HARDWOOD RECORD 



mean tUat loii'st ami mill refuse lan he worked ext'UisivoIy into this 

 stock, bill I he various items of ilimeusion that go to make up a farm 

 wagon ean, in consiilerable perrentage, be produi-ed out of minor 

 forest and sawmill products. Wagon essentials of necessity have 

 to be made out of the very cream of the forest, while other stock 

 cau be produced from the good material obtainable from common 

 and poorer stock. 



Today the business of manufacturing wsgon slock should interest 

 a great many hardwood producers; who have never before made it, 

 and with careful and intelligent endeavor can be made a good profit- 

 showing adjunct in the general hardwood business. With the short- 

 age of this material and the extraordinary demand, concerns which 

 have been making small quantities of wagon stock in the past will 

 doubtless increase their output, and a good many others can witli 

 safety enter this field of production. 



The farm wagon is still a low-prieed vehicle, when lumber, iron 

 and labor values are considered. An average advance of .$10 a 

 thousand feet on the woodwork of a wagon would mean an increased 

 cost of only $3.50 a vehicle. An advance of $20 would mean an 

 added cost of $7. Even this latter advance would not tend to 

 .liminish wagon production materially. To be sure, makei-s may 

 substitute iron wherever possible, if the cost of such substitution is 

 leas than that of wood. However, wagon manufacturers are wed<i(Hl 

 to the present method of construction, and will not indulge in radical 

 experiments toward changing them, so long as they can obtain wood- 

 work at anything like a reasonable cost. 



There are some features of the wagon making trade that augur 

 well for both the industrj- and for increasing the supply of wagon 

 material. By mutual consent the sizes of a great many items that 

 enter into wagon construction have been standardized. Thus, today 

 we find that wheel stock is generally of .standard size. Quito usually 

 axle-trees are of standard size. As times goes, on nearly all the 

 important items of woodwork entering into wagons will become of a 

 standard size, and when this consummation is reached these sizes 

 can be manufactured by every hardwood lumberman with the knowl- 

 edge that he has produced a line of material that will fin<l a market 

 in any one of a hundred or more places. Vp to this time wagon 

 manufacturers generally have deprecated the absolute .stamlardiziug 

 of wagon materials lest they lose their individuality of style and 

 jiattern in their output, but the standardizing flf all wagon mate- 

 rial 13 inevitable if manufacturers will keep down their cost. 



End oS Volume XXI. 



This number of the Hardwood Record concludes the twenty-first 

 volume of this publication. The publishers will be pardoned for a 

 bit of self-praise in saying that they believe that the paper is having 

 the approval, confidence and respect of practically the totality of 

 har.iwiiod manufacturers, dealers and consumers. This opinion is 

 borne out by the fact that during the less than sixteen montlis it has 

 been in charge of the present proprietors the circulation of ihe paper 

 has more than quadrupled, and that new subscriptions are being 

 steadily received from all elements in the trade. The advertising 

 <lientagc of the paper is also showing a .steady and gratifying 

 inerea.se, and almost to a man Hardwood Becord advertisers are 

 saying very complimentary things about the results achieved from 

 their investment in its advertising columns. 



The universal esteem in which the paper is held is a matter of 

 unqualilied gratification to the iiublishers, as their only ambition is to 

 have the hjnlwood industry as proud of its exponent as the Hardwood 

 Rkcokd is of the American hardwood inilustry. While the editor has 

 in the past flone his best toward winning (he approval of the hard- 

 wri(id trade, as well as its confidence and respect, what this publica- 

 tion has been in the past nee.l not be regftrded a criterion of what 

 it will be in the future. As this great inrlustry develops so the 

 irAKDWOOi) Record will keep pace with this development. What was 

 good enough for the Hardwood REr okd of last .vcar will not be 

 reganled good enough for the Hardwood Record of this year, and of 

 succeeding years. Its aim and intent in to grow and broailcn with 

 the great indu.-4try which it represents. 



