The Hardwood Record 



VOL. XIX. 



CHICAGO, DECEMBER 25, 1904. 



The Hardwood Record. 



No. 5 



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: 



tj. 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 are invited from any 

 person. Subscribers and others arc 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. 



TO OUR READERS. 



Here is wishing you all a merr.v Christ- 

 mas and a pleasant and prosperous New 

 Year. We believe you are going ^to have 

 it anyway and are convinced that the 

 good wishes of the Record will not do you 

 any harm, on the principle that the good- 

 will of a dog is better than his ill-will. 

 And as the glad Christmas time ap- 

 proaches we feel charitable to all the 

 world. We thank all our friends and for- 

 give all our enemies — if we have any. 



We are feeling good. The Hardwood 

 Record has been brought into a safe har- 

 bor at last. It has been a pretty hard 

 struggle at times. We could not see any 

 light ahead and could only shut our eyes 

 and hang on. 



Now we may, in the course of estab- 

 lishing the Record, have said things that 

 you did not like, but It has been our zeal 

 for the good of the hardwood trade in gen- 

 eral that made us say them; and we did 

 not mean it. 



All is well, however, that ends well. 



-\nd now we will have a new deal. 



HARDWOOD REVIEW AND FORE- 

 CAST. 



This has not been so bad a year. To 

 be sure, it was not as good as 1903, but 

 few years are. A comparison of sales 

 with any former year and the amount of 

 profit made would not be found deficient. 

 The volume of the sales during the past 

 year has been, we believe, fairly satisfac- 

 tory in most cases. The profits, however, 

 are small. The advance in lumber in the 

 country in 1904 had made the manufactur- 

 ers bullish and lumber has been higher 

 in the country than city prices would war- 

 rant throughout almost the entire year. 

 Then the advance of 1903 caused the 

 stumpage to advance until the manufac- 

 turers who had to depend on buying logs 

 have had their profits curtailed also. 

 Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer 

 has been exceedingly prosperous. It has 

 been a hard season in which to make any 

 money. 



The squeezing process in the value of 

 stocks, begun last year, has lasted 

 throughout the most of this year. Steel 

 advanced from a low point and then went 

 down again. The people are paying for 

 their orgies. J. Pierpont Morgan and his 

 crew have been instrumental in slicing a 

 good many dollars from each lumberman's 

 profit. Don't forget this. 

 The redeeming feature of the situation 



has been that the farmers in almost all 

 sections have been blessed with an abun- 

 dant crop and prices have been high. In 

 the four or five years preceding 1893, the 

 farmers were reduced by 25-cent corn, 

 5% -cent cotton and 3-cent hogs to a very- 

 impoverished condition. Now, however, 

 they are prosperous, prices have been 

 nearly doubled, and no doubt in the com- 

 ing season will prove good customers. 



The fact that 1904 was presidential year 

 had its effect. There never was a presi- 

 dential year that it did not affect business. 

 And although the effect was very slight 

 in 1904, it was still felt. 



The election being happily over, and 

 the country saved once more, we will, we 

 believe, enter on a new era of prosperity. 

 One of the best lumber salesmen in Chi- 

 cago told us that this was the first De- 

 cember in his remembrance that prices 

 had not softened. In fact, they have ad- 

 vanced almost the whole month. 



Yellow pine is very scarce — scarcer than 

 ever — but at this season of the year we 

 are reliably informed it is very strong in 

 price. 



White pine is scarce and high, and the 

 effect on the hardwood market will cer- 

 tainly be beneficial. 



In looking about over the territory, we 

 do not see what the trade is going to da 

 for plain-sawed oak. There is practically 

 none of it on the market and a good de-. 

 mand. This lumber has not advanced 

 more than a few dollars a thousand as yet, 

 but it certainly will. 



In quarter-sawed oak the supply is fairly 

 abundant, but the demand is good and the 

 difference between the price of quarter- 

 sawed oak and plain-sawed oak has been 

 so great that quarter-sawed must come 

 down or plain go up. Under the circum- 

 stances we believe plain-sawed oak is go- 

 ing up. 



Poplar has been the greatest enigma of 

 anything on the market. It declined 

 steadily in value for the first few months 

 of the year until it reached a very low 

 price. A halt has been called, however, 

 and we believe the low-water mark has 

 been reached. The river mills have not 

 had an abundant supply of logs at any 

 time during the year. There is, however, 

 an abundant supplj- scattered throughout 

 the South, which is available to railroads 

 only, and this stock has been abundant to 

 supply the demand. Still, poplar is a good 

 wood, and we expect it to come up again. 

 Gum has found a ready market. Prices 



