The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XVI. 



CHICAGO, SEPTtMBHR 25. 1903. 



No. II 



The Hardwood Record. 



PUBLISHED BY 



C. V. KIMBALL, 



ON THE 10TH AND 25TH OF EACH MONTH. 



134 MONROE STREET, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



ENTERED AT CHICAGO POST OFFICE AS 

 SECO.VD-CLASS MATTER. 



TERMS OF subscription: 



V. 8., Canada and Mexico $1.00 per year. 



Foreign Countries 2.00 per year. 



ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION. 



ADVERTISmG INDEX ON PAGE 30. 



Contributions on subjects of interest 

 to lumbermen are invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and others arc re- 

 quested to notify us of changes in per- 

 sonnel or organizations of hardwood 

 lumber firms. We desire especially to 

 receive particulars of installation of 

 new plants, transfers of property and 

 timber holdings and experiments in 

 new methods of manufacturing or the 

 utilization of by-products. New publi- 

 cations of interest to the trade, including 

 catalogues, stock lists and circulars will 

 receive attention if sent to this office. 

 Our columns are also available for 

 criticism and comment on any article 

 published or for news of any sort con- 

 cerning the hardwood trade. 



Our readers will confer a favor when 

 writing to advertisers if they will state 

 that they saw the advertisement in the 

 Hardwood Record. This is little 

 trouble and costs nothing, but it helps 

 us and is information wanted by the 

 advertiser. 



GENERAL, HARDWOOD CONDITIONS. 



The preseut st.'ito of the harilwood trade 

 is rather anomalous, but is on the whole 

 not unsatisfactory. In a good many lines 

 iif liardwood cousumjstion there are reports 

 oC an accumulation of finished product. 

 This condition is noticealile especially in 

 the sash, door and liliud ti'ado, the car 

 building trade and llio a.gricidturnl iniple- 

 nif-nt trade. 



There are still some lines in which pro- 

 <luction is still short of suppl.v, but we 

 seem to be gradually approaching a time 

 wiien the supply in manufactured goods 

 will have caught up with the demand; a 

 lime when instead of devoting all his ener- 

 gies to procuring raw material for his fac- 

 tory, the manufacturer will need get out 

 and hustle to find a market for his goods. 

 In fact, we seem to be getting back more 

 nearly to a normal condition. 



It isn"t a uDrmal trade condition when a 

 buyer can't .get an order filled In a rea- 

 sonable length of time, or when the buyer 

 n'lust cater to the seller to obtain what he 

 wants. Siich a condition isn't normal or 

 healthful, but it is the condition wbich has 

 Iirevailed in this country for several years. 

 The buyer in almost all lines has had to 

 .go about with his hat in his hand to get 

 his wants supplied; but there are signs 

 that the time is coming when the balance 

 \\ ill be restored. 



And tills changing condition is by no 

 n;eans confined to the hardwood lumber 

 trade and its kindred lines. In all lines 

 tlie change seems to be progressing. And 

 it is reall.v almost a relief to have it come. 



But it seems to be coming more slowly in 

 the hardwood trade proper than in most 

 other lines. Our readers will remember 

 that when the boom started it ran a year 

 before the hardwood lumber trade began 

 to feel the effects of it and it is but fair 

 that we should have onv time extended at 

 tliis end. The filling up process has begun 

 .•II the consuming end first, in the hard- 

 w ood trade. There ma.v be a growing sur- 

 plus of sash and doors, agricultural im- 

 plements and freight and i)assenger cars, 

 but there is no surplus of hardwood lum- 

 ber in any line. That is, not enough to 

 affect prices, nor does it appear tliat there 

 will be for a number of months at least. 



In quartered oak the market continues 

 .ilmost bare of stock. What comes in is 

 iiiostl.v already sold and the amount offered 

 on the open market is so small as to be 

 scarcel.v noticeable. 

 The market is not so absolutely desli- 



tute of plain-sawed oak, but that wood is 

 scarce at the highest prices of the year. 



White ash is so scarce as to be almost 

 out of the market; cottouwood is scarce 

 and high. Poplar and gum are the most 

 identiful of the southern hardwoods and 

 ai-e in fairly ample supply with prices easy 

 without being quotably lower. But there 

 is not a burdensome surplus in either wood. 



In the North the close of navigation is 

 going to find the mill yards and docks 

 swept clean of all classes of hardwoods. 

 In maple the inch stock is fairly easy in 

 price and in good supply, but in tliicker 

 stock there seems an absolute shortage. 

 It is developing that birch lumber is very 

 scarce and that it should bring better 

 prices. In fact, it is already stronger than 

 at any time during the year. Basswood, 

 elm and all kinds of northern hardwoods 

 are strong in price and short in supply. 



Thei-e seems not the slightest doubt but 

 that we will finish the year strong so far as 

 prices are concerned. It is still, and by a 

 large ma.iority, a sellers' market. 



But there is no doubt but that trade is 

 damming up ahead of us. 



MAKING PRICE aXJOTATIONS. 



There are lines of industry in which the 

 trade press may and does quote prices witb 

 benefit and satisfaction to themsi>lves and 

 their readers. There is the grain business, 

 and the iron and steel business, and vari- 

 (ms other lines in which Boards of Trade 

 or other commercial bodies regularly issue 

 prices in certain markets. And that por- 

 tion of the trade press devoted to those 

 special lines has a substantial and relia- 

 ble basis for quoting prices. But you 

 can't do this in the hardwood lumlier busi- 

 ness. 



A good many peoi)le en.gaged in the 

 hardwood lumber business do not under- 

 stand this. They don't see why their lum- 

 ber papers can't give them quotations just 

 MS tlic agricultural papers give quotations 

 on grain and live stock and as financial 

 papei-s .give quotations on stocks and 

 bonds, etc., and every little while a lum- 

 Ix'r paper, in a hysterical fit of attempting 

 to break through the restrictions imposed 

 upon it by the nature of the lumber busi- 

 ness, will get up a tabulated price list on 

 li;;rd\voods — and get into a lot of trouble. 



The difficulty which the lumber trade 

 jiaper encounters is that there is no wa.v 

 of getting a price list which is official. 

 The Chica.go Hardwood Lumber K-xchange* 

 lias a price list, for instance, but it is a' 



