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Copyright, The Hardwood Company, 1916 



Published in the Interest of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and Logging, Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the 10th and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edgar H. Defebaugh, President 

 Edwin W. Meeker. Managing Editor 

 Hu Maxwell, Technical Editor- 



Entire Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 

 Telephones: Harrison 8086-8087-8088 



Vol. XLII 



CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 25, 1916 



No. 3 



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General Market Conditions 



THE DEVELOPMENTS OF LATE in the hardwood business 

 indicate a diversity of opinion as to the causes for present 

 advancing prices. Some seem to feel that the shortage of cars 

 necessitating difficulty in securing stocks has been the dominant 

 influence. Others maintain that the natural strengthening is 

 entirely responsible. 



It is undoubtedly true that the shortage of cars has had its effect 

 on the prices through the crippling of movement of hardwoods, but 

 no one can deny the sustained activity in woodworking circles. 

 However, there is still a disturbing factor seen, in the spread 

 in values for the same commodities. For instance, one standard 

 item of oak was offered to a certain representative buyer by repre- 

 sentative firms at a figure almost nine dollars less than the price 

 at which it was ordinarily quoted. This is by no means a criterion 

 of general bearing, but it indicates that there is not the stable 

 feeling that there should be and that is justified by conditions. 

 Whether or not the formation of the oak association has any real 

 effect as yet is problematical. In some directions it is reported that 

 the moral benefit is already noticeable. However, the opportunity 

 for more thoroughly stabilizing oak is most certainly here. Every 

 factor should lend aid to that effort, and as it is likely that tha oak 

 organization will be well launched before present favorable con- 

 ditions have altered materially, the two influences acting together 

 would accomplish a great deal. 



The most noticeable change in the oak situation of late, however, 

 has been in connection with the quartered oak veneers, which have 

 been rather a drug on the market for a little time back. However, 

 it is distinctly poor policy to dump this material under present 

 conditions. Regardless of its present state, it is going to be good 

 property within a short enough period of time to warrant holding. 



Figured gum is another commodity that is not so fully alive as 

 it was a while back, but the other grades in gum are holding up the 

 high speed record that has been set for the past several months. 

 Just what is the cause of the slight contraction of movements 

 for this wood is not ascertained in a definite way, but it is entirely 

 likely that the slackness now prevailing will be completely awak- 

 ened in the near future. Probably in the case of quartered oak and 

 figured gum they are suffering more than the commoner run of 

 lumber bj- the near approach of the general inventory season. 



The northern situation shows further improvement with slight 

 additional advance over previous values to northern woods, and 

 a more and more apparent scarcity in many lines, particularly in 

 thick maple of certain specifications. An order was had a short 

 time ago but it was totally impossible to secure stock enough to 



fill it. Birch is showing increased benefits from active call and 

 continued efforts to broaden its markets. 



The point in the whole situation as it appears today is that 

 lumber is not so high as it should be to return a proper figure to its 

 manufacturers. The object lesson presented by cost and sales 

 figures to date shows that no really substantial progress has been 

 made toward raising selling value far enough beyond the manufac- 

 turing cost to show a definite and satisfactory profit — that is, a 

 profit commensurate with the effort, risk, financial responsibility 

 and outlay required. 



There have been from time to time flurries of excitement tending 

 to promise resumption of export shipments, but it can be confidently 

 expected that nothing of real moment in this direction will develop 

 until the war is definitely and finally over. There will be orders 

 here and there, and a promise here and there at a resumption of 

 normal conditions, but it is practically impossible for the domestic 

 market to be supported by general export movements for an 

 indefinite period ahead. However, what is going out is doing more 

 to help balance the domestic markets than is generally recognized, 

 and the strength of the whole situation on this side is proven 

 further month after month 'by the resumption of the cut at 

 Michigan mills. 



A word of warning is not untimely now regarding the feasibility 

 of guarding against too great a production in anticipation of the 

 time when ears are available in sufficient quantities. Too much 

 lumber now means too much lumber piled up on the mill yards 

 when cars are coming in adequate numbers. Factories, it is true, 

 are having difficulty now in getting all they want, but they seem 

 to manage to squeeze through some way, and it is hardly logical 

 to suppose that their demands will expand to a sufficient extent 

 to take care of all the lumber that can be manufactured and piled 

 up at the mills before proper shipping facilities are guaranteed. 



The Cover Picture 



OAK IS INTIMATELY ASSOCIATED with the earliest writ- 

 ten records of the human race. The patriarch Jacob hid his 

 jewelry under an oak when a flight from his enemies was contem- 

 plated. Deborah was buried under an oak, and it is remarkable 

 that in that record we have the earliest name applied to an oak in 

 history. They called it "allonbaekuth, " which meant weeping oak 

 — -apparently a species that has become extinct. Then, according 

 to the Hebrew scriptures, when an angel visited the earth on a 

 certain occasion, he "sat under an oak." It is stated in very 

 ancient writings that the merchants of Tyre — the leaders of the 

 world's commerce at the time — built ships with fir planking, cedar 

 masts, and oak oars. The inhabitants of England made canoes of 



