HARDWOOD RECORD 



i: 



The red spiiiee iu inouutain fastnesses is the 

 most pieturesque tree imaginable; it rivals 

 the cypress of the southern swamps, lu the 

 great forests whieh flanlc the Presittentinl 

 range it rises far above its neiglibors from a 

 bed of damp'nioss :uul jiale-tiiitrd friiis. with 



1 ULIAGE AND FUVIT, RED SPKLXK. 



tall, sheer trunk, anil scragged limbs draped 

 with hoary moss, the acknowledged king of 

 the wilderness. It bear.s all the marks of a 

 hard fight for life amid opposing elements, 

 but winter's storm and biting Arctic winds 

 avail nothing, for in spite of them the tree 

 climbs to the vitv borders of the Alpine 

 region. ' ' 



The large half-tone illustration accompany- 

 ing this article is of a typical specimen of red 

 spruce growing on the lands of the Cherry 

 River Boom .St Lumber Company in Nicholas 

 county, West Virginia. This tree had a girth 

 of about forty-four inches at the stump line 

 and was perhaps seventy feet to the tirst 

 limb. .Standing beside the tree is Clem E. 

 Lloyd, Jr., sales nvanager of the company. 

 The other half-tone illustration shows a large 

 spruce butt log, and was photographed on a 

 iskidway of the West Virginia Spruce Lumber 

 Company near Cass, W. Va. This picture illus- 

 trates forcibly one of the peculiarities of 

 spruce growth when it attains a considerable 

 size. The bole of the tree at the stump line 

 is rarely round, but is usually flattened at one 



side, and often a cross section at this point 

 is more nearly rectangular than circular. The 

 bole higher up, however, assumes practically a 

 circular form. Spruce forests prevail usu- 

 :iily ,.1 a pure stand, ami it is only oeeasiou- 

 uliy that it is interspersed with hemlock and 

 rarely with a small percentage of cherry. 



The present cuttings of spruce in West Vir- 

 ginia and farther south are from virgin 

 growth, while a large jiorcentage of the lum- 

 ber secured from the sjunice forests of New 

 York, northern New England and Nova Scotia 

 is from second growth. Sju-urc does not show 

 as r('markal)lr a ra|iidity iif gicnvtli as is 

 generally credited, as careful nieasurenionts 

 in various sections of the country, continued 

 year after year at tlie instance of the editor 

 of the H-VKDWOOD Kecord demonstrates beyond 

 peradventure that the average growth 

 of spruce amounts to approximately two per 

 cent a year. It has been repeatedly demon- 

 strated that where the tree is under cultiva- 

 tion, being quite frequently employed for 

 ornamental purposes, it is one of the slowest 

 growing of the soft woods. 



Undeniably the highest type of spruce 

 growth is found in West Virginia on the 

 higher altitudes. There is a very considerable 

 range of spruce growth extending northwest 

 from the British maritime provinces west 



UANDSOME UlCD SPKUCE LOGS. 



and south of Hudson Bay to the Mackenzie 

 river and into Alaska, which promises little 

 from a lumbering standpoint, but which 

 doubtless will afford a spruce pulpwood sup- 

 ply for centuries to come. The growth is 

 small and stunted, becoming more so toward 

 tiic extreme North. 



'Builders of Lumber History, 



NUMBER XXIV. 



Jolm B. Eansom. 

 (-S'ce Portrait Hupiilemcnl.) 