The publishers take this occasion to thank their friends in the 



hardwood lumber and allicil trades for their generous s\ipport in 

 the past, and to bespeak continued confidence and cooperation. 



Duty on Thin Lumber. 



The "lumber experts'- of the Liiitcil Slates Treasury Department, 

 will! liuve the matter of assessing the duties on lumber in charge, 

 conceived a while ago that, inasnuich as thin lumber reaching this 

 country via the Canadian border was sold on the basis of surface 

 measure, they should assess the stock at a duty of $2 per thousand, 

 the same as they would inch lumber. Besides this they actually 

 enforced this rule on half and five-eighths inch stock, and if they had 

 had an ojiportunity would doubtless have done so on picture backing. 



'I'lic matter has become a subject of controversy between Canadian 

 and American lumbermen and the department, and was taken up at 

 the recent meeting of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation. A committee was appointed to confer with the government 

 agents in an attempt to educate them to common sense and justice 

 in the matter. A hearing was held in Xew York before the^ Board 

 of (iencral Appraisers on March 14, at which time conclusive evi- 

 dence wan submitted that thin lumber should not be assessed at $2 

 a thousand duty, and that such an assessment was not contemplated " 

 by the law. Apparently the Board of Appraisers is still unconvinced, 

 as the hearing was adjourned until April 17, at which time the gen- 

 eral government will produce witnesses in an attempt to controvert 

 the evidence of both t.'anadian and Anierican lumbermen on the 

 subject. 



The Value of Birch. 



The red birch of the North, while gradually growing in appre- 

 ciation, still remains a wood whose value is but slightly recognized. 

 In physical (|uality birch conies very near standing at the head of 

 the list of Auu'rican hardwoods, being exceeded, and then not in all 

 particulars, only by oak, black walnut and cherry. It has wonder- 

 ful strength, fine grain and figure, excellent color and good staying 

 qualities. In beauty it approximates the better qualities of mahog- 

 any. As a matter of fact birch has but one drawback as a hard- 

 wood of tlie very highest class — the oil it contains. This oily sub- 

 stance, unless the wood is dry-kilned with great care, makes it 

 extremely difficult to make a glue joint that will be permanent. 

 However, the furniture and interior finish trade is fast learning how- 

 to handle birch, and there is much less trouble on this score than 

 there was in the past. 



Birch has been esteemed in the eastern trade for many years, 

 where it is regarded as one of the highest types of American hard- 

 woods. The famous growth of birch in Pennsylvania and the Adiron- 

 dacks is fast nearing extinction, and there will surely be an extraor- 

 dinary call for the comparatively small remaining stumpage in 

 northern Michigan and Wisconsin. On relative merit the good 

 end of birch should today sell nearly on a parity with oak, and it is 

 the belief of the Hardwood Record that the wood will soon achieve 

 a standing in the trade that will command such a price. 



Credit Indemnity. 



At the annual meeting of llic National Luuiber .Manufacturers' 

 Association, to bo held at St. Louis on Jlay 8 and 9, one of llic sub- 

 jects to be threshed out is the (juestion of credit in<lcmnity. The 

 association is sending to all members a list of questions for which 

 it requests answers, covering the anunmt of losses from bad debts, 

 year by year, from 1901 to 1905 inclusive, and approximate sums 

 of annual sales for each of these years, in order to establish a statis- 

 tical basis of the ])roblematic value of taking on ireilit indemnity 

 insurance. 



Crcilit indemnity is analagons to fire and life insurance, and if 

 purchasable at a reasonable jirice, is undeniably a good investment. 

 However, up to this time the price of indemnity insurance has been 

 pretty steep, and the possibility of loss by the insuring company has 

 been so safeguarded with restrictions as to make the purchase of 

 this class of insurance not a very alluring proposition. 



in a nutshell, if jirospective purchasers of indemnity insurance 

 woiilil exercise the same care in placing their credit risks as the com- 

 panies denuind for the insurance to be cITective, they would have very 

 little use for IndrMiinily insurance. 



