HARDWOOD RECORD 



26G 



Another inquirer who is standing on the 

 border between the portable and stationary 

 mill with all its modern equipment, looks 

 over into the field of the big mill and its 

 labor-saving devices and gives voice to his 

 thoughts as follows: 



"I have a sawmill operated by a 9x12 

 self-contained engine, and boiler to match. 

 It is just a plain mill with no frills and 

 nothing but boiler and engine and sawmill. 

 I have been looking over the ground and 

 thinking about adding certain labor-saving 

 machinery, but there is so much of it and 

 so many different things that I am a little 

 confused as to what additions I should make 

 to improve the situation. A log haul-up 

 would help out some by pulling the logs to 

 the mill in better shape and enable me to 

 select just what logs I want at any and all 

 times; a log turner would help some, too, 

 considerably in fact; so would an edger and 

 a cross-cut saw. In short, there are a num- 

 ber of things that it seems I covild use to 

 advantage, but between them all I am in a 

 quandary and want advice." 



This suggests something that all are 

 likely to overlook in this day of modern 

 devices — it is just as important to know 

 when not to buy as to know when to buy. 

 In the first place, and generally speaking, 

 a 9x12 engine should not be saddled with 

 any machinery to drive in addition to a 

 plain sawmill. That would seem to be mak- 

 ing a quick and short disposition of the 

 whole subject, but it really is not. It does 

 mean, though, that if there is plenty of tim- 

 ber to cut, if the mOl is to be run to its full 

 capacity right along and turn out the most 

 lumber in a given time the situation cannot 

 be improved upon much by adding other 

 machinery than the sawmill itself. Every 

 machine added takes power from the engine. 



and every line shaft and belt swallows up 

 its portion of power until, before it is real- 

 ized, the engine is loaded down and the 

 mill capacity considerably reduced. There 

 is no objection whatever to the appliances 

 spoken of, because they are all useful. So 

 is the steam feed useful, the lumber trim- 

 mer, the slab conveyor and all the other 

 !Modern appliances, but the question is the 

 practicability of their adoption in a mill 

 of light power. Such a mill has no power 

 to waste in pulling up logs, consequently it 

 should be set so that logs can be gotten in 

 without the aid of steam power. On a hill- 

 side of the right slope they may be trucked 

 in without steam power, but on level ground 

 it is better to groundhog the mill, put it 

 flat on the ground and skid the logs in by 

 hand. There are instances, and the time is 

 coming when there will be more, where it 

 is advisable to add other machinery to saw- 

 mills of this size, as in mills where the out- 

 put per day is not so important as working 

 up timber to the best advantage. It is said 

 by some that the days of the "vestpocket" 

 sawmill are over. They are not, however; 

 there is need for more machinery in the 

 small sawmill today than ever before — ma- 

 chinery which will assist in economically 

 working up logs, not only with a view to 

 using all there is in them but of putting it 

 to the best use. What is most to be de- 

 sired now is not to work up more timber, 

 but to work it up better, and since this is 

 true it is time to turn to other appliances. 

 Wiat they should be in each case depends 

 on local conditions considerably. It may be 

 said that in the majority of cases it is bet- 

 ter to add an edger than a log turner, be- 

 cause the edger, the rip saw, the cross-out 

 and this class of machinery serve best in 

 carrying out the idea of economy in the 

 sawmill of light class and limited power. 



A Lumberman's Letters to His Son. 



New Yoke, March 9, 1906. 



My dear Son: I was in Chicago so short a 

 time that there were several things I forgot 

 to say to you before leaving. It will be a ease 

 of skiddoo, twenty-three for you, if I ever 

 catch you sending out any more invoices call- 

 ing for first and second plain oak as firsts 

 and seconds, when it is mixed with twenty- 

 five per cent or more of common. I am talk- 

 ing about that Brown order, which we sold at 

 $45 on New York freight rate. You know, 

 and Brown knows, that this was not to be a 

 straight grade of firsts and seconds, but he is 

 sliowing our invoices to every lumber sales- 

 man that comes his way and telling him he 

 is way above the market when he asks $.50 to 

 $52 for oak. On the rest of these shipments 

 you leave off "firsts and seconds" and 

 Frank Fee's "fas" and just invoice him 

 "oak." 



Your dad has been over to Washington the 

 last two days attending the convention of 

 the really-truly lumbermen of the country, 

 and incidentally rubbing shoulders with Ted- 

 dy. Now I like that man; he is "kitty at 



the rat-hole',' every minute, as Matt Clark 

 down at Clay City says. He sort of lost his 

 tally on forestry matters in the little speech 

 he made to the bunch at the White House the 

 otiier day, because, owing to pulling off the 

 wedding of his daughter, he has been out of 

 touch with Pinehot for some weeks. 



