14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



tales of the olden times, when fields were 

 enclosed with walnut rails, and of log heaps 

 built of the finest kind of white oak logs, 

 all burned or ro'tted. And these old tales 

 have some foundation in fact. The logs 

 were actually burned, and we used to cuss 

 because they were so solid it took so long 

 to burn them. Now, the sawmill man has 

 to fight with the veneer man over every 

 log he gets. It 's too bad! 



The Indiana hardwood lumbermen have 

 to move, and there is scarcely any place for 

 them to go. Most of the good timber is al- 

 ready taken in the south. Of course, a man 

 may still get a few thousand acres, enough 

 lor ten or twelve years' run— and then 

 what ? 



The finish of the h.-ivdwood lumber busi- 

 ness in Indiana is not difacult to discern. 

 A dozen more years will wind it up. You 

 want to get ready — for the jumping off 

 place. You want to bejrin to reform so that 

 you will not be arrested when you go into 

 some other business. If we are going to 

 get together, we must attend to it before 

 long, or it won't he worth while attending 

 to it at all. I don't know that it is any- 

 how. We started in to fight it out on these 

 lines, and we had as well finish it as we be- 

 gan it. ' There is but little use trying to 

 establish rules and regulations to govern 

 a business so nearly done. Let us join m 

 a merry scramble for what is left. 



Cn.\RLEs D. Strode. 



in many things and in none greater than 

 in the handling of lumber. A glance at 

 the map will show an intelligent man the 

 reason for this. The location of the city 



St. Louis as a Lumber Mar%et. 



It is undoubtedly primarily due to its 

 location that St. Louis can lay the credit 

 for its importance in the various fields of 

 enterprise, but in no Une of business has 

 this item of location worked a greater in- 

 fluence than in lumber. Back in the old 

 days prior to 1870 the lumber consumed in 

 the lower Mississippi valley, and it might 

 also be claimed in the lower Ohio val- 

 ley, was brought from the forests of 

 Wisconsin and Minnesota to St. Louis 

 which, because of its central situation 

 with reference to navigable rivers, was 

 the natural point ■ of distribution for 

 all products destined for consumption in 

 the middle southern country. In those days 

 millions of feet were annually floated down 

 the river and there were also two large 

 sawmills located at St. Louis which drew 

 their log supply from the upper rivers. In 

 those days, also, white pine was the wood 

 almost exclusively used for all purposes and 



used northern woods have turned to the 

 southern woods and St. Louis, because of 

 its location, is again the natural gateway 



GEORGE E. HIBBABD, 

 Steele & Hibbard. 



such a thing as utilizing the southern for- 

 ests was unthought of except by those who 

 were considered dreamers. Since then 

 there has been a metamorphosis and many 

 sections of the country which formerly 



W. A. BONSACK, 



President Bonsack Lumber Co. 



through which these southern woods are dis- 

 tributed. During the reign of the northern 

 lumber products St. Louis was regarded as 

 one of the important markets, but now 

 that the southern woods are all-important, 

 there is no lumber market that can claim 

 to be a greater market so far as the south- 

 ern lumber products are concerned. 



With reference to hardwoods in particular 

 it can truthfully be claimed by Memphis 

 and perhaps by some other cities that 

 these markets excel St. Louis in that they 

 are greater producing markets, but in the 

 volume of business handled, whether pass- 

 ing through St. Louis or controlled by St. 

 Louis dealers in the way of direct shipments 

 from points of production to points of con- 

 sumption, St. Louis is not inclined to take 



a, back seat. 



To return to the effect upon the growth 

 of St. Louis of its location, credit must 

 be given the Mississippi river. It has long 

 been evident that St. Louis would be great 



gives access to 18,000 miles of navigable 

 water-way, a net-work of streams draining 

 the Mississippi valley, the richest and most 

 fertile- in the world. For all the products 

 of this valley which go abroad, New Orleans 

 is the southern extremity and the natural 

 distributing point. For all which is sold 

 at homo (by far the greater portion) St. 

 Louis is the logical center. 



In the gradual change from the 

 old method of transporting lumber by 

 water to the more modern method of 

 rail transportation, the river has been 

 of inestimable advantage to St. Louis 

 in that it was always a menace to the rail- 

 roads and caused them to hold their freight 

 rates within reasonable bounds. While the 

 river is no longer of importance to the lum- 

 ber interests of St. Louis, the receipts from 

 this source having dwindled to less than 

 25,000,000 feet annually, it still exerts its 

 influence upon the railroads and insures for 

 all time competitive rates from southern 

 points of supply which cannot be raised 

 above a certain limit. Another influence 

 (if the river has been the centering of many 

 trunk line railroads at St. Louis, it being 

 important in the old days for railroads to 

 bring various commodities to St. Louis for 

 distribution by water and to gather up the 

 other commodities which had been brought 

 to St. Louis by water. This centralization 

 of railroads has given the city direct con- 

 nection with the whole country and has 

 made it a logical center for rail transporta- 

 tion as it was in the old days of the river 

 transportation. 



It is probable that the hardwood business 

 of St. Louis cannot be dated back further 

 than thirty years ago. At that time some 

 of those lumbermen who were primarily 

 engaged in the handling of white pine be- 

 gan to take on side lines of walnut and 



