HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



Eight here is another interesting feature. This manufacturer — and 

 let it be said here, lest the reader insist that he is a mythical charac- 

 ter, that he is a flesh-and-blood lumberman — has succeeded in getting 

 the information he wants, not by a sleiglit of hand, nor the use of 

 hypnotism, but by proving that he is "on the level," and has noth- 

 ing to conceal. He has convinced his customers that he is trying to 

 serve them, not to take advantage of them ; and that he will give them 

 the benefit of whatever advice he is capable of formulating. It is 

 just a simple case of winning confidence by doing the things that are 

 calculateil to produce confidence. Result, he has tlie confidence of his 



trade, and with it all necessary information about tUeir peculiarities 

 and requirements. 



A fellow lumberman was recently commenting in admiring terms 

 upon the really wonderful success of the subject of this sketch, and 

 was comparing his situation with that of his own firm. 



"We do ten times as much business as that lad," he said, "and 

 yet I am certain that we don't make more than twice as much. And 

 it 's easy to figure that on the capital invested our dividends are away 

 below his. I wonder how he does it! " 



I wonder! g. D. C. Jr. 



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The Filer l>Jot Always the Goat 



i^ifl 



A thing of beauty is a joy forever, according to the views of one 

 Mr. Keats, and while a good filer makes no claims to beauty, he cer- 

 tainly gets in line on the latter half of the poetical declaration. The 

 sawmill man who is blessed with a good sawyer and a good filer 

 develops the sort of disposition which enables him, as the Western 

 philosopher put it, ' ' to look every damned man in the face and tell 

 him to go to hell. ' ' 



The filer is responsible to a great extent for the character and quan- 

 tity of the, output of a mill, and he usually realizes it. He isn 't per- 

 mitted to forget the fact that it is up to him to have the saws in tip- 

 top condition, and any defect in the lumber turned out is pretty sure 

 to be charged up to poor work in his department. As a matter of 

 fact, sawmill men aie perhaps too ready to blame their troubles upon 

 the filer instead of looking around for some other possible cause. 



A mill in one of the big Ohio valley producing centers was having 

 trouble with its lumber. The thickness of the stock turned out by 

 its band mill was uneven, and some of it had gone through in rush 

 orders to customers, and had resulted in kicks of sufficient conse- 

 quence to stir things up from the front office ta the filing room. Of 

 course it was the proprietor of the latter department who came in 

 for most of the blame. He took it all without saying much and 

 worked a little harder on his saws, though he insisted that he had 

 done his best to make them do their work properly. With all the 

 increased care and watchfulness at that end, however, miscut lumber 

 continued to be turned out, and the sawyer and the mill superintendent 

 began exuding remarks which caused the atmosphere in the neigh- 

 borhood of the plant to take on the pale blue coloring supposed to be 

 characteristic of sulphuric fumes. 



Then, of course, a hunt began for the hidden cause of the trouble. 

 And it wasn 't so very hidden at that. Testing the tracks showed that 

 they were out of alignment and that the defects in the lumber were 

 due to this situation. You couldn't expect a saw to cut evenly if 

 the log weren 't brought against it exactly at right angle, and as the 

 tracks carried the log off at a slight angle the effect was bound to be 

 what had been attained — miscuts. 



Tearing up the track and putting it down again with absolute ac- 

 curacy relieved that part of the problem, and of course the occasional 

 development of trouble later on immediately suggested this part of 

 the proposition and didn't perniiit the difficulty to continue as long as 

 it had done in the first place. And of course the filer had a chance to 

 prove his innocence when charges of jioor work were brought against 

 him. 



The carriage itself is likely to get out of kelter and cause the same 

 sort of trouble. The rough handling to which it is submitted makes 

 it almost certain that at some time or other it will need fixing up, and 

 when defects are found in the product of the mill it is just as well 

 to take a look at the carriage before blaming it altogether on the saw. 



A superintendent who is known as one who doesn'f overlook many 

 bets said not long ago that just as a matter of preventing difficulties 

 of this kind he subjects his tracks and carriage to inspection at brief 

 intervals, and frequently finds that the alignment of the former or 

 the latter has been disturbed and that by the expenditure of a few 

 minutes' time and labor at the noon hour or just after closing time, 

 things can be straightened out and accuracy of manufacture assured. 



"Anybody can take a look at the operations of a sawmill," he said, 

 "and figure with cert?iinty that with the constant pounding and ham- 

 mering on the carriage and tracks something is going to give sooner 

 or later, and probably sooner. You can't expect the timbers which 

 support the track to hold forever without giving a fraction of an 

 inch, and the only sensible thing to do is to take time by the fore- 

 lock and examine your tracks and carriage just as regularly as you do 

 your saw. Then you will know if trouble comes where to put the 

 blame, and won't have to saddle the burden on a filer who perhaps 

 is keeping your saws in good shape. ' ' 



In spite of the fact that it is well recognized that trouble is likely 

 to result from this source, one of the biggest lumber concerns in the 

 country produced a lot of poor lumber, of a very expensive variety, 

 before it was discovered that the tracks of its mill were not properly 

 lined up. The company furnishing the saws had been called on the 

 carpet for turning out equipment which produced no better results 

 than that, and made a rigid inspection of the saws in order to de- 

 termine if they were defective in any way. Finally one of the men 

 in the mill suggested to the superintendent, w-ho is not regarded as 

 possessing a particularly keen intellect, that possibly the tracks 

 weren't exactly true. Examination proved that the millman was 

 right ; and matters were straightened out in a short time, the filer, the 

 saw man and all others being exonerated, and happiness prevailing 

 generally. 



So while the operation of the sawmill to the best advantage depends 

 to a large extent on the saws being kept in proper conditiou, they 

 can't do all the work; the complementary equipment must be equally 

 accurate if properly manufactured lumber is to be the result. 



_^ G. D. C, Jr. 



Lumbermen and Forestry 



The question of the application of the scientific principles of 

 forestry, and notably the tree planting feature of the profession, 

 has never been given very serious consideration by practical lum- 

 bermen. Forestry, as a possible money maker, has not been favor- 

 ably throught of until within the last few years. There comes to 

 light occasionally, however, instances of practical, hard-headed lum- 

 bermen making experiments along various lines with a view to try- 

 ing out the teachings of the modern forestry school. These experi- 

 ments are usually in the tree planting line, and within the last 

 month two such instances have come up, one in Michigan and the 

 other in Mississippi. 



An incident was recently brought to notice by the suggestion 

 of a large northern concern owning property in Mississippi that it 

 is contemplating planting a considerable area of cutover land iu 

 that state to catalpa, the idea being to raise this tree for tie and 

 pole purposes, and to intermix with it some suitable hardwood 

 which will eventually attain large enough size to make saw logs. 

 Whether or not the latter plan can be carried out practicably 

 remains to be seen, but the fact is nevertheless apparent that this 

 concern is giving the question of reforestation serious thought. 

 These instances should mean a great deal in the direction of 

 establishing a mutual basis of interest between the theoretical 

 forester and the practical lumberman. 



