HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



J. N. WooUett, Tice-president of the Amer- 

 ican Lumber & Manufacturing Company, is 

 liome from a tliree weeks' trip through the 

 South and Southwest. "Business is better," he 

 says, "and milhuen are feeling fairly well. 

 Stocks are stiffening up in prices. The cotton- 

 wood situ.ition is improving steadily and looks 

 very favorable for a good fall trade." The 

 American is running its mill at Florala, Fla., 

 and is busily engaged just now in cutting up 

 two more barges of cottonwood for delivery 

 from Mississippi throughout the middle states. 



A receiver has been appointed for the W. E. 

 McMillan Company, ' whose assets are $25,000 

 and liabilities reported at $18,000. The com- 

 pany has been taking the stock of four mills 

 in West Virginia and Kentucky, amounting to 

 about 40,000 feet a day and is said to have 

 advanced money on these contracts which it 

 could not realize on in the present market. The 

 company is also reported to have been caught 

 in four recent lumber failures. Mr. McMillan 

 states that business will be conducted under 

 the receiver. T. M. Gealey, on a cash basis, 

 and that in a few weeks he expects to have 

 things running in usual form, inasmuch as the 

 receiver is only temporary. The company was 

 formed early in 1907 with a capital of $25,000 

 and had established offices in Baltimore. Md.. 

 and Williamsport, Pa. 



SAOINA W VALLEY 



The Standard Hardwood Lumber Company is 

 shipping in about thirty cars of chestnut, pop- 

 lar and quartered oak from the Kentucky mill 

 and is finding a market for it. The new yarQ 

 is getting a lot of ballast in and will soon be 

 ready for the stock. 



It is the Batavia hardwood mill of the Scatch- 

 erd interest that takes the lumber. Never a 

 report but tells of the amount of new business 

 it has taken lately. Mr. Scatcherd has been 

 East of late, rusticating. 



P. M. Sullivan has been taking matters easy 

 most of the time lately and giving attention to 

 his throat diflQculty. The dock yard is espe 

 cially active, taking in elm and ash. which have 

 long been the specialties of T. Sullivan & Co. 



The yard of A. Miller is still open to a sup 

 ply of elm from Canada. Mr. Miller has taken 

 some other hardwoods from southward of late. 



0. E. Yeager finds maple one of his best 

 sellers, though he sticks to quartered oak as the 

 leader in the yard. It is never too plenty and 

 may be very scarce this fall. 



The Buffalo Hardwood Lumber Company is 

 still bringing up oak and other hardwood lum- 

 ber from the South, not forgetting that there 

 has always been sale for gum if it is handled 

 right, though not many northern yards carry it. 



A good general trade, is the report from the 

 yard of F. W. Vetter. with a decided improve- 

 ment of late. This is a report not to be had 

 from every yard, but Mr. Vetter, who did not 

 make it first hand, says he is convinced it is 



The big picnic given to Crystal Lake by G. 

 Elias & Bro. for their employees on July 25 

 was a great success, the numbers being swelled 

 by the employees of the E. Laidlaw Lumber 

 Company. Several hundred people attended. 



1. N. Stewart & Bro. keep their yard well 

 filled with cherry, though just this time of the 

 year is called the dullest with them. They are 

 always adding more hardwoods to their list and 

 keep the business humming. 



President Beyer of the Pascola Lumber Com- 

 pany has been on a trip to his Missouri oak 

 mills lately and is prepared to do his part in 

 furnishing the stock that is going to be wanted 

 fast one of these days in that line. 



Angus McLean is still spending most of his 

 time at the spruce and cedar mills of the Mc- 

 Lean interests In the St. Lawrence valley. The 

 Memphis mill is not running yet. 



C. A. Bigelow says that the lumber business 

 is decidedly improved ; that there is a much 

 better movement in hardwood, and hemlock has 

 advanced slightly. He says conditions are much 

 more favorable and trade is in better form. He 

 looks for a fairly active business during the fall 

 months, and as he is at the head of two plants 

 at Bay City cutting over 40,000,000 feet a year, 

 he OTight to know. He says the Kneeland-Bige- 

 low Company's plant will run day and night 

 through the year and the Kneeland, Buell & 

 Bigelow mill is being operated ten hours daily. 

 The latter mill is stocked by Frank Buell and 

 the former by Kneeland-Bigelow Company, which 

 has enougli logs to carry the mill along into 

 September, when the firm will resume operations 

 in the woods. 



The flooring business has been somewhat slack 

 of late, but is looking better. A number of firms 

 have contracts and have not been affected much. 

 One of these is W. D. Young & Co., who are 

 having a good export business. 



A large modern hardwood mill is to be erected 

 at Graj-ling this fall, the plans for which and 

 the organization of the company will be per- 

 fected in a few days. 



N. Michelson is building a sawmill in Ros- 

 common county near the Crawford county line. 

 The main office will be at Grayling. 



Saginaw Valley lumber shippers are up against 

 the proposition of the railroads of this vicinity 

 to advance freight rates October 1. The as- 

 sumption of the roads is that this must be 

 done, owing to increased expenses as the result 

 of adverse legislation, or wages reduced. The 

 Saginaw Valley Lumber Dealers' Association ap- 

 pointed a committee which addressed a letter 

 to the traffic officials of the roads doing busi- 

 ness in the valley and a meeting was held Tues- 

 day at Saginaw. Some twenty local shippers 

 and officials of the Michigan Central, Grand 

 Trunk and Pere Marquette were present. There 

 was a general discussion. The lumbermen to a 

 man oppose the increase. They bold the lumber 

 business in the valley has been built up to its 

 present dimensions — over 370,000,000 feet annu- 

 ally — on the commodity basis, and any distur- 

 bance in rates will seriously injure the traffic. 

