2S 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



National Wholesalers' Association. 



There was a meeting of the Executive Com- 

 mittee of the National Wholesale Lumber Deal- 

 ers' Association held in New York on Thursday. 

 April 6, at which there were present Lewis Dill, 

 president ; J. M. Hastings, first vice president ; 

 C. H. Prescott, Jr., second vice president ; C. H, 

 Bond and George F. Craig. 



Many important matters were considered. The 

 reports indicated a healthy growth in the general 

 work of the association. A number of new ap- 

 plications tor membership were received. 



President Dill has announced his various com- 

 mittees for the ensuing year, and has exercised 

 rare judgment in the selection of the best men 

 in the organization to carry out the work that 

 will be entrusted to them. 



The Executive Committee is named in the first 

 paragraph of this article. P. E. Parker, Sagi- 

 naw, Mich., is made chairman of the Board of 

 Managers of the Bureau of Information ; W. G. 

 Frost, New York City, of the Arbitration Com- 

 mittee ; R. W. Higbie, New York City, of the 

 LegislatLin Committee ; F. R. Babcock, Pittsburg, 

 of the Railroad and Transportation Committee ; 

 G. M. Stevens. Jr., New York City, of the Fire 

 Insurance Committee : Horton Corwin, Jr., Eden- 

 ton, N. C. of the Marine Insurance Committee : 



E. M. Wiley. New York City, of the Audit and 

 Finance Committee : F. S. Morse, Springfield, 

 Mass., of the Trade Relations Committee ; George 



F. Craig, Philadelphia, of the Forestry Com- 

 mittee ; W. W. Knight, Indianapolis, of the Terms 

 of Sale Committee, and M. S. Tremaine, Buffalo, 

 of the Special Membership Committee. R. C. 

 Lippincott, Philadelphia, chairman : George P. 

 Sawyer, Buffalo, and Lewis Dill, Baltimore, con- 

 stitute members of the Advisory Board of the 



American Forestry Association. These gentlemen 

 were selected by the American Forest Congress 

 at its Washington meeting on Jan. 2-5, 1905. 



One of the most Important committees ap- 

 pointed is the Hardwood Inspection Committee, 

 which consists of the following : 



M. M. Wall, Buffalo Hardwood Lumber Com- 

 pany, Buffalo, N. Y'.. chairman. 



W. L. Sykes, Emporium Lumber Company, 

 Keating Summit, Pa. 



J. V. Stimson, Huntingburg, Ind. 



J. L. Alcock, Baltimore, Md. 



N. H. Walcott, Gage Lumber Company. Provi- 

 dence, R. I. 



M. B. Farrin, M. B. Farrin Lumber Company. 

 Cincinnati, O. 



W. E. Litchfield, W. E. Litchfield & Brother. 

 Boston, Mass. 



This is the strongest committee on hardwood 

 inspection that the National Wholesale Lumber 

 Dealers' Association has ever had, and it goes 

 without saying that it will accomplish much 

 in its recommendations to the National Whole- 

 sale Lumber Dealers' Association toward the 

 unification of hardwood inspection methods. 

 Every man on the committee has a reputation 

 for sterling integrity, bi*oadmindedness and a 

 thorough knowledge of hardwood lumber affairs. 

 Inasmuch as the National Wholesale Lumber 

 Dealers' Association in Its organization of its 

 Board of Trustees, which contains fifteen mem- 

 bers out of twenty-one who are either exclusively 

 hardwood men or largely interested in hardwood 

 affairs, it would seem that the association ought 

 to take a very prominent part in straightening 

 out the irregtilarities and inconsistencies of hard- 

 wood manufacturing, dealing, selling and inspec- 

 tion during the next year. 



Hardwood Flooring. 



Hardwood flooring of a high-class type has 

 only been produced in commercial quantities 

 within the last ten or twelve years. Before 

 that time small amounts of oak and black 

 walnut were made into fairly acceptable floor- 

 ing by very slow and laborious processes, and 

 then after the flooring was laid, as much more 

 work was expended in smoothing it up prop- 

 erly, so that anything like a good and even 

 surface could be made. 



It has cost vast sums of money and the 

 expenditure of a great deal of thought and 

 ability to make hardwood flooring. It is rare 

 indeed that the layman, lumber dealer, con- 

 tractor, carpenter or user appeciated the in- 

 finite pains that is taken in the making of 

 modern hardwood flooring. The result of 

 years of experience has shown how the lum- 

 ber can be dried to a nicety ; years of patient 

 endeavor and experiment have shown the 

 woodworking machinery men how to construct 

 machines of sufficient weight, nicety of ad- 

 justment and length and strength of bearing 

 that would produce accurately the proper sur- 

 facing, tonguing and grooving. Other ex- 

 pert machinery men have evolved scraping 

 machines that have removed from the surface 

 of the flooring the tool marks left by the 

 revolving bits of the four side machines. Still 

 other machinery makers have built accurately 

 adjusted tools for end matching and for bor- 

 ing the flooring for blind nailing. 



