Published in the Interest of Hardwood Lumber, American Hardwood Forests, Wood Veneer Industry, Hardwood Flooring, 

 Hardwood Interior Finish, Wood Chemicals, Saw Mill and Woodworking Machinery. 



Vol. XXI. 



CHICAGO, JANUARY 10, 1906. 



No. 6. 



Published on the 10th and 25th oE each month hy 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Henry H. Gibson, President 



Frank W. TUTTLE. Sec-Treas. 



OFFICES 



Sixth Floor Ellsworth Bldg., 355 Dearborn St., Chicago, 111., U.S.A. 



Telephones: Harrison 4960 Automatic 5659 



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The entire contents of this publication are covered by the general copy- 

 right, and articles must not be reprinted without special permission. 

 Entered at Chicago Postoffice as Second Class Matter. 



Advertising copy must be received five days in advance of 

 publication date. Advertising rates on application. 



Annual of Hardwood Manufacturers' Asso= 

 ciation. 



The fourth annual meeting of the Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association of the United States 

 will be held at the Gait House, Louisville, Ky., 

 on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 16 and 17. 



Meeting Dimension Stock Association. 



The next meeting of the Hardwood Dimen- 

 sion Association will be held at the Grand Hotel, 

 Cincinnati, Wednesday and Thursday, February 

 21 and 22. 



At this time details of the organization will 

 be completed and work of great interest to hard- 

 wood dimension producers will be inaugurated. 



General Market Conditions. 



The hardwood trade the eouutry over has scarcely been inter- 

 rupted by holiday festivities. Lumber buyers were still flocking to 

 every field of production up to Jan. 1, and those that returned home 

 for New Year 's have been supplanted by others. 



Oak is still the most sought wood in the market, with many of 

 the minor hardwoods close seconds. The extremely wet fall and 

 early winter in the oak producing sections have so materially handi- 

 capped producers that there has been no accumulation of stock in 

 any quarter. Such purchases as are now being made are for lumber 

 to come out of trees that are stUI standing in the woods. Thfe mill 

 men certainly have no drj' stock, and what little oak there is to 



supply the demand for the next four or five months is either in the 

 hands of jobbers in the trade centers or is owned by consumers. 

 Stock in manufacturing consumers' hands is notoriously light, and 

 but few of the jobbers have any quantity of oak at their command. 

 There are not half a dozen Chicago wholesale houses, for example, 

 that have oak enough at their disposal to take care of a fourth of 

 the wants of their trade. 



Increased demand and advanced prices mark the condition of gum 

 and Cottonwood. There is no prospect of an oversupply in either 

 wood during the coming year, and prices will tend to advance, rather 

 than decline. All grades of poplar are in excellent request and 

 even the coarse end of stocks in the hands of manufacturers has 

 been largely cleaned up. Ash and hickory of the South are about as 

 nearly exhausted as the black ash and rock elm of the North. 



Of northern woods birch is in excellent demand, but the price is 

 still ruling low. The same observation may be made concerning bass- 

 wood. Unfortunately, for the acumen of many northern manufac- 

 turers, considerable stocks of both these woods to be sawn have 

 been marketed at a pretty low range of values. 



Inch maple in dry stock is pretty closely sold up. Thick maple still 

 remains somewhat in surplus stock, and the sales are dragging a 

 little. Grey elm is in onlj' fair supply, and the present demand 

 will unquestionably exhaust all the dry stock before the hew cut 

 comes into the market. 



There seems to be very little chestnut offered, and when it is buyers 

 are ready to absorb it all. 



Demand for mahogany is somewhat on the increase. Owing to 

 the high price of fancy oak, furniture manufacturers and interior 

 finish producers are turning to this wood for their better class of 

 work. 



Flooring makers in maple, oak and beech are all busy with a 

 prospective demand that will last throughout 1906. 



Veneer manufacturers in all lines report a very prosperous season 

 of trade. 



Chicago as a Hardwood Center. 



The total receipts of lumber in Chicago by water and rail during 

 1905 were upward of 2,200,000,000 feet. Unfortunately the statistics 

 are impossible of separation into building woods and hardwoods, 

 but it may be logically assumed that the proportion of hardwoods 

 received in this market during the year would approximate twenty-five 

 per cent of the total, or about 500,000,000 feet. This quantity of 

 lumber represents with considerable accuracy the actual hardwood 

 consumption of Chicago during 1905, but it in no wise constitutes 

 the total of the lumber manufactured, bought and sold by Chicago 

 capital and brains, as the manufacturers and dealers, having their 

 financial center and principal oflices here, enjoy a very extensive 

 trade outside of this immediate locality, and group stocks at many 

 points throughout the North and South, from which direct shipments 

 are made to their trade. At a rough guess, more than 1,000,000,000 

 feet of hardwoods have been manufactured and handled through the 

 medium of the Cliicago trade during the past year. 



The hardwood consumption demand of Chicago, as indicated by the 

 hardwood receipts of well toward 500,000,000 feet, easily place this 

 city as tho foremost consuming hardwood market in the world, which 

 distinction it has enjoyed for some years past, and which the trade 

 of the past year more fully emphasizes. 



