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HARDWOOD RECORD 



the most cfonoinical and safest tvpe cf passeuger car. it may he 

 observed that the jjlaee where streii},'th and stability in construc- 

 tion is required is in the idatform. It is presupposed that the 

 trucks of the car shall be of the highest and best character. It is 

 the platform of the car that endures the impact and stress of the 

 movement of trains, as well as the feature that must provide for 

 the safety of passengers in the e^^nt of collision or derailment. 



Massixe. top-heavy upper works on a ear are demoustratably 

 unsafe, expensive and extravagant from all points of view. From 

 the point of safety alone it is believable that housing passengers' 

 in canvas tents on the top of a well constructed car platform wouM 

 offer very superior advantages to any type of steel upper-work ear 

 that has ever been produced. 



Spruce Reproduction 



There is no one perhaps whose practiial knowledge of the spruci' 

 tree surpasses that of S. E. Slaymaker, at the head of the big 

 West A'irgiuia Spruce Lumber Company, whose operatious are sil 

 Cass, W. Va., but whose office is in the Fifth Avenue building, 

 Now York City. 



One of Mr. Slaymaker 's p>?t studies has been the reproduction 

 and maintenance of spruce forest growth, which prevails exclu- 

 sively in the higher altitudes of the "West Virginia country in 

 which he operates. Mr. Slaymaker has experimented with Ihh 

 end in view for tfle last ten or twelve years, and as a result of his 

 experience he alleges that the reproduction of a spruce forest 

 does not consist so much in the actual planting of young trees 

 as it does in affording protection to the new growth, with which 

 nature is trying to replace the timber cut down and removed from 

 the land. He avers that forest reproduction is a natural thing. 

 and that nature will accomplish this result if given half a chance. 



Strictly speaking, he says there is no such thing as a "virgin 

 forest," for it makes no difference how old the tree may be it 

 stands in place of another long since fallen. Even in areas far 

 removed from fire hazard, trees that have escaped destruction 

 eventually die because they cannot live longer. Nature has wisely 

 provided for a new growth which will take the place of that which 

 departs; otherwise there would be no trees anywhere. The diffi- 

 culty of a forest regenerating itself, according to Mr. Slaymaker 

 and other competent authorities, lies in the fact that when laud 

 has been cut over usually it is abandoned to the mercy of flames. 

 and the seedling gi-owth is destroyed. Mr. Slaymaker 's method is 

 to keep fires out of his slashings and to give the young trees a 

 chance. 



Mr. Slaymaker 's methods of lumbering consist in cutting all 

 trees measuring more than eight to ten inches at the stump, and 

 on this basis his boundary has yielded an average of 18,000 feet 

 to the acre. He has been careful to leave his young growth as 

 free from injury as possible, and now finds that on portions 

 of his lands operated ten or eleven years ago there can be taken 

 from ten to fifteen cords of pulpwood per acre, cutting down to 

 five or six inches in diameter. He does not make as close cutting 

 as this, but the figures indicate what the process of reproduction 

 \inder proper care can accomplish. 



Within the last four or five years Mr. Slaymaker has been 

 planting from 150,000 to 200,000 young trees annually. This he 

 does by pulling them up where the growth is too dense, and 

 planting them in open spots. The work of transplanting is done 

 in the early spring, just after the frost goes out of the ground 

 and before the sap rises; using trees ranging from six inches to 

 two feet in height. He finds that about seventy-five per cent of 

 the trees transplanted live. 



In Mr. Slaymaker 's operations fire danger from locomotive 

 sparks is avoided by clearing on both sides of the railroad tracks 

 for a distance of one hundred feet. Weeds and grass in this strip 

 are regularly mown, so there can be no accumulation of dry 

 vegetation where fire could start. In addition, each locomotive is 

 equipped with a firehose and the train crew provided with buckets. 

 Furthermore, the boundary is patrolled in dry seasons to prevent 

 trespassing, which is often responsible for fires. Even woods crews 



are required to keep buckets within easy reach where there is 

 danger of fire. 



