HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



marl suitable for Portland cement manufac- 

 ture. 



The west has many things that can be told 

 about with interest to people seeking favorable 

 opportunities. It is along this line of work that 

 the great railway system named is turning its 

 attention, affording information that will tend 

 to upbuild, develop and populate the western 

 country in a way that may be stated as bene- 

 fiting tlie whole nation. 



Cost of Building Materials. 



Insurance Engineering of New Yoiii, in its 

 September issue, says that wood no doubt 

 has been extensively used for the construction 

 of building because of its apparent cheapness. 

 It asks, however, if it is cheap when there is 

 taken into consideration the matter of re- 

 building after flres. A wooden building may 

 be insured, but not for its full value; there- 

 fore, a part of the loss amounting to an aver- 

 age of thirty-five percent falls on the indi- 

 vidual. JjOss of business and commercial 

 prestige must also be included in tlie calcula- 

 tion. The publication submits the following 

 rather inaccurate list of low and high values 

 of wood building material at wholesale during 

 the past fifteen years, by which it attempts to 

 show conclusively that the cost of combustible 

 construction has increased out of all just pro- 

 portion: 



Low. High. 



Hemlock $10.75 $18.00 



Maple, hard 24.00 34.00 



Oak, white, plain 32.00 48.00 



Oak, white, quartered . . . 47.00 85.00 

 Pine, white, boards. No. 2 



bam 15.00 24.00 



Pine, white, b'ds, uppers. 43.00 82.00 



Pine, yellow 15.50 23.00 



Poplar 29.00 52.50 



Spruce 11.50 21.50 



Unit: 1,000 feet. 

 Brick, common domestic. 4.25M 8. 5051 

 The insurance paper quoted thinks the time 

 has arrived for construction with tile and ce- 

 ment in their numerous combinations with 

 steel, and alleges that in addition to possess- 

 ing high fire-resistive qualities, there is no 

 limitation to the variety of forms in -which 

 they can be produced from the plain to the 

 ornamental, and their cost compares ver\ 

 favorably with the less desirable wood mate- 

 rials enumerated. Durability and stability of 

 a building, the publication maintains, are the 

 real features of economy, and not the actual 

 first cost. 



Acknowledgment. 



The editor of the Hardwood Eecoed is in 

 debted to C. A. Schenck, Ph. D., director of 

 the Biltmore Forest School and forester of the 

 Vanderbilt estates near Asheville, N. C, for 

 copies of his works on Forest Measurement 

 and Leetures on Sylviculture. 



In the flret-named book Dr. Schenck has 

 treated forest mensuration from a scientific 

 and mathematical standpoint as well as from 

 the viewpoint of practical application. The 

 ■work is intended to assist students in this 

 work. It contains the teacher's dictation which 

 the students in the Biltmore Forest School in 

 years past have employed in their work. The 

 publication will appeal to forest owners as, 

 with the advent of higher stumpage values, 

 they will be inclined to consider the advisa- 

 bility of forest-husbandry. 



The second work, on Sylviculture, includes a 

 series of lectures on this subject by the director 

 of the Biltmore School. The original definition 

 of sylviculture was the raising and tending 

 of forest products — wood, bark, game, stock 

 and by-products. Sylviculture as practiced by 

 the ancients was intended only for park or 

 orchard purposes. Dr. Schenck contends that 

 European sylviculture for America is of no 

 more use at the present moment than Chinese 

 sylviculture, owing to the great economic dif- 

 ferences separating the old from the new coun- 

 try. He alleges that the planting of trees on 



a large scale in this country, is now out of the 



question, since the expense of planting an acre 

 of land usually exceeds the value of an acre of 

 forest. He alleges that the modern owners of 

 woodlands are not far-sighted enough to an- 

 ticipate the arrival of fciui-opean stumpage 

 prices at a remote period, when plantations 

 now started will have developed into mature 

 trees. The writer says if we can assume that 

 stumpage in this country will be as valuable 

 in 1980 as it is now in Germany, France and 

 England, then forest planting must be at least 

 as remunerative here as it is in the old coun- 

 try. 



What Is It? 



The source of the curious illustration accom- 

 panying this paragrapii will be a matter of mys- 

 tification to the average reader. It looks as 

 though it might be a section of a Navajo blan- 

 ket, or possibly a collection of hard-boiled eggs 

 suspended in a shooting gallery. However, it is 

 neither, but is a photograph of a microscopic 

 enlargement of a cross section of chestnut wood, 

 magnified ten diameters. It constitutes a unique 

 study in timber growth showing, as it does very 



CROSS-SECTION CHESTNUT MAGNIFIED 

 TEN DIAMETERS. 



distinctly, the annual rings of growth and the 

 varying density of autumn and spring wood. 

