16 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



the lumber business. Here, as in other points, sufficient warning 

 was given to enable the lumbermen to remove their stocks to 

 high points; hence the loss by lumber carried away or degraded 

 was practically nothing. 



The Cumberland river caused considerable damage at Nashville, 

 where quite a quantity of logs, lumber and similar products were 

 carried away by the floods. Several of the yards were inundated, 

 but not to the extent that any great loss would be sustained on 

 account of degraded stock. 



The improved condition of the levees at Cairo which resulted 

 was effected after the previous flood conditions, had the effect of 

 preventing entirely the flooding of the lumber territory in Cairo 

 and adjacent points. No anxiety was felt during the flood stage, 

 as every confidence was felt in the ability of the strengthened 

 levees to withstand the flood pressure. 



Beviewing the whole situation as far as the effect of the unusual 

 rains and resulting floods on the hardwood business, there seems 

 to have been relatively small damage done directly to stock or to 

 plants. Ample warning in most cases gave plenty of time to 

 remove lumber and machinery. When the railroads have straight- 

 ened out their lines and reconstructed washed out bridges and 

 tracks, the ill effects of the flood condition will have become a 

 thing of the past. 



Relative Demands for Hardwoods for 1913 



For over five years Haedwood Kecord ha^ been engaged in 

 carefully collecting and tabulating information showing the spe- 

 cific requirements of the wholesale hardwood buyers. This informa- 

 tion has been gathered directly from the consumers of hardwood 

 and is collected as a part of the vast amount of information made 

 available to the patrons of Hardwood Record. ■ The service is 

 growing rapidly and with the purpose of keeping it up-to-date, 

 every concern listed is either written or called upon personally 

 once a year, and from each one is secured a notation of any 

 changes regarding the article manufactured, the personnel of the 

 company, and the proposed consumption for the ensuing year. 



Hardwood Record is now engaged in compiling such a correction 

 bulletin, revising the whole of this service up-to-date. This 

 information will be issued in pamphlet form in the course of two 

 or three weeks. Thus the whole of this service will be made 

 doubly valuable and available for quotations on stocks which will 

 be in most active demand during the coming year. 



While this service was created primarily with the idea of 

 maintaining a bureau of detailed information, it is natural that in 

 course of collecting such data, it is possible to make observations 

 as to the probable tendency of the hardwood consuming trade 

 regarding the various woods of importance during the coming 

 year. Inasmuch as the new bulletin will involve over one hundred 

 pages of changes it is very apparent that the demands of the 

 consuming trade during 1913 will be materially different from 

 those of 1912. One of the most notable changes in requirements 

 as seen from a careful perusal of the letters received from these 

 consuming factories, is the remarkable development in the demand 

 for sap gum. The increasing favor of this wood is not limited to 

 any one line, but seems to have found a favorable introduction 

 in a great many lines of consumption. In furniture, molding manu- 

 facture, manufacture of picture frames, manufacture of ladders, 

 chairs and in many other lines, sap gum is noted as being one of 

 the strongest woods in demand for the coming year. The great 

 scarcity of maple during the past few months has in some instances 

 resulted in the replacing of this wood with sap gum. The two 

 woods are not closely similar in physical structure, but manu- 

 facturers of furniture, molding and kindred lines seem to have 

 found it an acceptable wood for their purposes. 



Mahogany and birch have both shown marked increase in 

 demand and consumption as seen in reports referred to. Several 

 concerns report an additional consumption of oak flooring and 

 reduction in consumption of maple. 



Summarizing, the features which will characterize 1913 business, 



which seem most evident in an analysis of the bulletin information, 

 are a greatly increased demand for sap gum, a material, increase 

 in the use of birch, steady increase in oak, both plain and quar- 

 tered, in keeping with the normal increase of demand for all 

 hardwoods. 



Clearing Logged Off Lands 



The picture os the cover of this issue of Hardwood Record illus- 

 trates an operation which is becoming familiar in many regions 

 where extensive lumber operations are carried on. It shows how 

 loggers are being followed up by land clearers. The illustration 

 shows one of the powerful machines, made by the Clyde Iron 

 Works of Duluth, Minn., at work on cut-over land, piling the tree 

 tops, defective trunks, and other debris, and making the land ready 

 for the plow. This shows the second step in the operation of 

 converting forests into fields. The first step consists in taking out 

 all the merchantable timber and delivering the logs to the sawmill; 

 the second is taken when the refuse is piled ready for the fire 

 which later burns the heaps and completes the clearing of the land. 



This matter has received much attention in recent years in the 

 North and South, and likewise in the Far West. The demand for 

 agricultural land is so strong that the farmer now follows the 

 lumberman much closer than formerly. The most serious problem 

 now is to clear the land. When loggers have done with it, the 

 ground is generally strewn with limbs, logs and trash that must 

 be removed. 



The old plan of clearing land, followed in the days of the 

 pioneer, was to have log rollings, when all the neighbors were 

 called together, and with a day of frolic and hard work a couple 

 of acres were made ready for the plow. That method is too slow 

 now, and, besides, it is out of fashion. The man who owns 

 woodland or cut-over land that needs clearing, does it himself 

 with the assistance of hired help. 



Powerful machines have been made especially for that purpose. 

 Some pile logs, others pull stumps. Steam takes the place of 

 muscle in the hard lifts. One machine, with a small working force, 

 will do as much in a day as a large company of old time log rollers 

 could do in a week. 



Sometimes a company owns the machine and clears by contract; 

 sometimes the owner of large tracts clears the land and makes his 

 money by selling it ready for the plow; and sometimes a number 

 of small owners join together and bu}' a machine which clears 

 land for all the owners, and then take contracts of clearing land 

 for others. 



The business has grown to large proportions. Thousands of 

 acres of cut-over land are given yearly to the plow in various 

 parts of the country. 



In addition to the benefit to farmers in thus securing fresh 

 land at very moderate prices, timber owners are also benefited. 

 Every acre of cut-over land that is cleared lessens the fire risk 

 in adjacent timber tracts because land, covered with offal of aft 

 inflammable nature, constitutes a veritable fire trap. Cleared 

 fields are isles of safety in forested regions. The quicker the 

 land can be cleared after the loggers pass on, the less food there 

 is for fire, and the less menace to neighboring wooded tracts that 

 are still uncut. 



Car Surplus and Shortage January 15 



A statement from the American Railway Association dated 

 January 22 gives an interesting comparative summary of oar 

 surplus and shortage from October 11, 1911, and gives also a state- 

 ment of ear conditions up to January 15, 1913. The car statistics 

 are compiled in detail by groups under which are noted the 

 various states in each group. The number of roads under each 

 group are compiled statistically, showing the surplus and shortages 

 in each type of car. A comparison of surpluses and shortages in 

 chart form is also given. 



A summary of car surpluses and shortages from October 11, 

 1911, to January 15, 1913, shows that the total surplus January 15 



