40 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



of holding back one or two selling points as "clinchers," then fol- 

 lowing up by telegraph, telephone and personal visit (provided the 

 inquirer is within reasonable distance ; that there is a chance for the 

 order and the profits would warrant the expense). He finds the tele- 

 phone the most valuable asset in getting business. Some sales offices,' 

 in answer to an inquiry, say that their representative will call shortly. 

 That is very nice, but who is that representative and when does he 

 expect to get there? Yet some wonder wliy the orders are placed 

 before they can get to that town. Answer inquiries quick! Answer 

 specifically. Send a copy of the original quotation to your salesman 

 on that route. 



Your salesmen should have copies of every letter, order, etc., that 

 relates to customers in their respective territories, even to collection 

 letters. A salesman cannot give you proper representation unless he 

 is fully informed at all times. In the same way, the salesman should 

 report to the office any points about his customers that will be of 

 interest to the sales manager. Whether the customer is busy, whether 

 he runs his plant on a scientific basis, his habits and other little 

 points that will help toward judging a man's character and the 

 extent of the line of credit to him. 



The sales manager is the life blood of the business. Some men in 

 that capacity have doubled the sales of their concern. Others, and 

 there are a good many today, are putting their companj- in a bad way 

 for future business. If your sales are falling off, ask yourself the 

 following questions: Is it because of business conditions? Have we 

 the stock to sell? If you can answer those with satisfaction, then 

 ask: Have I the right sales manager? Is he an organizer? A busi- 

 ness getter? Does he play teamwork with the entire organization? 

 Does he inspire enthusiasm, optimism and aggressiveness? Is he 

 alive to my interests, the customers' interests and the betterment of 

 all? Does he understand every detail of the business and keep thor- 

 oughly posted? .If these questions are not answered and in keeping 

 with the man himself, you had better replace him. 



Yet, do you know that some concerns take a clerk and put him in 

 that position? Wliat does he know of salesmanship, credit extension, 

 trade conditions, uses of stock and business management. You might 



engines and the steam each demanded acknowledgment that but for 

 them she wouldn 't get anywhere. , By-and-by, after a severe pounding 

 and wrenching in the heavy cross seas, they came to the understand- 

 ing that not one of them could accomplish a thing without the rest 

 and a new personality came into beginning, 'We are the ship.' " 



rnoss SECTION of .\ woun showing rrrii flecks, n.atfral 



SIZE 



as well put a station agent in tlie cab of an express train. Both are 

 out of place and create chaos. 



It is not meant from the foregoing that the sales manager is to be 

 set up as an ideal and to get all the individual credit. The only 

 credit a man of this type should get is that he is an organizer. As 

 such the whole concern is a unit for one purpose. And his supreme 

 duty is to keep the concern as a unit. 



In closing the writer would like to repeat a statement of Eoy John- 

 son that appeared in Printer's Ink a short while ago. He says, "The 

 most perfect organization is that in which the purposes of the indi- 

 vidual are submerged for the time being, in the purposes of the 

 whole. Kipling's story of the 'Ship That Found Herself is the best 

 illustration of it that I know about. When this ship started on her 

 maiden voyage the plates and the rivets and the beams each took 

 credit for keeping her from sinking. Then the steering gear, the 



An Italian "Stone Oak" 



The accompanying illustration of an Italian "Stone Oak" shows 

 the peculiar form which is given the tree by pruning. It is made 

 to grow in the shape of a millstone, hence the name. The crown 

 of this particular specimen is about one hundred and twenty feet 

 across, and it is nicely balanced on its comparatively slender trunk. 

 The species is probably Quercui- robus, the tree known in commerce as 

 English oak. Though the spread of its branches is wide, it is greatly 

 exceeded by spme of the live oaks of the southern states, or the valley 

 oak of California. It is claimed that the oak shown in the picture is 

 a thousand years old, but this figure should be accepted with caution. 



PICTURESQUE ITALIAN "STONE OAK" 



Pith Flecks in Wood 



The small brown spots one sees so commonly on the cross sections 

 of certain woods like gray, red, and paper birch and soft maple are 

 known as pith flecks. On the surface of a board these pith flecks 

 appear as narrow brown bands running lengthwise. Sometimes im 

 the smooth end of a log they may be counted by the hundred, though 

 often they are jery irregularly distributed. 



While pith flecks are found in a great many woods, it is to be 

 noted that such woods are diffuse-porous, and rather fine-textured. In 

 addition to the birches and maples just mentioned they occur fre- 

 quently in willow, service-berry or shad-bush, mountain ash, alder, 

 hawthorne, and certain smaller forms of wild cherry and plum trees. 

 They are rarely found in sugar maple or in black or cherry birch. 



These pith flecks are not natural to any wood. They are caused by 

 the larvffi or small grubs of certain moths. The moth deposits its 

 eggs in the bark of a tree and as soon as the larva hatches out it 

 gets into the soft cambium layer between the wood and bark and 

 works its way up and down the stem. The flat tunnel it leaves is 

 soon filled up by the growth of other cells into it. These filling cells 

 are not fibrous like the rest of the wood, but are more like pith and 

 the formation that results shows up prominently, due to the darker 

 walls of the cells. 



The Forests of Louisiana 



The Forest Service has issued bulletin 114, dealing with the forest 

 resources of Louisiana. The study on which the report is based was , . 

 made by J. F. Foster, chief of state co-operation, who spent several jf 

 months in different parts of the state, collecting data, observing con- 

 ditions, and compiling statistics. His figures ought to come nearer 

 giving correct information than any report in the past. Mr. Foster 

 estimates that the total timber stand in the state is 119,800,000,000 

 feet, of which 52,.500,000,000 feet is longleaf pine, 15,200,000,000 

 feet shortleaf and loblolly, 15,700,000,000 feet cypress and 36,400,000,- 

 000 feet hardwoods. 



Various phases of the limber situation are considei'ed. Forest fires 

 do immense injury to young growth though not much harm to mature 



