HARDWOOD RECORD 



39 



C. H. Smith Ji-.. representing R. A. & J. J. 

 Williams, I'hilfidelphla, has returned from a 

 trip In western North Carolina and reports the 

 lumber business in that section picking up and 

 some recent heavy shipments o£ stock. 



\V. M. I'itzer ot I'itzer & Lindsay, wholesale 

 lumbermen of Koanoke, was here this week on 

 business and reports business growing better 

 In the Magic City. 



W. H. lates, a well-known east Tennessee 

 lumberman and manufacturer, has gone to Pu- 

 laski, Va.. to spend several weeks shipping out 

 a large amount of hardwood stock he has re- 

 cently purchased. 



K. E. Wood ot the It. E. Wood Lumber Com- 

 pany, Baltimore, was a visitor here last week. 



LOUISVILLE 



Louisville hardwood lumber dealers are en- 

 joying better trade than they have done in 

 months, and the flying fingers of stenogra- 

 phers recording large and juicy orders have 

 resulted, with the aid of the bright October 

 sun, in lending an appearance of cheer to 

 their offices. It is beginning to look, aftei 

 all. as if the lumbermen will have enough 

 money to permit Santa Claus to make his 

 annual call next December, not to mention 

 the possibility of investing in a Thanksgiving 

 turkey. 



The improvement of kindred trades has, ot 

 course, been largely the cause of improved 

 conditions. The report of the building in- 

 spector of Louisville, for instance, shows an 

 Increase in both the number of permits taken 

 out in September and in the amount of money 

 spent on building. Last month the number 

 of permits issued was :;S2. representing an 

 outlay of $255,315. as against 220 permits In 

 the corresponding month of 1907. with $71,000 

 less money involved. Most of the increase 

 was due to the activity in building dwellings, 

 a class which offers opportunity for the use 

 of hardwoods. 



C. C. Mengel & Bro. Co. reports an in- 

 crease in business and a holding up of prices 

 for mahogany lumber and veneers, which 

 seems to augur well for the immediate im- 

 provement of business along that line. C. C. 

 Mengel, the head of the company, is a mem- 

 ber of the delegation which went from Louis- 

 ville to the deep waterways convention in 

 Chicago. He is also a member of the execu- 

 tive committee ot the Louisville commercial 

 bodies which have in charge the arrange- 

 ments for the convention ot the Ohio Valley 

 Improvement Association, which meets in 

 Louisville. October 22 and 23. 



The Norman Lumber Company reports a 

 good demand for first and second plain oak 

 and a fair demand for quartered white oak, 

 though red oak is not being sought. The 

 wagon factories are buying to some extent, 

 as their busy season is now at hand and will 

 probably extend throughout the winter. The 

 business ot this company in September was 

 greater than it was In the same month in 

 1907, which is doing pretty well, in view of 

 business conditions. Eighty per cent ot its 

 business is out of town, though, owing to the 

 picking up of the building trades, business 

 with dealers in that class of lumber has 

 grown. Mr. Norman says prices are stiffening, 

 with an advance in plain oak and a consider- 

 able rise in the price of yellow pine. 



Speaking ot the diminishing supply ot lum- 

 ber, a local dealer states that a decade or so 

 ago a big profit was made by floating saw- 

 mills, which plied up and down the rivers, 

 rutting the logs which were pulled out of the 

 timberland along the streams. Now. he said, 

 such a thing would be impossible, as the 

 streams have been stripped of their surround- 

 ing timber for miles hack into the Interior. 

 ThH \V. P. Krown * Sons Lumber Company 



reports that all of its jovial members are 

 feeling happy; business now is only twenty- 

 five per cent less than it was this time last 

 year. They find quartered and plain oak fur- 

 nish the chief demand just now. The reopen- 

 ing of the furniture factories on full time and 

 the starting up of numerous planing mills 

 which have been idle both tend to improve 

 the demand. The salesmen of the company 

 are finding orders much more numerous than 

 they had expected. 



W. Geiger. treasurer of the Kentucky Veneer 

 Works, finds business improved. Manufac- 

 turers are starting up again on a normal basis. 

 The only problem connected with the situa- 

 tion now is delivering immediately. The 

 m.anufacturers had allowed their stocks to run 

 so low that when they finally ordered, get- 

 ting the lumber was an immediate 'necessity. 

 As a result one big eastern house had its 

 order expressed to it at a very high rate in 

 order to be able to continue without inter- 

 ruption. The furniture manufacturers are 

 doing much more ordering than they did 

 during the summer, while the piano and auto- 

 mobile industries did not reduce their output 

 appreciably during the summer. 



"I am advising the manufacturers," said Mr. 

 Geiger, "to order what they want now it they 

 expect to get it. There are only a couple ot 

 months left in which we can get logs from 

 the timber districts, and there is no surplus 

 stock on hand, owing to the depression ot the 

 past few months. I believe that in a short 

 while manufacturers will be up against a seri- 

 ous proposition— that of not having enough 

 stock to run them— unless they make haste to 

 stock up now. My company and others that 

 I know of are having difficulty getting what 

 we want. For Instance, I have been endeavor- 

 ing to secure a supply of maple logs, but it 

 was only after a long search that I was able 

 to get a carload, with which I filled a pressing 

 order. If any more come I shall have to turn 

 them down." 