Fire protection ou the 80,000 acres owned by the West A'irginia 

 Spruce Lumber Company costs from $2,000 to .$2.5,000 annually, 

 but it is considered money well expended. By this system of 

 woods work Mr. Slaymaker alleges that he can see no reason why 

 his present yield of pulpwood, which is 220 cords daih', may not be 

 made to continue indefinitely. 



Stovepipe Automobile Bodies 



In this issue of Hakdwood Kecurd begins a series of articles 

 showing up the tricks of the automobile trade in foisting upon the 

 public metal bodies in lieu of the substantial, durable and thor- 

 oughly tried-out wooden bodies, that have been the accepted basis 

 of high-class vehicle body construction during all history, and 

 which originally were employed on all automobiles. That auto- 

 mobile manufacturers are not at all proud of their attempts iu 

 metal-body construction is very manifest, from the fact that in 

 all the thousands of pages of automobile advertising it is a very 

 rare instance to find any reference made by the manufacturer to 

 the bodies of his vehicles — the very feature that demands dura- 

 bility and comfort to the occupant. 



Automobile makers will tell you all about their engine, wheel 

 base, steering gear, improved transmission, speed, "classy lines," 

 and all this sort of thing, but they keep mighty still about the 

 kind of bodies they are putting'on their automobiles. 



This is a ' time for automobile manufacturers who have had 

 sense enough to stick to the standard and approved type of wooden 

 bodies to exploit this feature in their advertising campaigns. 



Lumber Exports for September 



Advance sheets from the mouthly summary of commerce and 

 finance of the Department of Commerce and Labor show a diminu- 

 tion of log exports for September, 1911, as compared with Septem- 

 ber, 1910, to a value of $195,971 from $221,669. However, the 

 values for the first nine months of the year are more than a 

 million dollars in excess of those of 1910, and aggregate $.3,649,496. 



Lumber exports for September, 1911, amounted to 170,492,000 

 feet, with a value of $3,581,498, which is a little in excess of the 

 month's shipments a year ago. The first nine months' value for 

 1911 aggregates $.34,999,031, as compared with $31,039,341 in 1910. 



The United Kingdom still remains the largest market this coun- 

 try has for round and hewn timbers, and while it is the largest 

 buyer of liuubcr, the aggregate of other European countries has 

 become nearly twice as great as that of Great Britain. While fir. 

 yellow pine and spruce constitute the largest quantity of lumber 

 going into export, gum, oak and poplar occupy no inconsiderable 

 place in the totals. 



True Sportsmanship 



For several years Collier's Weekly has carried on a campaign 

 against food adulteration which has resulted in notable assistance 

 to the government in stamping out the evil, as well as informing the 

 public of the dangers surrounding the use of adulterated foods of 

 many varieties. 



AValt Mason, in a recent number of this publication, succinctly 

 analyzes the character of food adulterators in a versified editorial, 

 entitled "True Sportsmanship," which is quoted herewith: 



There's a certain sort of class in any oarnest-soulod assnsshi wlin per 

 I'ornis Ills IlltU- niiircicrs wltli a liluilp'on or a gun, for he loads llie slierllT 

 ilanccs. and lie's always liiklng cliam-cs. and pxpccls to pay the liddlcr 

 when lio's liad Ills share el' fun. Wlii'ii. eseerlod by the slicrllT. he pre- 

 paii's to he a si'iaph. staiiillnK Ih'inly on the gallows, as directed by tbe 

 eourt. we respect hlni -not defeiidlni; all the crimes that wniUKht his 

 endlni; — for. In spile of all his foibles, he remained a di-ad gnino sport. 



Hut the yellow sport who fractures pure food laws, and innnufnctures 

 poisoned victuals for the people — who admires that sort of graft? .last 

 to (111 his stock of purses he sends IckIous out In hearses to the siid and 

 silent bone yard, whcrc> they're tagged and epitaphed. Oh. be dopes thi' 

 meat wi' swallow, and lie dopes the pies that follow, and he dopes the 

 milk for babies, dopes the broth the (.•afl'ers sip. dupes the ciiraniels anil 

 inullows — and alas there Is no gallows for this yellow brand of slayer, 

 who's HO shy of Hpcrtsmnnshlp. 