 Incident to this illustration it must be known 

 that the structure of no two woods is exactly 

 alike. In fact, every type of wood growth 

 shows, under the microcsope, a decidedly differ- 

 ent formation. Thus it is that no two woods 

 will season exactly alike, nor are they susceptible 

 to the same treatment in dry kilning processes. 

 No two woods will absorb fillers and stains with 

 the same freedom, owing to varying porosity. 

 The picture will prove an interesting study to 

 students of timber physics. 



Development Mexican Timber Resources. 



The development of the timber resources of 

 Mexico has not had the effect of diminishing 

 the importations of lumber from this country. 

 This is due to the fact that the demand for 

 lumber there is increasing, constantly, and the 

 home product is far from sufficient to supply 

 it. The use of lumber of all kinds has in- 

 creased wonderfully in all parts of Mexico. 

 Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico mills are 



now exporting more finished lumber to Mexico 

 than at any previous time. That country pro- 

 duces an abundance of the common grades of 

 lumber and building materials, but fine cabinet 

 and house work comes from the United States, 

 for the reason that very little is yet being 

 done toward manufacturing the hardwoods 

 that abound in that country. 



The custom house reports show that there 

 has been a notable increase in the exporta- 

 tion of mahogany and cedar logs during the 

 last three months. Immense quantities were 

 shipped to New York. Bristol and St. James 

 from Vera Cruz and Tamplco. 



The Guerrero Development Company, com- 

 posed of California capitalists, is the name of 

 ,a new company recently organized with a cap- 

 ital of $1,500,000, to develop a tract of 1,000,000 

 acres of land near the port of Acapuico, on 

 the Pacific coast of Mexico. Much of this 

 land is said to be covered with forests of 

 valuable timber. The companv will establish 

 mills and export, via its own line of steamers, 

 to other Pacific coast points in Mexico and 

 the United St,'.tes. 



Convention of Vehicle Manufacturers. 



The vehicle manufacturers of the , central 

 states met in annual convention at the Grand 

 Hotel. Cincinnati, Oct. 25, and elected the fol- 

 lowing officers for the ensuing year: Presi- 

 dent, Carl D. Fischer, Wapakoneta, C; vice 

 president, J. D. Dort, Flint, Mich.; treasurer, 

 J. H. Keyes, Terre Haute, Ind. ; secretary, O. 

 B. Bannister, Muncie, Ind. 



The vehicle wheel makers, representing sev- 

 enty-five percent of the product of the United 

 States, and the shaft and hickory pole manu- 

 facturers, representing ninety percent of the 

 product, convened in separate sessions, their 

 object being to see if they could agree upon 

 a schedule of prices tor the coming year. This 

 desirable result was not accomplished, how- 

 ever, but committees were appointed to meet 

 in Chicago within a few days, to make another 

 attempt to agree on a price schedule. 



The shaft and pole manufacturers demand 

 an advance of ten percent on their product, 

 because the supply of material is decreasing 

 and the value correspondingly increasing. 

 This is particularly true of hickory, for which 

 there is no substitute. The wheel manufactur- 

 ers were not willing to accede to the demand 

 for the advance, claiming that it would com- 

 pel them to advance the price of their prod- 

 uct fifteen to twenty-five percent, which they 

 were not certain the trade would stand, and 

 hence the adjournment for future conference. 



The Laguna Company. 



A comparatively new foreign wood house is 

 The Laguna Company, with general offices at 

 Davenport, la. The company is capitalized at 

 $3,000,000, and is the owner of 600,000 acres 

 of mahogany, Spanish cedar, dyewoods, and 

 other fancy hardwood timber lands in the 

 province of Campeche, Mexico. The president 

 of the company is Col. G. "Watson French of 

 Davenport, who is also allied with the Re- 

 public Iron & Steel Company of Chicago. The 

 vice president is Judge Nathaniel French, 

 and the secretary and treasurer, John J. Mer- 

 rill. The same interests also control in Cam- 

 peche about 2,000,000 acres of this same char- 

 acter of timber property. 



The company proposes to develop its timber 

 wealth on a very conservative basis and dur- 

 ing this year has only forwarded three car- 

 goes of mahogany and cedar to this country. 

 Its shipping point is Laguna del Carmen. It 

 has constructed thirty miles of narrow gauge 

 logging railroad during the past year, and a 

 portable sawmill where it will work up the 

 coarser end of its output. The high-class logs 

 will be shipped to Mobile, where the company 

 (ontemplates building a first class sawmill. 



In this connection, the company has just 



