HARDWOOD RECORD 



45 



pected from the furniture makers, whose de- 

 mands constitute a large proportion of the 

 sales in the Chicago marlcet. because it is not 

 believed that the July exposition sales will be 

 very active. As a matter of fact, there is 

 little hope of any particular activity in hard- 

 wood or a return to normal conditions until 

 autumn. Jobbers have already made their 

 plans to carrj- small stocks during the spring 

 and summer season, and are philosophically 

 taking what business they can get and letting 

 it go at that. 



BOSTON 



quiet 



The market lor hardwo.xl lurab( 

 and leading dealers say there is no use try- 

 ing to conceal the fact. Few consumers are 

 buyers at present, even though prices in many 

 instances are attractive. For several months 

 past stocks in the hands of the largest users 

 have been large enough to take care of the 

 bulk of their wants. At the time the general 

 depression in business first made itself felt 

 consumers of hardwood lumber had many 

 thousand feet due them. This has been com- 

 ing forward and has filled in many of the 

 wants that have developed. One dealer said 

 this week that he had made only two small 

 sales this month, but that he had charged 

 Tip a fair month's business, due to the fact 

 that he has been able to deliver lumber sold 

 nearly a year ago. A large buyer is quoted 

 as telling a salesman that his present stock 

 was large enough to carry him along for 

 about nine months at the present rate new 

 business is coming forward. 



Manufacturers of interior finish are doing 

 about one-half the amount of business usual 

 to this season of the year. A good volume 

 of building permits have been issued, but the 

 work of starting them is being delayed in 

 many instances, p^irniture manufacturers are 

 doing a small business. 



Prices are unsettled. Many manufacturers 

 of lumber have been obliged to sell their 

 product at any price they could get, as they 

 have need of money to meet notes falling due. 

 At present the best lumber is held with a 

 fair degree of firmness, and in a few cases 

 higher prices are asked than two months ago. 

 One-inch quartered oak. Is and 2s. has been 

 sold in Boston at $84, but few buyers will bid 

 this figure. Offerings are not large. Plain 

 oak is not very firm and sales at low prices 

 have been recorded. Brown ash is fairly well 

 held. Whitewood is selling in a slow way. 

 The market for cypress and North Carolina 

 pine is still unsettled and demand is limited. 



NEW YORK 



Local conditions in the hardwood trade 

 show a slow but gradual improvement. The 

 hardwood trade is, generally speaking, in 

 much better shape than the general building 

 lumber market, and in view of the constant 

 decrease in hardwood supplies it is the con- 

 sensus of opinion that so far as the effects of 

 the recent panic are concerned, hardwoods 

 have some time since passed the low point of 

 readjustment in values and that current and 

 future changes will be all for the better. This 

 Is not to say that there are not some sales 

 being made at prices which show considerable 

 deviation from true market values, for such 

 sales continue to be made, but with less fre- 

 quency by small manufacturers and whole- 

 salers who are forced through circumstances 

 to make sacrifices. In the better grades, 

 however, the general tendency of the high- 

 class sellers is in line with firmer market 

 prices and on good, well manufactured ' stock 

 There has been a considerable firming up of 

 there is less tendency than there has been 

 tn some months past to force the market, 

 prices on quartered oak, plain oak, ash, pop- 



lar and others of the more popular woods, and 

 good stock is being held for fair prices. 

 While the volume of trade might be larger 

 the general tendency seems to be to hold 

 prices commensurate with the value of hard- 

 wood lumber. 



PHILADELPHIA 



There has been no change in the hardwood 

 situation during the last fortnight, and it is 

 clearly evident from present indications, that 

 trading during the summer months will be, 

 as for sometime back, on a much restricted 

 basis. There are some, however, who pre- 

 dict an early change tor the better; they rea- 

 son that the banks and trust companies which 

 have been reluctant to make adequate loans 

 for building work will now seek to make in- 

 vestments, as it is admitted in financial 

 circles, that money in these institutions has 

 been accumulating to such an extent, as to 

 make such action desirable and to their in- 

 terest. As tlie estimates up to present time 

 seem to be favorable in respect to the coming 

 crops, merchants are beginning to prophesy 

 that improved trading must follow. Others 

 do not look for a decisive change in present 

 conditions until after the fall election shall 

 have brought a greater repose and confidence 

 to the country. 



A careful canvas of the hardwood field 

 shows business to have been running only in 

 spurts, and that buying has been compul- 

 sory, in order to fill up reduced stock in one 

 line or another. A little more activity is 

 noted in building. Although the large rail- 

 way companies have created extensive loans 

 for improvements, there seems to be a hitch 

 somewhere in making a start, for there is 

 nothing on the boards indicative of early ac- 

 tivity in this line. Trolley car builders are 

 fortunate in being able to keep their plants 

 running right along, and especially on foreign 

 orders. Sash and door mills are livening up, 

 and the outlook is for steady work from now 

 on. Furniture factories are naturally af- 

 fected by the general stagnation in business. 