When it gets down to talking common 

 sense on the forestry proposition that man 

 Pinehot is there with the goods. His ideas on 

 forestry have taken practical shape and I 

 don't believe there will be any more Fer- 

 nows turned loose on a good timber proposi- 

 tion to devastate a forest and try replanting 

 from seedlings. 



There was a lot said at the lumbermen's 

 meeting about just terms of sale, but these 

 fellows are apparently between the devil and 

 the deep sea. Most of them seem to want to 

 buy on four months' time, and don't feel as 

 though it is good sense to try to establish 

 either net cash or sixty-day terms xjn sales 

 made to their customers. So they just reaf- 

 firmed the old terms of sale proposition en- 

 dorsed some yeas ago — sixty days, one and 



a half off in fifteen — which would be consid- 

 ered customary in case of a law suit. Every- 

 bod}' was given liberty to go out and make 

 any old terms he pleased on special contract 

 when he bought or sold lumber. This was 

 probably a very wise move, as the resolution 

 was entirely harmless. I will be home in a 

 few days. 



Your affectionate Father. 

 P. S. — 1 ail almost sorry I didn 't bring 

 you along with me to this Washington meet- 

 ing. There were a good many hoop-skirts 

 around the New Willard that looked like 

 heiresses, although quite a number of them 

 looked like "mutton dressed as lamb." I 

 hope you are behaving yourself. 



Little Kiver liunber Company Loss. 



In the early morning of Feb. 21 fire broke out 

 suddenly in the plant of the Little River Lumber 

 Company at Townsend, Tenn., and completely 

 destroyed the sawmill, machine shop, tools, two 

 freight cars and a passenger coach, leaving the 

 engine a total wreck, although the boiler house 

 was not damaged. Where the blaze originated 

 is not known, but it is thought to have been 

 caused by a' spark from the edging burner. At 

 the "time of the fire the company was manufac- 

 turing lumber at the rate of 100,000 feet a day. 

 It has several million feet on hand, however, 

 and the mill will be rebuilt at once. 



The Little River Lumber Company owns 93.000 

 acres of land rich in the finest types of timber, 

 at the headwaters of the Little river in Blount 

 county, Tennessee. The seat of operations is 

 Townsend. which is a new, modern village, con- 

 taining the band mills, planing mills, shops, 

 homes and general outfit of a prosperous sawmill 

 community. Here lumber is scientifically manu- 

 factured, piled and seasoned. The output is 

 marketed throughout the entire east and as far 

 west as Ohio. A part of it is sold through 

 the general oflices at Townsend and part through 

 the Philadelphia office of W. M. McCormick, 

 president of the concern. Taken altogether, the 

 enterprise of the Little River Lumber Company 

 is perhaps without a peer in the United States 

 as an operating hardwood proposition. The 

 destruction of the company's mill comes at a 

 particularly unfortunate time, owing to im- 

 portant contracts of large size that had been 

 booked. 



Building Operations for February. 



Although the building season of 1906 has not 

 .vet opened, there is decided activity in building 

 circles, with everything indicating a prosperous 

 year. Official reports from nearly sLxty lead- 

 ing cities of the country, compiled by The 

 American Contractor of Chicago, show that the 

 steady gain over last year that has been chron- 

 icled from month to month was fully sustained 

 during February. While the open winter has 

 had something to do with the large operations 

 iif the recent past, it cuts but a small figure 

 in the present report, since the permits it re- 

 cords are mostly for buildings that will not be 

 erected before the advent of spring. 



Of the fifty-nine cities from which official re- 

 ports are presented, only sixteen show a loss as 

 compared with February of last year. The loss 

 in Baltimore is 49 per cent, due to the circum- 

 stance that the city is now practically rebuilt, 

 or arranged for. The only other cities of im- 

 portance that show a loss are San Francisco, 

 Cincinnati and Pittsburg, two per cent in the 

 first instance, seventeen per cent in the second 

 and ten in the last. The gain in New York is 

 55 per cent, which becomes very remarkable 

 when we remember the unprecedented building 

 activity that has prevailed there during the 

 past two or three years. In other leading cities 

 the percentage of gain is as follows ; Buffalo, 

 94 ; Chicago, 29 ; Cleveland, 215 ; Columbus, 

 lO" : Jersey City, 402 ; Kansas City, IS ; Louis- 

 ville, 574 ; New Orleans, 196 : Omaha, 290 : 



