Fond du 

 Lac. It will be supplied from a tank holding 

 30.000 gallons. As soon as the temperature 

 in any room rises to a certain height a de- 

 vice known as a Rockwood head drops off 

 each pipe and the building is flooded. At the 

 same time an alarm is sounded. 



The A. H. Stange Company, Merrill, after an 

 idleness of several months, has started Its 

 mill and other plants in operation and will 

 run all summer. Ix)gs are being brought to 

 the mill by rail. The company's mammoth 

 sash, door and blind factory has resumed a 

 10-hour schedule, after running eight hours 

 and short-handed for several months. The 

 CoUar-Stange Company's mill, formerly the 

 Merrill Lumber Company's plant, has also 

 resumed operations. 



The Roddis Lumber & Veneer Company ot 

 Marshfleld has just signed a three-year con- 

 tract with a Chicago firm for making flush 

 veneered doors and panels. The company ex- 

 pects to soon enlarge its plant to meet the 

 demands of its growing business. 



The Merrill Woodenware Company, Merrill, 

 is enjoying a prosperous season at present. 

 The company employs 125 hands, and, besides 

 turning out other wood products, is cutting 

 up a large supply of stave stock. 



It was announced by the Forest Seri'lce, 

 Washington. D. C. recently, that bids opened 

 April 2S for the sale of the pine, hemlock and 

 hardwood cut the past winter on the Me- 

 nominee Indian reservation had been rejected 

 because they were too low. The bureau Is 

 considering whether to re-advertlse for bids 

 or to set up a portable mill and cut the logs, 

 under the provisions of the La Follette bill, 

 which pa.ssed Congress late in March. 



H. R. Swanke has purchased the Interests of 

 John and Herman Ruppenthal in the hard- 

 wood mill of the Badger Lumber Company, 

 Tigerton. 



The Gateway Lumber Company of La Crosse 

 has been organized; capital stock. $35,000; 

 incorporators, A. S. Frink, J. J. Felber and 

 C. J. Felber. 



The Vaughan Manufacturing Company, Jef- 

 ferson, manufacturers of wagons and agri- 

 cultural Implements, has adopted a plan 

 whereby It expects to give all its employes a 

 Saturday half-holiday throughout the summer 

 months. Other factories in the same city are 

 contemplating following suit. 



The new plant of the Stange-Ellts Company 

 of Grand Rapids has commenced operations. 

 The company was delayed several weeks by 

 a manufacturer's mistake in shipping a belt 



to Grand Rapids. Mich., instead of Grand Rap- 

 Ids, Wis. 



Over 1.000.000 feet of hardwood lumber and 

 logs was recently destroyed by fire at Elm- 

 hurst. The stock belonged to E. H. Nelson 

 of that village, the Tigerton Lumber Com- 

 pany of Tigerton and the Brooks & Ross 

 Lumber Company ot Wausau. The fire started 

 from a locomotive spark. Fire departments 

 from Wausau. Clintonville and Antigo assisted 

 in saving the mill ot Mr. Nelson. 



Judgment for $360,000, with costs aggre- 

 gating $115.24, has been ordered by Judge 

 G. W. Bumell of Winnebago county in favor 

 of the Oak Lumber Company against R. B. 

 Blanks, E. T. Lamkins and W. A. Brown of 

 Monroe, La. The Oak Lumber Company is a 

 Wisconsin corporation composed ot ViT. K. 

 Rideout and R. H. Edwards of Oshkosh and 

 J. F. Conant of Milwaukee. The defendants 

 were former officers and directors of the Mon- 

 roe Lumber Company. Ltd., and the judg- 

 ment was rendered by default as damages 

 for breach of contract. A considerable amount 

 of the property belonging to the defendant 

 is to be partial security for payment of the 

 judgment. This property includes thirty shares 

 of the capital stock of the Bank of Monroe, 

 200 shares of stock in the Planters' oil mill, 

 and nearly 10.000 acres of land in Onachita and 

 Caldwell parishes. The property is now in 

 the custody of the Union National Bank of 

 Oshkosh. ■^Ms. The complaint upon which 

 the action was based set forth that the Oak 

 Lumber Company was organized September 

 20, 1907, and took over the interests of Messrs. 

 Rideout, Edwards and Conant. including the 

 contract in question. This contract, it is 

 alleged, was made between the above named 

 on one side and the Monroe Lumber Company 

 on the other, some time in 1906. Under the 

 contract the Oshkosh parties were to build or 

 secure a mill at 'West Monroe and the Mon- 

 roe Lumber Company was to furnish It with 

 timber. This timber, it was estimated, con- 

 sisted of 100.000,000 feet ot oak. 25.000.000 feet 

 •qsB JO }33j OOO'OOO'I 'opdnj puB lunS paj jo 

 hickory and other woods, and to give a mill 

 site free. The contract was made for thirty 

 years, about 4,000,000 feet to be furnished 

 every year. The Oshkosli parties were to pay 

 $10 per thousand for No. 1 logs the first four 

 years and $1 additional per thousand for each 

 successive group of four years until a maxi- 

 mum of $13 per thousand had been reached. 

 The complaint alleged that a mill was pur- 

 chased by the plaintiffs at a cost of $30,000 

 and was in readiness for business September 

 15, 1906. The railroad track was built and 

 the fulflllment of the contract entered Into. 

 The operations continued for two months, 

 when the Monroe Lumber Company went Into 

 the hands of a receiver. Since then It has 

 refused to deliver any logs on Its contract. 

 The complaint sets forth that on January 15. 

 1907, the three defendants named agreed to 

 assume the fulfillment of the contract upon 

 consideration of the release of liability of the 

 Monroe Lumber Company, but they failed in 

 their promise, it is alleged. It was set forth 

 that the delivery ot the logs would cost the 

 plaintiffs about $3.50 per thousand and would 

 sell for about $20.30 when manufactured. The 

 loss to the plaintiffs ■n'as figured to be in the 

 neighborhood ot $500,000. 



Hardwood Market. 



(By HARDWOOD RECORD £zclnsive Market Beporters.) 



With the renaissance of better weather con- 

 ditions there are some encouraging signs In 

 the local hardwood trade. On the whole, 

 however, the trade is still of the hand-to- 



mouth variety, and few large stocks ot lum- 

 ber are being moved. 



The trade has fallen off from forty to fifty 

 percent of that of a year ago. and transporta- 

 tion returns fall to disclose any increased re- 

 ceipts of hardwood over those of a fortnight 

 ago. There Is comparatively Httle to be ex- 