 Boxmakers report business slow, low prices 

 are made in order to get orders, and contracts 

 are made a year ahead regardless of a pos- 

 sible advance in material. Veneer and cigar- 

 box lumber registers about fair and the out- 

 look for improvement is a little more encour- 

 aging. Values continue about the same, with 

 quartered oak scarce and high, and better 

 grades of hardwoods maintaining fair prices. 

 Stocks are held well in hand at mill districts, 

 and it is an undeniable fact, that it is only 

 a matter of time that the small manufacturer, 

 who, in order to obtain money, has been com- 

 pelled to sacrifice his stock, will run out of 

 material, and the conservative mill man will 

 receive what is his right, a decent profit on 

 his hardwoods. 



BALTIMORE 



There is as yet no decided change in the 

 hardwood situation, although a more hopeful 

 feeling seems to prevail. Inquiries are more 

 numerous and an increased total of orders are 

 being placed. Manufacturers have not found 

 it necessary so far to run plants at anything 

 like their capacity; in fact, not a few of the 

 mills are still either shut down or running 

 only part of the time. But it is also to be 

 said that no heavy stocks are reported from 

 any direction, so that a marked revival of 

 activity would soon exhaust the available sup- 

 plies and send up values. 



With the export movement normal, the lum- 

 ber on hand now would not suiBce for current 

 needs; but it so happens that the foreign 

 centers of distribution are greatly congested— 

 a condition blamed largely on the practice of 

 shipping on consignment— and as a result the' 



quotations were depressed to a point where 

 further sliipments could not be made without 

 loss to shippers. The forwardings now are 

 verj- small, which leaves much more lumber 

 to be taken care of by the domestic business 

 and enables manufactun-rs and dealers to get 

 along with the limited stocks they hold. In 

 this connection it is also to be said that the 

 foreign market would be in better shape but 

 for the fact that higli prices of the boom 

 period set all the plants going to the limit of 

 their capacity, and when the let-up came at 

 home, the excess in the production over the 

 domestic requirements was gotten out of the 

 way for a time, but eventually the accumula- 

 tions became troublesome, and now the situa- 

 tion is all the worse, the foreign movement 

 being checked almost entirely. This applies 

 especially to oak plans and poplar, both of 

 which woods are to be had in such volume 

 abroad that the quotations have fallen con- 

 siderably below contract prices, and the for- 

 eign buyers seek to recoup themselves by 

 making exceptions to grades and setting up 

 other claims which in effect reduce the re- 

 turns to the shippers. No very marked im- 

 provement is, in the opinion of experienced 

 exporters, to be looked for until stocks are 

 reduced to a normal levrl. 



In some ways the industrial situation has 

 improved since May 1. The big steel companies 

 are beginning to show signs of life. This is 

 evident in some large orders which they have 

 recently taken for steel rails and other railroad 

 equipment. It is also evident in the fact that 

 they are requesting their officials and heads of 

 departments to take their vacations early in or- 

 der to he home and at work during August, 

 when a rush of business is expected. Bridge 

 work composes quite a large proportion of the 

 estimates now. There is also a large amount 

 of trolley construction work on hand, much of 

 which will go ahead by July 1. Although this 

 increase in prospective business is evident, the 

 eBfect of it upon general business is hardly man- 

 ifest yet. Where mills have started up they 

 are only running day forces, perhaps with less 

 than one-third their usual capacit.v. The labor- 

 ing population, which originally spends a large 

 sum of money at this season for building, is 

 entirely out of the market and will be until 

 fall from present indications. Very little change 

 is to be noted in the building situation. In 

 the Pittsburg district there is so little building 

 on hand as to leave no reason tor wonder why 

 the yards are not buying more lumber. The 

 railroad companies are still holding off from 

 making large purchases, although they are buy- 

 ing some more lumber than two months ago 

 for general repair work and small extensions. 

 Their loss Is too heavy to permit the manage- 

 ment to go ahead with any record breaking 

 purchases of lumber. The Baltimore & Ohio 

 railroad suffered its heaviest loss in freight 

 traffic in April, that month having shown a 

 decrease of more than $2,000,000 as compared 

 with the gross receipts of April, 1907. The cut 

 in the dividends of the Pennsylvania Railroad 

 Company also shows which way the wind Is 

 blowing. 



New firms which are starting up are devoting 

 their energies largely to the country towns 

 outside of the Pittsburg district and report en- 

 couraging results. Prices on hardwood lumber 

 remain practically stationary. If wholesalers 

 can hold them at the present level during 

 August they will be abundantly satisfied. De- 

 mand is increasing very slowly. General stocks 

 are not large and in some lines of hardwood 

 there is a marked scarcity of good dry lumber. 

 Pittsburg dealers on the whole pronounce the 

 market very quiet and are simply waiting for 

 business developments to create a stronger buy- 

 ing movement among lumber users. 



