26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



You never saw such a busy mill in j'our life. The boards just 

 keep shooting out of the mill and everyone is "on the run." Four 

 mules and drivers take the lumber from the sorting shed to the piles. 

 When a team comes back for another load, it comes back ou the 

 run. Efficiency? — It would do you all good to see this plant. Every 

 man plays team work with the other fellow. Honestly, the whole 

 outfit looked more to me like a college team with all its spirit and 

 enthusiasm, than an industrial organization. 



When a new step is to be made, the heads of the concern, the 

 under managers, the superintendents and chief of inspectors, get 

 together and discuss the problems. By getting the benefit of each 

 man's ideas a plan is shortly 'whipped into shape. And a plan 

 made up of the ideas of several is generally better and less vul- 

 nerable than one formulated in only one mind. 



In talking with another sales manager recently, I was much sur- 

 prised to find him using the "premium method" with the sales- 

 men. ' ' Yes, ' ' said he, ' ' and it pays. We first figured it out on 

 the basis of each man 's former record and then vie set the mnrk 

 quite a little above them. The contest closed the end of the year — 

 this is the first year we tried it — and one of the boys got a check 

 for eleven hundred dollars, the first prize. The cheek was handed 

 out graciously because the man had earned it. The concern did a 

 much larger volume of business over the former record and that 

 check represented only a small part of the profit. This may seem a 

 lot of money for a concern to hand out to a man but the trouble 

 with most concerns is that they are too short-sighted; they hate to 

 give away, as they call it, any extra money. They lose sight of the 

 fact that they are doing a larger volume of business and therefore 

 making extra profits on the same expense. 



"The way I size up a selling organization," this sales-manager 

 continued, ' ' is that it is a team. I bring my ' team ' in several times 

 a year and we talk everything over. The salesmen criticise me and 

 I jump on them. Then we make suggesuons, adopt the good ones, 

 cut out the obsolete methods, learn the best selling points and how 

 to use them as points of attack. Each man has ideas and this is 

 the way we all get the good of them. They were especially en- 

 thusiastic over the idea of a contest when one of the men suggested 

 it, and they have all worked hard. You know, salesmen are just 

 boys grown up and must be kept interested. Under all conditions 

 a salesman wants to be bright, cheerful and optimistic, and when 

 he feels that he has a good and an appreciative organization behind 

 him, he has no trouble to be so. ' ' 



There is a splendid example of organization and sales eificiency 

 and yet the idea came from an entirely different line of business. 

 I still claim that you have to go ou*:side of the lumber business to 

 get modern ideas. Here is another example of the trend of the 

 times — yet if you put the same proposition to many millmen, they 

 will say it cannot be done. A very large manufacturer of lumber 

 recently put on salesmen in the different sections. He formerly 

 sold entirely through wholesalers and yet be didn't want to lose 

 his wholesale trade. So he made a price arrangement whereby the 

 wholesaler was quoted a special price and much below that which 

 his salesman had. Not one of his salesmen, however, knows to what 

 wholesalers the concern is selling, and of course, is not allowed to 

 call on the wholesale trade. They also have instructions that in 

 the case they recognize a car of the mill's stock that was sold by 

 a wholesaler, to simply commend the stock as if it were a com- 

 petitor 's. 



The business of this concern has doubled; in fact, it says that very 

 shortly it will be almost throe times as great as in former years. 

 The head of this concern has kept step with modern times and 

 methods. He realizes the value of the legitimate wholesaler and 

 that his class will always remain in business. He makes the dif- 

 ference in price, knowing that his cost of selling the wholesaler by 

 letter is much less per thousand feet than by selling through his 

 salesmen to the consuming trade. 



The mUl-to-consumer idea that most of the mills seem after may 

 work well in good times and good markets, but just watch those 

 very mills fly to the wholesalers in dull or panicky times. These 

 mills can't watch credit from afar and they know that the average 



whole»alcr is good for what he buys. The man referred to above 

 has the advantage for he can call off his salesmen at any time and 

 yet have his wholesale trade. 



The mill-to-consumer idea is splendid in the lines of trade-marked 

 goods, but except in the case of the large national concerns such 

 as the National Biscuit Company, National Cash Register Company, 

 etc., that have enormous capital to effect economic distribution, the 

 wholesaler in his respective city is relied upon to effect distribution. 

 Where the price of an article is standard and advertised, the whole- 

 salers have their profits dictated by the manufacturer, but in almost 

 every case the profit is a fair one. H. E. S. 



Timber Cutting and Moon Phases 



During the last few months newspapers have revived the well- 

 rorn tale that wood cut during the crescent of the moon does not 

 last as long as that felled during the wane, and especially from the 

 last quarter to two or three days before the new moon. It is 

 believed by many that timber felled after the new moon and 

 until after the full of the moon, splits more freely and does not 

 possess the durability of timber cut at another time. A good many 

 farmers are still influenced by this belief and pay special attention 

 to the phases of the moon when they wish to prepare fence posts 

 or structural timbers which are to be placed in contact with the 

 soil. They consider that fence posts cut during the wane of the 

 moon preserve all their best qualities. 



While it is well known that timber cut in spring and summer 

 is not as durable as that cut in winter, when the life processes of 

 the trees are less active, no one has yet been able to produce a 

 scientific explanation in support of the popular opinion that the 

 phases of the moon exercise a marked influence on the durability 

 of the wood cut at different periods. 



It was also considered that this influence of the moon is much 

 stronger in the tropics than it is in the temperate zones, but as a 

 result of experiments conducted on the island of Trinidad, just 

 off the coast of Venezuela in South America, a few years ago the 

 theory was finally rejected as one haWng no foundation of fact. 



While this opinion respecting the influence of the moon on 

 the quality of the felled timber has already been the subject 

 of much and varied discussion, it has never appeared reasonable 

 enough to the intelligent wood users in this country to induce them 

 to conduct a careful experiment. It is evident that if this matter 

 were not free from doubt the railroads in this country, which use 

 over a hundred million crossties annually, would look into it very 

 critically. It is, however, certain that no such lunar influence 

 exists and that the proposal to fell a tree during a certain quarter 

 of the moon as a panacea against decay is entirely chimerical. 



Car Statistics February 15 



The statement of car surpluses and shortages issued by the 

 American Eailway Association under date of February 21, show- 

 ing car conditions on February 15 establishes the fact that there 

 has been an increased shortage and a decrease in surplus from Feb- 

 ruary 1 to February l.'j. Figures show a total surplus February 15, 

 1913, of 52,700 cars, and a total shortage of 30,517 cars. 



On February 1, 1913, the surplus was 62,045 cars and the shortage 

 24,785 cars. A year ago, specifically February 14, 1912, there was 

 a total surplus noted of 50,886 cars and a shortage of 36,928 cars. 



There are ten groups listed, each group having reports from the 

 number of railroads comprising it. For instance, the New England 

 group made up of reports from eight roads showed surplus of 

 1,334 cars and a shortage of 484 cars. The Virginia, West Vir- 

 ginia, North and South Carolinas group embracing thirty-two 

 roads, showed a surplus of 10,450 ears and a shortage of 4,232 cars. 

 The Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Flor- 

 ida group containing reports from forty-seven roads showed a sur- 

 plus of 1,189 cars, and a shortage of 3,714 cars. The New York, 

 New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and eastern Pennsylvania route 

 having reports from fifty-nine roads showed a surplus of 5,887 cars, 

 and a shortage of 2,141 cars. 



