HARDWOOD RECORD 



before manufactured. The plant will resume 

 operations in the near future. 



C. F. Bach's hardwood sawmill, on the Mich- 

 igan Central Owendale branch on Bach's Sid- 

 ing at the Tuscola and Huron county line, 

 burned last week. The mill. 800,000 feet of 

 lumber, cut last year, and 1,500 cords of wood 

 were destroyed, involving a loss of $20,000. 

 Iiartially insured. 



CADILLAC 



.Manufacturors of himljpr here give an opti- 

 mistic report on recent orders and outlook for 

 trade during the coming months. Both hard- 

 woods and hemlock are moving freely. 



R. Hanson & Sons of Grayling. Mich., arc 

 building a town of considerable proportions 

 about one mile north of Grayling, which will 

 be known as "J's Town," where will be located 

 one of the largest sawmills in Michigan, hav- 

 ing a capacity of 400,000 feet per day. This 

 mill is adjacent to the timber to be cut and It 

 is estimated it will take twenty years to com- 

 plete the cut. 



Forest fires In Michigan have been practically 

 put out by the heavy rains of the past week. 

 Cummcr-Dlgglns Company and Murphy & Dlg- 

 glns, who were shut down temporarily on ac- 

 count of flre-s, are running again as usual. 



The secretary of the Michigan Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association is busy compiling re- 

 ports for the coming meeting of the association, 

 which will be held at Ludlngton as soon after 

 October l.'i as Is possible. Due notice will be 

 given as to exact date. 



.Mr. and .Mrs. \V. \V. .Milchell are expected 

 homo soon from Washington, D. C, where they 

 have placed their daughter Marie In school. 



M. E. Thomas, sales manager for Cobbs & 

 Mitchell, Inc., and Mitchell Bros. Company, and 

 wife have returned home from a two weeks' vaca- 

 tion In the Middle West. 



S. E. Kirk, general agent of the Wheeling &. 

 Lake Erie Railroad Company, with headquarters 

 at Detroit, and M. C. Kimball, district freight 

 agent of the "Soo Line," with headquarters at 

 Grand Rapids, Mich., are among the railroad 

 men visiting in Ciidillac. They Imth have many 

 friends here. 



GRAND RAPIDS 



Michigan shippers of maple and other hard- 

 wood lumber to the Pacific coast are com- 

 municating with R. H. Countiss, representing 

 the Transcontinental Freight Bureau in Chi- 

 cago, requesting him to use his influence In 

 securing a restoration of the flat rate of 75 

 cents per 100 pounds, in elTect four years ago. 

 The rate at piesent is 85 cents, which amounts 

 to $34 per thousand on maple. Mr. Countiss 

 promises that the matter will be given con- 

 sideration at a future meeting. 



J. A. Haak of the Haakwood Lumber Com- 

 pany, Portland, Ore., was a Grand Rapids vis- 

 itor recently. Mr. Haak Is an old-time Michi- 

 gan lumberman and at present is Interested 

 in timber lands in northern California. 



-■v. C. White of White Brothers. San Fran- 

 cisco, was a Grand Rapids and Cadillac visitor 

 this week. White Brothers have been in the 

 lumber business in San Francisco for the past 

 forty years and have used many carloads of 

 maple shipped them by the Gibbs. Hall & Allen 

 Company of this city. Mr. White went East 

 from here. 



J. L. Barrett, who operates a mill at Mis- 

 saukee, was in the city October 7. 



B. W. Ackles. secretary- of the Alton Lum- 

 ber Company of Buckhannon, W. Va., made a 

 business trip to this market last week. 



The Van Keulen & Wilkinson Lumber Com- 

 imny reports that business is picking up right 

 along, one very good feature being that the 

 furniture manufacturers and others are antic- 

 ipating their wants to some extent now. The 

 policy in the past has been strictly hand-to- 

 mouth buying. 



The Gibbs, Hall & Allen Company is loading 

 four-ciuarter maple near Mancelona for the 

 flooring mill of the Kerr>'-Hanson Flooring 

 Company at Grayling. A. Gibbs Is looking after 

 the shipment. 



H. F. San^s of Pentwater and W. N. Kelley 

 of Traverse City were visitors in the city 

 early this week. 



The furniture manufacturers of Grand 

 Rapids and Michigan repoit a. steady revival 

 of trade. Spencer & Barnes Company of Ben- 

 ton Harbor started up October 1 on full time 

 and with a full force. The Woodward Furni- 

 ture Company, Owosso, also the Estey Manu- 

 facturing Company and the Robbin Table 

 Company of that city, report a gratifying In- 

 crease in orders. The Verlty-Caswell Table 

 Company of Portland Is running its factor}' 

 to its full capacity, and has leased an addi- 

 tional building for the manufacture of coat 

 hangers. 



"We have had a most pleasing Increase In 

 our business of late." said I. Preston Rice to 

 the Hardwood Record correspondent ; "that Is 

 about the best bit of news that I can give 

 you." 