These tools hstv*. all been evolved within 



the last twelve years, and to their Just han- 

 dling and improvement from time to time no 

 little credit is due to the flooring maker him- 

 self. He has recognized the weak points of 

 the old toolF, and has interested machinery 

 makers into a gradual strengthening of parts, 

 adding weight where weight was needed, 

 lengthening bearings, increasing the width of 

 pulleys, and providing every means whereby 

 flooring could be accurately produced from 

 very hard and refractory lumber. 



These results have all been accomplished, 

 and today hardwoods of the most notoriously 

 bad milling qualities are being converted into 

 kiln dried, accurately matched, polished, end 

 matched bored flooring, that Vfill lay upon an 

 evenly matched sub-floor or accurately lined- 

 up joists with an accuracy that renders but 

 very little finishing process necessary. A 

 properly laid modern floor of white oak, red 

 oak, maple, birch or beech is now laid with 

 accuracy and finished with beauty that ap- 

 proximates the sheen of a piece of mahogany 

 furniture or of a rosewood piano. Users are 

 gradually being taught how to keep floors 

 properly finished, so that they will remain an 

 article of beauty within the house for an al- 

 most endless period of time. 



At this time the principal product of the 

 hardwood flooring factories is made from 

 hard maple, and the principal seats of these 

 operations are within the states of Michigan 

 and Wisconsin and in Chicago and Buffalo. 



The best quality of maple floor produced is^ 

 that manufactured from Michigan maple lum- 

 ber, whose physical characteristics are the 

 best for flooring purposes. For resisting 

 wear this material is unequaled. 



Oak flooring made from both white and red 

 oak and from both plain and quarter-sawed 

 stock is next in volume of production, and 

 even of a higher type for fancy and high- 

 class purposes. The centers of production of 

 oak flooring are at Nashville, Tenn. ; Sardis, 

 Miss.; Cincinnati, O. ; Chicago, 111., and De- 

 troit, Mich. 



Considerable quantities of birch and beech 

 flooring of a very acceptable quality are 

 made within the state of Michigan, and the 

 South is also producing considerable beech 

 flooring. 



The average flooring maker has grown to be 

 very proud of his product, and thus one wUl 

 note branded on various makes the trade- 

 mark of the manufacturer. One concern at 

 Cadillac, Mich., brands its floor "Electric"; 

 a house at Hermansville brands its flooring 

 "IXL"; concerns at Saginaw brand theirs 

 "Wolverine" and " Saginaw " ; a big Nash- 

 ville house stamps its flooring ' ' Acorn ' ' 

 brand; a Milwaukee concern's output is 

 known as "Perfection," whUe other facto- 

 ries have various brands, all well known in 

 both the home and foreign markets. 



This trade-marking a man 's goods is a 

 good idea. A maker's trade-mark stands for 

 quality. A product of any kind that has 

 become well known and that has gained rec- 

 ognition because of its merit is frequently 

 imitated and offered to the trade as ' ' just as 

 good " as a superior article. A trade-mark 

 is an assurance that the quality aud grade of 

 the goods are backed by the maker's reputa- 

 tion and, ordinarily, they stand head and 

 shoulders above the other class that bears 

 no identification mark of its origin. Buyers 

 of flooring throughout all the country have 

 learned to appreciate trade-marked flooring, 

 and now orders most frequently are placed 

 with the indorsement that flooring of a cer- 

 tain make is wanted — a flooring with which 

 the buyers have become familiar through the 

 trade-mark. 



The large and small plants now producing 

 hardwood flooring throughout tlie United 

 States probably make in the aggregate fully 

 500,000,000 feet annually. The making of 

 hardwood flooring in miscellaneous lengths, 

 both long and short, has rendered economical 

 practices in lumber manufacture very preva- 

 lent. It is no longer the custom to have hard- 

 wood flooring made in straight twelve, four- 

 teen and sixteen-feet lengths, but it goes to 

 the buyer bundled in varying lengths, from' 

 two to sixteen feet, . but no two pieces 

 may be of exact length. The contents in feet 

 of the bundle are marked upon it rather than 

 the contents on each piece; and as every piece 

 of flooring is end-niatched, it works into a 

 floor with very littlo waste, and affords just 

 as strong, durable and perfect a floor as 

 though it were actually manufactured en- 

 tirely out of long length and clear lumber. 



