December 10, 191G 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



prospective foreign trade. The conditions are set fortli under wliich any 

 expansion and extension of our export business must talie place. The 

 chief of the bureau. E. E. Pratt, has for some time been engaged In 

 investigations of business as affected by the war, and as it will be affected 

 when peace returns. The report discusses this question. 



The Distribution of Lumber 



The distribution of one kind of lumber in the territory which seems 

 to belong to another is an interesting study for those who are interested 

 in traffic matters and trade problems. If some one had told the old white 

 pine operators of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Lake 

 States that the time would come when a kind of white pine, which was 

 then unknown 'to them, even by name, would be shipped from beyond the 

 Kocky Mountains and find a market within sight of the decaying stumps 

 where the eastern white pine had stood, the teller of the story would have 

 been haled befoi'e a committee of doctors to be tried on an insanity charge. 

 Yet that very thing has come to pass. The Idaho w-hite pine is finding 

 its way into nearly every market where the eastern white pine ever went. 

 This is shown by statistics lately compiled by the Forest Service, showing 

 the distribution of the lumber saw-ed from Idaho white pine during a period 

 of six months, ending with June, 191G. The shipment of that pine totaled 

 111,000,000 feet during the period under consideration, and the following 

 table shows where it went : 



Montana 3.3 per cent 



Washington 1 per cent 



North Dakota 15.5 per cent 



South Dakota 9.8 per cent 



Minnesota 11.7 per cent 



Wisconsin 4.1 per cent 



Iowa 9.8 per-cent 



Illinois 10.4 per cent 



Kansas 5 per cent 



Nebraska 7.0 per cent 



Missouri 1.0 per cent 



Colorado 9 per cent 



Wyoming 8 per cent 



Michigan 3.5 per cent 



Ohio 3.8 per cent 



Indiana 5 per cent 



Pennsylvania 1 7 per cent 



Delaware ) 



New York ) 7.0 per cent 



New Jersey) 



New England 3.2 per cent 



Oklahoma 1 per cent 



The total stand of Idaho white pine is estimated at about 28 billion 

 feet, practically all of which is in Idahip. Montana, Washington and Oregon. 



Oral Examinations Next 

 About 160 applicants took the secoml written examination for positions 

 as lumber experts to go to Europe to look over the chances of United 

 States lumber finding sale there after the war. Five men are wanted, 

 and the first examination failed to find them, hence, the second examina- 

 tion, which was held in several cities late in November. The most prom- 

 ising candidates will be invited to Washington for an oral examination 

 and the five most proficient will be given the jobs. The requirements to 

 be met by the candidates are very exacting. Most men who can qualify 

 under the requirements are already at the heads of large lumber com- 

 panies and earning salaries ten or twenty times as large as those offered 

 for the European work ; hence it is difficult to find proper men to send. 



Making Hay While the Sun Shines 



Among the increasing number of American firms that are awakening 

 to the wonderful trade possibilities in South America is the Grand Rapids 

 Veneer Works. This firm, than which no other has devoted more time 

 and study to the scientific drying of hardwood lumber, has established a 

 reputation for its vapor kilns that is nation wide. 



While taking advantage of the fact that the English and Getnian 

 monopoly of trade in our southern hemisphere is for the time being with- 

 drawn, yet the Grand Rapids Veneer Works has reached a stage In its 

 growth where an extension in this direction is only logical. In seeking 

 to broaden its reputation it has just Issued for South American distribu- 

 tion a small brochure setting forth the salient points of the vapor kiln, 

 giving a partial list of well-known users and illustrated with photographs 

 showing vapor kiln construction and of a number of batteries erected in 

 various parts of this country. The brochure is printed in three languages 

 — English, Spanish and Portuguese. 



Among the illustrations is one of particular 

 interest to the manufacturers of hardwood and 

 to hardwood consumers, which is reproduced 

 here. It shows a battery of fourteen Grand 

 Rapids Vapor Kilns recently installed at the 

 plant of the Packard Motor Car Company in 

 Detroit, and the largest battery in any auto- 

 mobile plant in the world. This battery cou 

 structed of brick with tile lining and tile roof, 

 was completed exactly sixty days after the 

 first concrete w-as poured. Each kiln — eighteen 

 by forty-four feet — will hold seven kiln cars. 