 The son of a Rutherford county, Tennes- 

 see, farmer and lumber dealer, .Tohn B. Rai'. 

 som, started in the lumber business iu th" 

 little town of iSturfreesboro. in the heart of 

 Teunessee 's cedar . belt, some twenty-five 

 3"ears ago. His beginning was as modest and 

 unostentatious as is his demeanor today, yet 

 this same self-made man, although barely 

 fortv-five years of age, is now at the head of 

 a splendid business worth almost a million 

 dollars. Mr. Ransom, when a beardless youtli, 



started a general, luni-ier business iu ilur 

 freesboro, but the |)rincipal items handled 

 uere cedar and piling, as he was in the heart 

 of a region producing most of the world's 

 red cedar timber. Soon, however, the young 

 lumberman entered into a partnership with 

 J. O. Kirkpatrick, nov>- "ouior member of the 

 well-known firm of .1. (). Kirkpatrick & Sons, 

 under the title of John B. Ransom & Co. 

 About 1S88 the firm,, looking for a larger 

 field, moved to Nashville. A site on Durham 

 srreet, convenient to the Nashville, Chatta- 

 nooga & St. Louis railway tracks, was selected 



for the location of the plant, which by the 

 way is not far distant from the present 

 operations of John B. Ran.som & Co. The 

 busiiu'ss at this time aggregated only -totl.OUd 

 to .$40,000 a year. The indomitable pluck of 

 its founder was a great asset, for when 

 .M.'ssrs. Ransom .•mil Kirkpatrick dissolved 

 partnership in 1S!)7, the former .$.')0,00u busi- 

 ness was bringing in .'ti:?00,000 a year. Dur- 

 ing these years Mr. Ransom had been the 

 dominant spirit. He has always been the 

 financial man in every venture with- which he 

 has been associated; the chief buyer and prin- 

 cipal salesman, and every move he has made 

 lias netted money for his house. 



In 1S98 John W. Ixive succeeded J. 0. 

 Kirkpatrick as a member of the firm. Jlr. 

 Love remained one year and then sold his 

 fnurth interest to Arthur B. Ransom, a 

 brother of John B. Eansom. The two Ran- 

 soms have since continued the business which 

 has grown so inaterially in the last few 

 years. 



Today the as.sets of the John B. Ransom 

 enterprises place the owners in the million- 

 aire class. In less than eight years they 

 liave more than trebled in value. The plant 

 now includes big box factories, planing mills 

 and sawmills in Nashville. The firm is prob- 

 ably handling some 50,000,000 feet of hard- 

 wood annually, and is sawing more than 

 •'iO,000 feet a day in addition to large quan- 

 tities of lumber bought from out.side mills. 

 Besides being the head and senior ]iartner 

 in this immense business, Mr. Eangom is 

 president of three great institutions — the 

 Nashville Hardwood Flooring Company, of 

 West Nashville, a ,$150,000 corporation that 

 is doing a great business; the Nashville 

 Transportation Company, ^^hich runs a line 

 of tow boats with seventeen barges on the 

 Cundierlaud river, and the newly organized 

 (iayoso Lumber Company-, of Shelby county. 

 Tennessee. He is a director and largely in- 

 terested in the Nashville Tie & Cedar Com- 

 pany, and is a also a heavy stockholder and 

 a director in the American National Bank 

 of Nashville, capitalized at $1,000,000. He 

 is first vice president of the Hardwood Man- 

 ufacturers' Association of the United States, 

 serving his second term. 



-Mr. Ransom is a member of the Book 

 ' 'ommittee of the Methodist Episcopal 

 Church South. This committee is the execu- 

 tive and business head of that great religious 

 sect. He is also a member of the Board of 

 Stew-ards of the West End Methodist Church 

 nf Nashville. 



Indomitable energy, untiring zeal, good 

 liusiness judgment, with an ever-present nerve 

 to back that judgment, combined with un- 

 usual executive ability, quickness of decision 

 and fairness in dealings with his fellowmen 

 are the qualities that have enabled John B. 

 Ransom to spell success with capital letters 

 while he is still a young man. He is today 

 one of the leading hardwood factors in the 

 country, and he is destined to continue add 

 ing fame and fortune to his name. 



Mr. Ransom 's pleasing portrait accom- 

 panies this issue of the TIardwoiih Ri-fimn as 

 a supplement. 



