

The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, OCTOBER 25, 1904. 



No. I 



The Hardwood Record. 



PUBLISHED BY 



C. V. KIMBALL, 



ON THE 10TH AND 25TH OF EACH MONTH. 

 134 MONROE STREET, - CHICAGO, ILL. 



C. D. STRODE 



- - EDITOR. 



ENTERED AT CHICAGO POST OFFICE AS 

 SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



TERMS OF subscription: 



U. S., Canada and Mexico $1.00 per year. 



Foreign Countries 2.00 per year. 



ADVERTISING RATES ON APPLICATION. 



Contributions on subjects of interest 

 to- lumbermen arc invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and ottiers are re- 

 quested to notify us of changes in per- 

 sonnel or organizations of hardwood 

 lumber firms. We desire especially to 

 receive particulars of installation of 

 new plants, transfers of property and 

 timber holdings and experiments in 

 new methods of manufacturing or the 

 utilization of by-products. New publi- 

 cations of interest to the trade, including 

 catalogues, stock lists and circulars will 

 receive attention if sent to this office. 

 Our columns are also available for 

 criticism and comment on any article 

 published or for news of any sort con- 

 cerning the hardwood trade. 



Our readers will confer a favor when 

 writing to advertisers if they will state 

 that they saw the advertisement in the 

 Hardwood Record. This is little 

 trouble and costs nothing, but it helps 

 us and is information wanted by the 

 advertiser. 



THE BUSINESS SITUATION. 



It seems reasonable that either Roose- 

 velt or Parker will be elected, and it is 

 now a matter of only another ten days or 

 so; in fact, when another issue of this 

 paper goes clattering down into the ar- 

 chives of the ages another president will 

 i.ave been chosen for another four years, 

 and, so far as business interests are con- 

 cerned, it doesn't make much difference 

 whether that president is Roosevelt or 

 Parker. 



The business interests of the country, 

 w.iile experiencing less alarm than at any 

 time since Cleveland was elected, seem 

 inclined to wait the outcome before plac- 

 ing orders. Business is very dull at pres- 

 ent and orders very hard to get, and such 

 as there are are of the filling-in variety. 



In the lumber business a good many 

 orders are afloat that will need to be filled 

 after the election. For the present, a 

 wagon lot load order, or anything that will 

 enable a manufacturer to run along until 

 after election, is very popular and about 

 all one can get. We will have to postpone 

 further action looking towards the raising 

 of prices until after the election. 



A good many people are selling plain 

 oak at prices at which it cannot be re- 

 placed. An Investigating tour taken 

 among the mills of the South shows no 

 surplus stock on hand, and any attempt 

 to replace the lumber at anything like the 

 prices obtained meets with a disastrous 

 result. 



The same may be said of quarter sawed 

 oak — to a considerable extent. While 

 more abundant than plain-sawed oak, the 

 amount on hand is in no wise oppressive. 

 Ihere are large offerings in the lower 

 grades, but they are readily taken. When 

 the price of high-grade quartered oak 

 reached such a height that consumers 

 could not use it with profit, they were in- 

 ducted into the use of the lower grades, 

 which they found answered their purpose. 



Of poplar there is not much to be said. 

 Speaking of the stock on hand, a certain 

 prominent manufacturer made the asser- 

 tion that if everyone using poplar lumber 

 was to order as little as a carload to- 

 morrow, it would exhaust the supply. 

 That is probably a strong statement, but 

 the fact remains that the supply of poplar 

 is not such as to account for the present 

 low price. 



Cottonwood, we are pleased to say, is 

 doing better. It only weakened in sym- 



pathy with poplar, not from any general 

 condition of supply and demand. 



In northern hardwoods, such as maple, 

 birch, beech, etc., the situation is some- 

 what anomalous. It is beginning to dawn 

 upon the Michigan Maple Company, and 

 the trade generally, that some stock is 

 going to have to be carried over. Now, the 

 Michigan Maple Company doesn't have to 

 hire petty dealers to carry the stock and 

 give them anywhere from $5 to $10 a thou- 

 sand to do it. They can as well afford to 

 carry it as anyone, and all things consid- 

 ered, we believe they can better afford to 

 do it. A peculiar situation has been 

 reached in the market for maple. With 

 the close of navigation less than thirty 

 days away, the buyers who have been wait- 

 ing all year tor a chance to load up on a 

 broken market are still waiting, and every 

 day they have less time; in fact, they 

 can't wait much longer. The Michigan 

 Maple Company stands firmly to its guns 

 and if it only has the nerve to stand awhile 

 longer, as we believe it has, something has 

 got to give. 



Of the other northern hardwoods, as 

 maple goes, so goes the list, with the pos- 

 sible exception of basswood, which is in- 

 clined to sympathize with poplar and Cot- 

 tonwood. 



Taken as a whole, the business situation 

 is scarcely so favorable as two weeks ago, 

 owing, as we believe, to the near approach 

 of the election. We have expected no 

 great improvement until after the elec- 

 tion anyhow, and until such time arrives 

 we can do no better than to keep a stiff 

 upper lip and hold on. We are going to 

 get that advance in price yet. 



ONLY TWO WEEKS MORE. 



Only a little over a week remains until 

 the presidential election, and when the 

 next issue of The Hardwood Record goes 

 to its readers the agony will he over, and 

 the country will have been saved for four 

 years more. 



Everyone has made uii hi.s mind by this 

 time how he is going lo vote. Goodness 

 knows he has had advice enough, and 

 while apparently there is nothing at issue 

 between the two parties, on the result 

 hinges weighty matters. Whether or not 

 we shall have the income tax, government 

 ownership of railways, or any of the thou- 

 sand and one reforms the Democrats have 

 been promising the people for the last 