 The battery will dry daily 30,000 feet of hard- 

 wood lumber averaging two inches in thickness. 

 As the Packard plant has practically no pil- 

 ing room, its entire yard being given over to 

 tracks, turn-tables, etc., and all lumber being 

 carried on trucks, the economic advantage of 

 complete and scientific drying facilities is 

 readily seen. 



So much has been written these last months 

 relative to our foreign trade, and so much 

 criticism has been heard anent the haphazard 

 methods to secure that trade, that comment on 

 the Grand Rapids Veneer Works' way is not 



out of place. The folder referred to. while not being elaborate, gives 

 the details of vapor kiln equipment and service completely and con- 

 cisely, and all questions relative to time of drying and output are 

 carefully covered. The complete equipment for one kiln ready to install 

 is listed, and prices are quoted at seaboard. In addition the weight and 

 cubic contents of the crate are given, so that the Latin American has 

 before him all he needs to know regarding vapor kilns and what they will 

 cost him laid down at his own seaport. 



These seemingly minor details have been entirely overlooked by many 

 American firms seeking to develop an export trade, and who have taken 

 it for granted that their foreign friends were as familiar with the small 

 details of their business as they were themselves. This oversight accounts 

 not only for the criticism but for the absolute failure of many a foreign 

 venture. Meeting a man on his own ground is what makes for success. 



Wood for Artificial Limbs 



The state of Washington uses 4,050 feet of wood annually in the manu- 

 facture of artificial limbs, according to statistics compiled last year by the 

 Forest Service. Of this amount, 3,050 feet are willow, 500 ash and 500 

 maple. The material costs at the factory $248, and the sum of $1,005 

 is expended in the process of manufacture. Willow is the leading wood. 

 It is cut from trees known as white or English willow which is not native 

 in the United States but has been extensively planted for street trees and 

 in door yards. Willow is very light and also very strong. It is tough 

 and does not split, check, or warp when in ordinary use. This gives it 

 its value in the limb industry. The "cork leg" commonly spoken of is 

 really a willow leg, with a few pegs and wearing surfaces of harder wood. 

 Usually crutches are classified in the limb industry, but that does not seem 

 to have been done in Washington, as the report contains no mention of 

 crutches. The total quantity of wood used for limbs in that state is rela- 

 tively small and many states surpass it. The little state of New Hampshire 

 uses a hundred times as much wood in this industry as is used in 

 Washington, but New Hampshire manufacturers specialize on crutches. 

 The whole amount of wood demanded yearly by artificial limb manufac- 

 turers in the United States exceeds 687,000 feet. That was the quantity 

 reported before the European war, but it is probably much larger now. 

 because a considerable export trade in artificial limbs has grown up in 

 the past two years. It is not possible to say just how large the export 

 trade is because the Item is so new that the figures showing its export have 

 not yet found a place in the monthly export statistics published by the 

 government. 



Eastern Woods in Western Vehicles 



If a satisfactory substitute for oak as vehicle stock could be had on the 

 Pacific coast, it is certain that the wagon makers in the State of Wash- 

 ington would not transport this wood from eastern forests at great expense 

 to use in their shops and factories. These factories in the state named 

 buy 304,000 feet of woods of all kinds yearly to convert into wagon stock ; 

 and forty per cent of it is oak. It costs $104.77 per thousand feet deliv- 

 ered at the factory. A little native Pacific coast oak is used, but the oak 

 of that region is not suitable for the most exacting places in vehicle man- 

 ufacture, and the demand is met by eastern forests. Eight woods in all 

 are reported in the vehicle industry of that state, namely, oak, Douglas 

 fir, Sitka spruce, hickory, ash, western yellow pine, yellow poplar, and 

 western red cedar. These woods are here named in the order of their 

 importance, measured by quantity. In the vehicle industry in that state. 

 Four are eastern woods and four are western. Eastern woods are oak, 

 hickory, ash and yellow poplar. Hickory leads all the others in price, at 

 $144.29 per thousand feet ; ash costs $116.50, and yellow poplar $108.75. 

 The most expensive Pacific coast wood is Sitka spruce at $41.68. The 

 yellow poplar is made into carriage and wagon bodies, the hickory into 



BATTERY OF 14 GR 



AND RAPIDS VAPOR KILNS INSTALLED AT PLANT OF PACKARD 

 MOTOR CAR COMPANY'S PLANT 