 The.y propose to carry their protest to the In- 

 terstate Commerce Commission if necessary. On 

 the other hand, the railroads hold to the con- 

 tention that a uniform increase of 9 to 13 per 

 cent in the entire territory north of the Ohio 

 river and cast of the Mississippi will not in- 

 jure the traffic of the country a cent's worth. 

 The railroads have had employes in the state 

 for weeks doing missionary work among em- 

 plo.ves and shippers in the efCort to induce them 

 to consent to the increase. 



W. Chamberlain's sawmill at Belknap. Presque 

 Isle county, was burned last week ; loss $2,800, 

 with partial insurance. 



The sawmill of Herman Hoeft & Son at Rog- 

 ers City is cutting 30.000 feet of lumber a day. 



GRAND RAPIDS 



Walter C. Winchester has returned from an 

 extended fishing and camping trip in northern 

 Wisconsin. Mrs. Winchester and a small party 

 of friends accompanied him. 



W. O. Hughart and Harry Widdicomb left for 

 Kalkaska August 6 on a fishing trip to the 

 Manistee river. 



Some nice orders for hotel furniture have 

 been placed here the past week. These hotels 

 are now under construction at Seattle, Wash., 

 and at San Antonio, Tex. 



G. A Stowers of the Stowers Furniture Com- 

 pany, Snn Antonio, Tex., who was in the Grqnd 

 Rapids market buying furniture recently, tells the 

 Hardwood Record that he has a few pieces on 

 bis floor made of mesquite, and be believes that 

 manufacturers will use this wood to quite an 

 extent in the future. He calls the wood Texas 



mahogany and it resembles mahogany, finishes 

 well and has a nice figure. The chief difficulty 

 with this, as with many of the new cabinet 

 woods, is that the tree does not grow large, 

 seldom exceeding a foot in diameter. 



The next meeting of the Grand Rapids Lum- 

 'oermen's Club v.ill be held September 29. Sec- 

 retary I. Preston Rice says that at this time a 

 report will be heard from the committee on civic 

 affairs appointed at the June meeting. 



Dealers report a better feeling in trade. 



Brooks Brothers, who are putting in a large 

 band mill at Petersburgh, Va., placed their or- 

 ders for machinery in Muskegon. They will cut 

 lumber for the Virginia Box & Lumber Company, 

 which has sufficient standing timber to keep the 

 plant running for twenty years. 



CLEVELAND 



S scandal which bids fair to iuvol\e several 

 county officials has been brought to light in 

 connection with the sale to the county of large 

 quantities of oak lumber which was never used 

 for the purpose for which' it was supposedly 

 purchased, and which has disappeared mysteri- 

 ously from view. The charge has been made 

 by the Municipal Association, which charges 

 the present county commissioners with paying 

 lor at least $10,000 worth of oak plank for 

 bridge repairs which was never used for that 

 purpose. It has also been shown that the 

 county received practically nothing for the heavy 

 plank removed from scores of bridges through- 

 out the county, and that the taxpayers are the 

 losers by thousands of dollars thereby. Some 

 legal action may be taken to recover on the 

 missing lumber. That it was delivered by the 

 lumber companies the county's records prove. 



Contracts have been let within the past week 

 for two new 10-story buildings for Cleveland, 

 one a store and the other an office building. 



The county building commission which is 

 erectile the $4,000,000 Cleveland courthouse 

 has ordered prepared designs for the judges' 

 thrones, jury seats and other hardwood parapher- 

 nalia for the new courthouse. Bids will be 

 asked for this work in the course of the next 

 sixty days. It has not been determined yet just 

 what wood will be used, but that a handsome 

 outfit will be purchased is assured by the fact 

 that the commission has unlimited power to 

 spend money for the new structure. Requests 

 tor specifications for the work, when issued, may 

 be obtained by writing John Boyle, clerk of the 

 courthouse commission, Garfield Building, Cleve- 

 land, Ohio. 



The R. H. Jenks Lumber Company made sev- 

 eral additions to its staff during the past week. 

 C. R. Peterkin has been engaged to represent 

 the firm in the Province of Ontario, and John 

 C. White will perform a similar duty in eastern 

 Michigan. He succeeds H. K. Follansbee, who 

 recently resigned. Mr. White will have his 

 headquarters in Detroit. 



Fred E. Gary, a prominent hardwood manu- 

 facturer of Turrell and manager of the Baker 

 Lumber Company of that place, visited Cleveland 

 during the past week, renewing acquaintances. 

 He formerly lived at Conneaut, near Cleveland. 

 He left, with his wife, for a trip by the lake 

 route to Duluth. 



One of the lumbermen to make a call on the 

 hardwood dealers during the past week was J. A. 

 BeFaut of the Ferguson Lumber Company of 

 Little Rock, Ark. He reports business rapidly 

 improving. 



Business with the Worden Lumber Company 

 is nearing a normal point, according to the 

 managers of the concern, which handles large 

 quantities of hardwoods. The company is at 

 present doing a good business in house finish 

 and hardwood porch columns. 



Conditions in Cleveland are improving. Build- 

 ing permits for the month of July showed a 

 total of 622 permits, to cost $859,524, as against 

 543 permits during June, to cost $242,150. Ot 

 the permits for .Titin 'jr.s wem for frame build- 