The death of Julius Berkey, president of the 

 Berkey & Gay Furniture Company, occurred 

 at his home in this city October 5. Mr. 

 Berkey was a pioneer furniture manufacturer, 

 having opened n factory here in 1860. 



Grand Rapids and Saginaw are represented 

 this week at the deep waterways convention 

 held in Chicago. An organization has been 

 effected of the Grand-Sagiiiaw Valley Deep 

 Waterways Association, with a view to enlist- 

 ing the aid of the government in dredging out 

 a 20-foot channel for boats across the state 

 from Grand Haven to Suglnaw bay, following 

 the Grand. Maple and Saginaw rivers. 



The woodenware factory of the Bex Merritt 

 Manufacturing Company at Constantine, Mich., 

 lias been destroyed by fire; loss J10,000. 



The forest bureau. United States department 

 of agriculture, will send men into Michigan 

 soon to canvass the flre losses and causes of 

 same. Professor Roth, state forest warden, 

 says that this work will be completed by the 

 end of November and that a close estim.ite of 

 the total losses can then he made. 



Hardwood Market. 



(By HABDWOOD BECOSD ExoInilTe Market Beportara.) 



The bulk Ml iianlwood tnuiing sliows mod- 

 erate improvement, and a special element Is 

 the purchase of large quantities of hardwood 

 culls by the box and crating factories. There 

 is no particular activity in the market, but 

 on the whole the sales have been very fair. 

 One or two particularly large transactions 

 have transpired involving a million feet or 



All the ilealers regard the situation 

 good deal of optimism, and It is fair 

 that there will be a pretty good 

 trade for the remainder nf thf MiMi'fim t\t ren- 



York does not 



demand and prices, but buying still continues of 

 the hand-to-mouth order. There does not seem 

 to be any special surplus In any line except, 

 perhaps, in maple. In view of the general firm- 

 ness to the market, and the very potent fact 

 that supplies in tbe bands of large and small 

 consumers, as well as the average yard. Is at 

 a minimum, gives every promise of a good 

 volume of trade just as soon as election is over, 

 and the normal opportunities begin to assert 

 themselves. 



The poplar and oak market holds up very 

 nicely and while prices do not show a tendency 

 to fluctuate either way, such business being 

 booked is at very fair figures. Ash is holding 

 up very well In view of marked scarcity, and 

 basswood Is very firm, but birch, beech and 

 maple are a little off by reason of surplus sup 

 plies. 



Hardwood Inniber dealers are talking up a 

 little. One of them said the other day that he 

 could see a nice improvement, and that was be- 

 fore there was time for any change to come 

 from the fall weather. September kept up red 

 hot almost to the end and yet business Im- 

 [iroved. Nobody doubts that there will be a 

 fair trade from this time on, unless we go to 

 comparing li with the rush of last year. 



There Is quite a general starting up of oak 

 mills this month all Ihroiigh the West and 

 Southwest, though it will lake a bigger move 

 ment yet to set them running at full capacity. 

 Prices are not strong enough to warrant inv- 

 bndy to hold more than a good assortment. 

 When the speculative buying comes in the mills 

 can go faster. 



Here and there a mill owner reports a good 

 stock of poplar, but as a rule it Is scarce, so 

 that it still lakes rank with quartered oak. 

 and these two seem to lead other woods as re 

 gards steady price and demand. 



The other woods size up a good deal alike, 

 some of them selling very well as to amount, 

 with complaints heard of chestnut, birch and 

 maple as not being very high in price. White 

 ash in some qimnlity is reported here and there, 

 but Is mostly dull, with black ash selling more 

 steadily. 



Dealers are laying In elm and basswood where 

 thvy can buy them at fair prices. Cherry Is a 

 pretty f.ilr seller and walnnt Is strong and In 

 light supply. There seems to be more doing 

 In hickory than usual. 



The news of this market hangs on the Phlla 

 delplila hardwood conference. President Beyer 

 of the Hardwood Exchange sent Messrs. Yeager. 

 Stewart and Vctter down there with quantities 

 of oil to pour on the troubled waters, going 

 along himself to keep the oil from getting 

 .iblaze. Without pretending to cover the meet- 

 ing. It may be said that the Buffalo committee 

 is quite well satisfied with the showing made 

 In favor of the present inspection rules of the 

 National Association and will not be disap- 

 pointed if the proposed second meeting Is not 

 held. 



The Hardwood Exchange meetings have l)een 

 broken in upon by the Philadelphia matter and 

 none has been held for some weeks. It will 

 now give woy to the regular exchange meeting 

 and then go on weekly as before. No further 

 special business Is reported In sight. 



PHILADELPHtA 



tion of trade during the last lortnlght. there 

 has been no declination of the comparatively 

 brisk business which has opened up this fall 

 Inquiries are coming In satisfactorily, and 

 on account nf a possible climb in values in 

 the near future, some of the consumers arc 



