28 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



utilizing companies: "It is a fact that some over-optimistic and 

 unscrupulous land promoters have over-estimated the earnings or 

 profits to be derived through the purchase of land planted to 

 eucalj-ptus. * * * Frankly will say to you that from practical 

 experience we have demonstrated beyond any question of a doubt 

 that there is as little, or less, waste in the sawing of eucalptus and 

 converting it into a finished product as there is to any other hard- 

 woods. We know absolutely we can have made, or make them our- 

 selves, various articles from eucalptus in long lengths and various 

 sizes for general blacksmithing and wagon work, and where the 

 consumers have been supplied with this wood it has been demon- 

 strated it is superior to any other hardwood used for similar pur- 

 poses. 



' ' Further, we have successfully made veneering, and anybody who 

 has seen this wood finished and dried in a thorough and workmanlike 

 manner cannot say other than it takes a very high and beautiful 

 polish with a grain that is handsome, and that the wood is service- 

 able. I would add further that furniture manufacturers who have 

 had experience with eucalyptus veneering have approved of it, and are 



today ready and willing to give us orders for veneering provided 

 only that a positive assurance can be given that an adequate and 

 continuous supply can be had." 



While not having as high an appreciation of eucalyptus as the 

 writer of the foregoing, it is only just to quote his opinion. 



A well-versed lumberman who has spent a good many years in 

 California, makes this deduction of the eucalyptus proposition: 



' ' Regarding the eucalyptus proposition will say that I do not 

 think much of it. In the first place there is not enough timber 

 growing to attempt to create a demand, for any great quantities 

 could not be furnished. The timber standing today is only an acci- 

 dent as it was planted for windbreaks and not for the purpose of 

 filling 'a long felt want,' with the expectation of being used as 

 a substitute for hardwoods. It is all tommy-rot about the immense 

 profits to be derived by planting them. Any well posted and truthful 

 individual will admit that it takes from thirty to fifty years for 

 trees to become of commercial value. The soil cultivated for any 

 other purpose would yield much greater returns. Therefore, in my 

 opinion this game is only a crazy man's dream." 



V;j^to:jw5TOTO!J?to w)TOETO ^^ 'aw^w '^ ^ 



A Pointer on Selling by Width 



The increasing popularity of the system of selling hardwood lumber 

 according to width, in order that the customer may be able to buy 

 stock that will require the minimum amount of working in his fac- 

 tory, has developed a number of wrinkles that the lumberman has 

 need to look out for in handling the business. 



The necessity of pricing this stock in such a way that the increased 

 expense of handling will be taken care of, along with a proper 

 charge for the extra serriee performed in separating the various 

 widths, is well understood. The customer is perfectly willing, as a 

 rule, to pay the added price, knowing that he is getting it at a figure 

 which is a good deal less than the expense of working random widths 

 would involve. So this feature of the situation is all right, from all 

 standpoints. 



In the actual measurement of lumber sold on this basis, however, 

 there are occasional troubles which are likely to be overlooked by the 

 dealer who has not given special study to the details of handling this 

 trade. In measuring according to widths the 12-fcot scale is of 

 course used. The inspector who tallies the lumber, unless he has 

 received special instructions in this connection, is likely to follow 

 the usual system, and ' ' call up ' ' widths which are over the half- 

 inch mark, as well as "call back" those which are under it. In the 

 usual system of measurement this is a satisfactory method of equaliz- 

 ing irregularities of width, and the force of habit is sufficiently strong 

 to result in the same plan being used when lumber is being loaded 

 according to width, unless the inspector is apprised of the impracti- 

 cability of using this plan. 



In order to dispose of the question satisfactorily, the only safe 

 plan is to use the minimum width all the way through. If 7-inch 

 widths are being picked out, only boards which are a full 7 inches 

 in width, or over, can be used. Those which are 6% or 6% inches, 

 and would ordinarily be tallied as 7-inch boards, must be thrown out, 

 as far as that particular item is concerned, while if the same customer 

 is buying lumber fi inches wide, they can, of course, be used in that 

 connection. 



The obvious objection to this plan is that the buyer gets all the 

 better of it. He gets the benefit of all the ' ' breaks, ' ' since the 

 seller cannot equalize them by giving himself the increased measure- 

 ment on the "overs," as he does in the case of most shipments. 

 The customer gets as 6-inch lumber all the boards that are 6 inches 

 and over in width, and pays for 7-inch stock on the basis of all the 

 boards that are between 7 and 8 inches in width. 



Those who have not given this question attention may be inclined 

 to discount its importance and to estimate the footage involved in a 

 oar as too small to worry about. That this impression is not correct 

 was borne out by a recent experience of a hardwood concern in an Ohio 



valley city. A carload of thin quartered oak of a given mdth 

 was shipped to a New England chair manufacturing concern. 

 The inspector who loaded the lumber was a well qualified and thor- 

 oughly experienced man, but he had not gone into the matter of 

 tallying according to widths in a case of this kind, and for that 

 reason he gave his concern the benefit of all the boards that were 

 over the half-inch marks. 



The lumber was shipped and in due time the customer was heard 

 from. Though the distance was over a thousand miles his kick was 

 felt distinctly at the point of origin of the shipment, and that with- 

 out the aid of a seismograph. He kicked on the measurement of the 

 lumber entirely, and not on the grade, which was all right. But the 

 measurement differed from that of the shipper by over 1,000 feet! 

 As this was on a shipment of good quartered oak stock the amount 

 involved, as the reader will have anticipated, was enough to make the 

 members of the firm which made the sale do some tall figuring trying 

 to understand how it happened. A little correspondence developed 

 the fact that the buyer had measured the lumber in the form indi- 

 cated, while the shipper had used the ordinary board measurement 

 system, to his ultimate detriment. 



The worst feature of the whole situation was the fact that the 

 purchaser of the lumber could not use boards that were of less than 

 the specified widths, because they had to be finished for use with 

 that dimension. The buyer, as a matter of fact, was purchasing 

 dimension stock, although the result was obtained not by remanufac- 

 turing but by sorting, and obviously he specified widths that came 

 as close as possible to the dimensions of the finished material. When 

 he got narrower stock than this, he was unable to use it, no matter 

 how strongly the argument migh;t be made that it was unfair to 

 the lumberman to deprive him of the measurement on all boards 

 wider than the dimension specified. 



In the case referred to the settlement was made on a basis that 

 eliminated most of the profit, but members of the firm are now 

 experienced enough to avoid making the same mistake over again. 

 Hereafter, when they sell a car according to width they are going 

 to allow for the loss in measurement which will result from the use 

 of the 12-foot scale in this way and are going to make a price 

 accordingly. 



This, incidentally, is the only solution of the problem. It might 

 be argued that the proper way to handle it would be to sell according 

 to half inch divisions, and that when sorting for width in the lumber 

 yard to pile 6-inch, 6%-inch, 7-inch, 7i/4-inch, etc., separately, so 

 that when the time came to load out a car of any given dimension 

 there would be no necessity of giving the buyer something for which 

 he would not be called on to pay. But there are a number of 