W. A. McLean, vice-president and general 

 manager ot the Wood Mosaic Lumber Com- 

 pany of New Albany, has returned from New 

 York, where he went on business connected 

 with his firm. Orders from the East are in- 

 creasing just now. for New York. Brooklyn, 

 Boston, Buffalo and other eastern cities appear 

 to have caught on to the mosaic flooring idea 

 quicker than the cities ot the West. Business 

 with this company is fair, both in hardwood 

 flooring and veneers. Prices are holding up 

 well, and in fact were never reduced in the 

 principal lines, like quartered oak. 



Gamble Bros, are operating their Highland 

 Park plant about five days a week now, as 

 compared to four days a month or so ago. 

 Conditions generally have slightly improved, 

 according to Mr. Gamble, who believes, how- 

 ever, that it will be April ot next year before 

 normal demand is restored. There is a better 

 class ot inquiries, he said, which is regarded 

 as a favorable indication. September was a 

 good month with the firm, and prices are 

 holding up all right. The chief orders now are 

 for dimension lumber, poplar weather-board- 

 ing and beveled siding. The increased amount 

 of building is the chief factor in the improve- 

 ment. 



J. F. Gamble is spending three weeks in the 

 East. Though his mission is chiefly pleasure, 

 it is expected that on his return he will be 

 able to give some pointers regarding the east- 

 ern market. 



A big consolidation of interest to the lum- 

 ber trade was that of the Lexington Lumber 

 & Manufacturing Cfimi«iii\-. which combined 

 with the Combs T-umii. i .mi. my under the 

 title of the latter ..i:- llie office and 



plant of the Lexiiii;!' m.i-. I'.impany will 



be used by the con^-l-i 1 1' 'l < Minit.my. J. W. 

 and J. M. McCormieU n-tiie f i nm the business 



and W. R. Cockrell. O. E. Lyons and V. K. 

 Dodge will represent them. Thomas A. Combs 



is president ot the combined companies. 



Ashland, besides being one of the largest yel- 

 low poplar producing centers, has considerable 

 to do with the coal and iron trade. There are 

 located here various steel and iron plants, 

 sheet mill, nail mill, and rod mill, all of which 

 are in full operation, running day and night, 

 with the exception of one furnace. This city 

 has not felt the depression in business that 

 most others have. The coal industries with 

 headquarters in this city advise they have more 

 orders for rush shipments than they have had 

 for some time. The motto "Build Now" seems 

 to have taken firm hold of the people here, and 

 the retail lumber operations are considerably 

 rushed in supplying the demand for building 

 material. 



The Wright-Saulsberry Lumber Company of 

 this city, whose chief owners are Giles Wright 

 and E. L. Saulsberry, and whose big mill was 

 destroyed by fire at Sandy City, has decided to 

 rebuild the plant on the same site. For some 

 time the general opinion was that they would 

 locate in this city. Various inducements were 

 offered them by the city council, and negotia- 

 tions were on for some time for a site on East 

 Greenup avenue on the Ohio river above the 

 sheet mill, but owing to some unsatisfactory 

 conditions connected with this purchase, they 

 Anally decided to locate on the old site. One of 

 their principal objections to the site in this city 

 was lack of additional room for future exten- 

 sions they are planning, such as furniture fac- 

 tories, etc. Their new plant will be much larger 

 and more modern than the former one. The 

 main building will be 140 feet long by 42 feet 

 wide, equipped with an 8-tt. single band mill. 

 12-in. saws, with equipment to cut timbers as 

 long as 45 feet in length, having the capacity 

 ot about 30,000 feet per day, employing fifty 

 men. The modern and up-to-date machinery 

 comes from the Allis-Chalmers Company ot Mil- 

 waukee, Wis., one of the best manufacturers of 

 mill equipment. Work has begun on the new 

 construction and they hope to have the plant in 

 full operation by .January 1, 1909. 



Frederick Pischel of the Piachel Lumber Com- 

 pany of Salt Lick, Ky., was a business visitor 

 in the city this week. Mr. Pischel was return 

 Ing from a three weeks' stay up In the moun- 

 tains, where his company has a large stave mill 

 in operation. He reports very good business iu 

 the stave line, and his company is so well 

 pleased with the present situation and future 

 outlook, that they expect to Install another 

 stave mill in the same vicinity at once, thus 

 doubling their present capacity. Mr. Pischel 

 expects in a few days. to leave for Chicago to 

 attend the regular family reunion to be held at 

 that place the first week in October. 



W. E. Berger of the W. H. Dawkins Lumber 

 Company is on a business trip to Indiana and 

 Ohio this week in the interests of his company. 



William Eckman, vice-president of the Lick- 

 ing River Lumber Company and who has charge 

 ot the company's plant at Farmers, Ky., spent 

 Sunday In the city. Mr. Eckman states that 

 the Licking river is very low and that the mills 

 at Farmers would he unable to run were it not 

 for the dams the company have at that place 

 for splashing their logs out during exceedingly 

 low stages of the river. There is considerable 

 expense connected with these dams, but rather 

 than be idle, they have adopted this plan. Mr. 

 Eckman expects to move to Farmers In a very- 

 short time, thus enabling him to give his entire 

 time to the management of the company's opera- 

 tion at that place. 



The Park City Lumlier Company and Stand- 

 ard Planing Mill & Bnildlng Company, both of 

 this city, report a very good business, in fact. 



