20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



as well and sometimes better than the most fertile land. While 

 Indiana farms contain a large per cent of agricultural land, it is 

 equally true that not all the land in the state is of that class. 

 If all the thin and rough tracts are devoted to tree growing and 

 the best kinds are planted, it is reasonably certain that fence posts 

 can be produced cheaply and in quantities suflScient to supply the 

 market, with a good deal of timber left for other purposes. 



The Mahogany Situation 



As eaily as last June a promiuent Ijiverpool mahogany broker 

 predicted that no material alteration in market conditions on this 

 wood were likely to obtain until October. This prediction has been 

 well fulfilled, because receipts of all varieties of this wood have 

 been light until September, when they came forward in large quanti- 

 ties. In the face of this fact prices have not fallen, and are even 

 firmer than they were in the early summer. The excellent condition 

 of trade generally is more than taking care of the increased import. 



In the October auctions the rooms were crowded with a large 

 number of buyers, notably from this side of the Atlantic, and keen 

 competition took place over nearly every lot oflfered. Even low- 

 grade wood attracted active buying. A fresh record was made in the 

 speed of selling, as in the first two .and a half hours 750 lots were 

 offered and sold. Prime lumber logs averaged 5'/{;d per foot Liver- 

 pool measure, while figured logs 

 ranged from Is to Os 7d, or 

 about $2.30 per foot. Liverpool 

 mahogany measure averages 

 about thirty per cent in favor 

 of the purchaser, when com- 

 pared with actual log contents. 

 Catalogues containing more 

 than 3,2.50,000 feet were cleared 

 without the slightest difficulty. 



Good authorities concur in 

 the belief that while the No- 

 vember Liverpool auction sales 

 will comprise fairly large cata- 

 logues, imports will fall off and 

 only moderate quantities will be 

 offered for some months to 

 come. There is not the slight- 

 est possibility of any reduction 

 in prices as the absolutely 

 known requirements to the mar- 

 ket will prevent this. 



The market of the world is absolutely bare on some varieties of 

 mahogany, and the wood is surely ' ' coming into its own, ' ' to which 

 its remarkable merits fully entitle it. 



Lumber Exports and Imports 



The Department of Commerce and Labor in its monthly summary 

 shows that for August last the total value of exports of wood and 

 manufactures thereof involved ,n value of $137,702, as compared with 

 $67,073 of August, 1911. 



The cabinet wood imports for August, 1912, were 121,483 feet, hav- 

 ing a value of $2,124,007, as compared with 102,128 feet and a value 

 of $1,812,590 for the corresponding month of 1911. 



The total value of foreign woods imported during the first eight 

 months of 1912 was $10,303,275, which was nearly $2,000,000 in 

 excess of the corresponding period for 1911. 



Rush Work Elxpensive 



The manufacturer is fortunate who mates money out of a rush 

 order. Hurry work is not necessarily profitable, though to all outward 

 appearances business may seem unusually good. The maker of furni- 

 ture, vehicles, boats, interior finish, or any other commodity in the 

 production of which labor is an important item, or expensive machin- 

 ery is used, can bear testimony to the fact that anything which dis- 

 turbs the even, healthy operation of the shop, mill or factory increases 

 cost rather than profit. Extra men put on a job to hurry it through 



American Forest Trees 



Attention is called to the announcement on page five 

 of this issue HARDWOOD RECORD of the forthcoming 

 book entitled "American Forest Trees." 



This work is the result of a life-study of American 

 forest tree growth by Henry H. Gibson, editor of HARD- 

 WOOD RECORD, and an equally long study of wood 

 utilization by the foremost expert of the United States, 

 Hu Maxwell, who is the editor. 



it is intended that this book shall constitute a com- 

 pendium of all that is worth knowing in both a scientific 

 and commercial way concerning the forest tree growth of 

 this country. 



No expense is being spared in the mechanical execu- 

 tion of the work, and the large sale already made em- 

 phasizes the fact that it is a book demanded by scien- 

 tists, and all interested in the practical end of tree 

 growth and wood utilization. 



are seldom as efficient as the man whose employment is steady; nor 

 have they the same interest in the work. They understand very well 

 that they are temporarily on the pay roll, and it is no more than 

 human nature for them to try to make the most while they have the 

 chance. It is not to their interest to hurry through the work and 

 finish the job, nor does painstaking care especially appeal to them. 

 In addition to the extra force put on while the rush lasts, it is 

 often found necessary to keep the regular force working overtime. 

 That is expensive in two ways — overtime calls for a higher rate of 

 pay, and men who are working extra hours are unable to come up 

 to the same efficiency for the whole time which they attain while 

 working only regular time. 



Eusli work disconcerts plans. It breaks in and dislocates, and 

 when the rush is over and the regular work is once more resumed, 

 it is generally felt that something has been lost by the interruption. 

 Fits and starts consume energy without accomplishing as much as 

 the steady pace. 



Rush work is not necessarily undertaken without fully matured 

 plans, but it often is, and that is liable to lead to loss. In the 

 hurry to get the job and to take care of it, other matters on which 

 profits depend may be slighted or overlooked, and in the final bal- 

 ancing of the account a good many things may be found charged up 

 to the rush order which were not thought of at first. 



Hurry work wears and tears 

 machinery more than steady 

 use. That is due to the tempta- 

 tion to neglect small repairs un- 

 til they create the necessity for 

 larger ones. When work is go- 

 ing on steadily, and everything 

 is normal in the shop, the mend- 

 ing and repairing are not shoved 

 off until some other time, but 

 are looked after at once, and 

 "a stitch in time saves nine" 

 in the factory as well as any- 

 where else. This is particularly 

 true when the plant is being 

 crowded beyond its normal ca- 

 pacity. As speed increases in 

 arithmetical ratio, energy must 

 increase in geometrical ratio. It 

 is a law of physics. That is 



what tears and breaks the steel 



machine as well as the human 

 macliine in all lines of endeavor. 



Well managed shops recognize that moderate business, well watched 

 and carefully executed, is preferable to rush orders which must be 

 carried out under high pressure. 



The Eucalyptus Game 



Hardwood Eecord several times has taken occasion to express un- 

 qualifiedly its opinion of the unscrupulous promoters who are en- 

 gineering eucalyptus planting and land sales in California. This 

 game very largely has been made possible by untruthful statements, 

 not particularly concerning the rapidity of eucalyptus growth, but as 

 to the quality and value of the wood for high-class purposes. 



One of the more recent legends emanating from some of this cult 

 is tlie statement that the Pullman Company is employing eucalyptus 

 to the exclusion of mahogany, oak and other high-class woods for the 

 interior finishing of its sleeping and passenger cars, and is sub- 

 stituting eucalyptus with a pretense that it is mahogany. This state- 

 ment is absolutely without foundation in fact. 



Hardwood Record is indebted to William L. Hall, assistant forester 

 of the Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, for 

 a digest of what statements the Forest Service has published, and 

 will publish on the subject of eucalypts. It may be possible, as 

 jMr. Hall thinks, that some varieties of this wood are not without 

 value, but so far as the experience of the editor of Hardwood 

 Record goes in a close analysis of numerous specimens of this ma-, 

 terial, and scores of experiments with the wood, that he has either 



