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Published In the Interest of Hardwood Lumber, American Hardwood Forests, Wood Veneer Industry, Hardwood Flooring, 

 Hardwood Interior Finish. Wood Chemicals, Saw Mill and Woodworking Machinery. 



Vol. XIX. 



CHICAGO, APRIL 10. 1905. 



No. 12. 



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Published on the 10th and 25lh of each month 



By The HARDWOOD COMPAINV 



HENBY H. GIBSON President 



FRANE W. TUTTLE Sec-Treas. 



OFFICES: 

 Sixth Floor EUsworth BIdg., 365 Dearborn St., Chicago, III., U.S.A. 



Telephones: Harrison 4960. Automatic 5659. 



TERMS OF ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: 



In the United States, Canada, Pbillppine Islands and Mexico $2.00 



In all other countries in universal postal union 3.O0 



Subscriptions are payable in advance, and in defaultof written orders to the 

 contrary are continued at our option. 



Entered at Chicago Postoffice as Second Clase Matter. 



AdTertising copy must be received five days in advance 

 of publication date. Advertising rates on application. 



General Market Conditions. 



The demand for liardwoods tlirouyh the mauiifacturing and 

 yarding centers has materially improved during the past fort- 

 niglit. Orders have actually begun to materialize, as the answers 

 to inquiries, still more frequent than earlier in the season, are 

 bringing many orders. Hardwood salesmen are also beginning to 

 earn their salt. Orders are generally still coming in for quick 

 shipment, although quite a number of contracts have recently been 

 placed runuing through the season, notably for wagon and agri- 

 cultural machinery stock. 



Buyers who have recently canvassed the large producing hard- 

 wood sections of Michigan iind that the big operators are pretty 

 well sold out for the season. This is especially true of maple. 

 Basswood, which has been ranging very low in price, has recovered 

 materially and has been fairly well picked up. There is some 

 little birch unsold in the North, but no great quantity. Eock elm 

 and black ash are remarkably short. There is some gray elm 

 unsold, but no excess quantity. There is quite a stock of end- 

 piled-under-shed white maple remaining in first hands in Michigan, 

 but not so much that it will not be entirely taken care of by the 

 furniture trade, owing to the renaissance in the taste for fancy 

 maple furniture. 



In the middle West and i?outh the paucity of plain sawed oak, 

 both white and red, is still a notable feature of the market situa- 

 tion. Buyers from the North and East have returned from the oak 

 producing sections during the last fortnight with the story that 

 while they went forth to buy fifty or more cars of plain oak, they 

 came back with from one to a half dozen, and had to beg for those. 



Poplar still continues to improve; especially is the demand for 

 firsts and seconds strong, at improving values. It has but just 

 been discovered that a large portion of the poplar logs that came 

 out on the recent Kentucky and Tennessee tides were timber that 

 had been held over one to three years in the upper streams, with 



the result that the proportion of good end poplar will be mate- 

 rially reduced from this season's cut. There will be plenty of No. 

 2 and No. 3 common, but less than half of the usual proportion of 

 firsts and seconds. This fact is having a stimulating effect on 

 the good end of both basswood and cottonwood. 



White ash and hickory still remain scarce and high. The trade 

 in red gum is broadening in every direction. At the ojiening of the 

 season there was a good deal of this stock in shipping shape, and 

 it is about the only hardwood of the low priced variety that it has 

 been possible to obtain in large blocks. Consumers are getting 

 acquainted witli gum and the more they use if the better they 

 seem to like it. 



The high price which is commanded by walnut and cherry is 

 tending to put considerable of both these woods in evidence, but 

 not in sufficient quantity to bear the market in the slightest. 



In New York and the East generally the hardwood business is 

 showing signs of improvement. However, poplar is not doing as 

 well in the East as it is in the middle West, as the substitution 

 which has been taking place there for the last two years almost 

 seems to be of a permanent character, its place having been taken 

 by chestnut, basswood and cypress. The East has not taken kindly 

 to red gum, and the consumers who experimented with it as a 

 substitute for poplar are now utilizing other woods. 



Quartered oak is far from active in New York, whereas plain 

 oak is practically out of the market. Ash enjoys its usual good 

 steady demand, and the limited call for cherry and walnut seems 

 to be not quite up to the supply. 



The hardwood flooring situation is somewhat peculiar. In the 

 middle West and West maple flooring is selling strictly at the 

 list, while in the Atlantic coast cities it is being offered from 

 some source at quite a little less than list price, and some stock 

 is actually coining forward at cut prices. Oak flooring, on the 

 contrary, is firm, at good prices, and it is thought that this material 

 will shortly advance considerable in price, iii sympatliy with the 

 current value of oak. 



On the whole the hardwood situation throughout the country 

 looks well, and there is nothing in the commercial horizon that 

 should make any manufacturer, jobber or consumer otherwise than 

 optimistic on the outlook for the coming season. Undeniably the 

 year will show a call for nearly every item of hardwoods fully 

 equal if not in excess of the possible output. The demand cer- 

 tainly will continue good, and prices generally have a somewhat 

 higher range. 



An Analysis of Timber Values. 



It may be assumed as an indefensible proposition that the aggre- 

 gate of the money of the world, the commerce of the world and the 

 consuming demand of the world are on the two sides of the At- 

 lantic. In these respects the Pacific coast of the United States, 

 the coimtrics of the Orient and of the southern Pacific may be 

 said to be "coming" sections of the world. However, there is 

 no gainsaying the fact that for today, and for some generations 

 to come, the great consuming demand of the world, the demand 

 th.at arbitrates and fixes values, is on the two sides of the At- 

 lantic ocean. 



