HARDWOOD RECORD 



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Tvith factories and there is now less shipping of raw material out and 

 finished products back than formerly. The development of the fruit 

 industry in the elevated valleys of Idaho, Montana, Washington, and 

 Oregon has called for shipping boxes in l^ge numbers, and western 

 white pine has been found an ideal wood^or that use. It is light in 

 weight and in color, strong enough to satisfy all ordinary require- 

 ments, and cheap enough to bring it within reach of orehardists. It 

 meets with lively competition from a number of other woods which 



grow abundantly in the region, but it holds its ground and takes its 

 share of the business. 



Estimates of the total stand of western white pine among its native 

 mountains have not been published, but the quantity is known to be 

 large. It is a difficult species to estimate because it is scattered 

 widely, large, pure stands being scarce. Some large mills make a 

 specialty of sawing this species; and the annual output is believed 

 to reach 150,000,000 feet, most of which is in Idaho and Montana. 



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x;x- Disproving a Log Buyer s Idea -^ 



Bigness is the attribute that must be possessed in order to com- 

 mand attention these days. The heavyweight prize-fighter is pro- 

 claimed a white hope and given a chance even if he is a plain boob 

 from the wilds of Oklahoma. The bigness of nickels, taken in the 

 aggregate, is demonstrated by the size of the tallest skyscraper in the 

 country. The sales manager loves to have as his road men fellows who 

 are at least six feet taU and wear seventeen-inch collars without hav- 

 ing too much room for their Adam 's apples, and Big Business and the 

 Big Stick are current idioms which express the admiration of the popu- 

 lace for prize productions in every line. 



The log buyer who is charged with getting the material for a miU 

 is not only attracted by a big bunch of logs, but by the lot which 

 contains the biggest specimens. The sight of a big, round, fat log 

 stirs the ambition of the buyer to surprise and amaze the mill super- 

 intendent and to show the boss that his territory is still capable of 

 producing monarchs of the forest. Every other buyer feels the same 

 way about it, and the consequence is that a lot of logs containing a 

 few exceptionally big specimens invariably brings a great deal more 

 money than if the sizes were average and if there were no remarkably 

 large logs in the lot. 



In the ease of veneer mills, of course, log buyers are rather justified 

 in going after the select logs, figuring according to size. But even 

 here the advantages are not altogether in favor of the extremely large 

 log, and in the straight sawmill business an exceptionally big timber 

 is really a handicap. In the opinion of a lot of expert manufacturers 

 of lumber, as much money is lost as is made out of handling unusually 

 large timber of that kind. 



' ' It looks mighty good to bring in a log thirty-six inches in diameter 

 or over," said a hardwood man whose Kentucky miU is conceded to 

 turn out quality stock, especially in oak, "but when you get to han- 

 dling a log of that size you can be prepared for unfortunate happen- 

 ings. In the first place, an oak log over three feet in diameter is 

 going down hill. That is, the tree of which it was a part had passed 

 its prime when it was cut. Under scientific methods of forestry, such 

 a tree would not have been allowed to develop that size, for it is 

 likely to have developed heart cracks, worms and other defects that 

 come with old age. Hence getting hold of an exceptionally big log is 

 inviting trouble in this direction. 



' ' Then the equipment around the mUl, it must be remembered, is 

 built to take care of average-size logs. Your derrick, carriage and 

 saws are tuned up with reference to logs smaller than the kind that 

 bring the premium prices, and when you require them to handle a 

 bigger load it causes delays. You never see a tremendously big log 

 go through a mill as slick as one of the average size, for the reason 

 that it takes longer to handle it and accidents are more frequent. You 

 may have good luck as to the grade of lumber you get out of it, but 

 even then, by the time you have figured the higher price you have 

 paid and the additional labor required to manufacture it, it is doubt- 

 ful if you have made anything on the transaction, or, at any rate, any 

 more than you would have made on the same amount invested in 

 smaller logs." 



A great many hardwood manufacturers who specialize in quartered 

 oak take the ground that even though wide quartered oak is desirable, 

 it is not nearly so desirable as good lumber, and that consequently 

 the small log, averaging around twenty-two inches, makes the best 

 material from which to manufacture their specialty. Eight-inch lum- 



ber in this commodity is a good width, and ten-inch is wide stock; so 

 that a log of the size indicated makes a good average run of lumber 

 as to width, and is much more likely to grade up nicely than if a 

 thirty-six-inch log were cut. In a good many cases, where the larger 

 logs are quartered and defects found, it is necessary to use the edger 

 and trimmer anyhow to get as good a grade as possible, and the 

 result is that the manufacturer has little advantage as to specially 

 wide stock to offer because of his big logs. 



From twenty-two to twenty-eight or thirty inches seems to be the 

 range within which successful manufacturers like to buy their logs, 

 and for plain oak a twenty-four-inch log can hardly be beat, it is 

 contended. It is most likely to be sound aU the way through, it is 

 easy to handle, it does hot usually cost more than the average, and it 

 cuts up into good wide stock. What more can the lumberman desire? 



The big log craze is not confined to handlers of domestic woods. 

 Some of the mahogany producers report that their logging crews 

 spend more time and waste more effort in getting out the real giants 

 of the tropical forests than are justified by the results, for, as indi- 

 cated in the case of trees grown in this country, it invariably requires 

 greatly increased expense to move such a log. 



In the tropics, of course, it is necessary to construct a road from 

 the trees to the nearest stream, and the size of this road, as weU as 

 the number of oxen or men necessary to drag the big log from its 

 native place to the stream which is to float it to the coast, or to the 

 logging railroad which takes it to the shipping point, is much larger 

 than under ordinary conditions. It is the same story again of han- 

 dling for shipment; and, while the big derricks which are provided 

 for handling mahogany logs are necessarily of greater load capacity 

 than are used in other lines, there is a good deal of trouble experi- 

 enced in the mill proper in handling a log of that size. 



The figure in a mahogany board counts for more than the size, and, 

 as wide stock is a feature of this class of lumber, an exceptionaUy 

 wide board is not worthy of much comment; while the fact that a 

 superb figure may be found in a small log and not in a big one indi- 

 cates that in a good many cases unusual expense and trouble have 

 been resorted to without a corresponding profit. 



A veneer manufacturer who naturally likes to get hold of big logs 

 was relating his experiences recently in this connection. A timberman 

 who had always ' ' toted fair ' ' with this concern wrote in oif ering a 

 bunch of logs which appealed to the manufacturer on account of their 

 exceptional size. The price was pretty high, but the veneer man de- 

 cided to invest. The logs were taken up by his inspector and looked all 

 right, and trouble wasn't run into until they were cut into flitches 

 and put on the veneer saw and slicer. Then came the deluge. The 

 saws struck metal which turned out to be old horse-shoes, spikes and 

 other foreign matter, and a few experiments showed that most of the 

 logs had evidently been bought from farmers who had used the trees 

 as hitching posts in years gone by. The result was that it was next 

 to impossible to handle the logs to advantage, and by the time broken 

 saws were repaired and delays figured, it was found that the veneers 

 produced from them were pretty expensive — to the mill. 



It is just as well to look on the large log without much enthusiasm, 

 anyhow ; for they are getting few and far between in most sections of 

 the country. There are still a lot of the smaller sizes to be found, 

 and as they are the best for practical purposes the passing of the 

 giants among hardwood trees wiU not be greatly deplored. 



