24 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



During the last few years the Forest Service has attempted to 

 publish a list reflecting the values that have obtained on all 

 kinds of lumber in several trade sections for the three previous 

 months, i. e., to make a record of actual transactions. The service 

 has discovered that it is an almost impossible undertaking to 

 accomplish this result with accuracy, and hence more recent issues 

 of this quarterly list have shown but a bare skeleton of prices. 



For some time past a bureau, which has contributed to the 

 trade a really valuable general lumber tariff, has been engaged in 

 publishing what it calls a "Monthly Lumber Market Keport " 

 involving hardwoods, yellow pine and Xorth Carolina pine, which 

 it describes as "actual selling prices in the principal markets of 

 the country." 



For months past Hard\vood Eecord has been in receipt of a good 

 many complaints concerning the inaccuracy of the hardwood sec- 

 tion of these alleged market reports, and at the recent meeting of 

 the Lumber Sales Managers' Association this price list scheme 

 was very thoroughly dissected and analyzed, and the association 

 went on record as deprecating the publication, on the ground that 

 it was a distinct menace to the trade, owing to its inaccuracy and 

 misrepresentation of actual values that obtain in the wholesale 

 consuming trade of the country. By actual order books displayed, 

 discrepancies of from one to five dollars a thousand were shown. 



It is not the desire of this publication to say anything to 

 injure any legitimate effort being made to assist the lumber 

 industry in any particular, or the business of any reputable con- 

 cern, but it seems, from the evidence at hand, that the Lumber 

 Sales Managers' Association was entirely justified in deprecating 

 and withdrawing its support from this market report. If a publi- 

 cation of this sort were reasonably accurate, and its circulation 

 confined to manufacturers and jobbers, it very likely would be of 

 aaterial assistance in determining going lumber values, but 

 unfortunately the pamphlet goes into the hands of consumers, who 

 7ise the prices quoted (which, as before noted, are often very 

 •nuch below real market values), and employ them as a club to 

 hammer down prices. 



There are no mediums more competent to publish current mar- 

 kets than the lumber trade press, and if the lumbermen of the 

 country want a renaissance of lumber price lists published, they 

 can certainly secure them through these papers. However, beyond 

 question, the attitude of the lumber trade on this price list propo- 

 sition that has been urged by it for more than a dozen years, is 

 B just one, and misleading market reports should not be published. 



Trend of the Tie Business 



Through the development of wood treating processes has come 

 about an absolute revolution in the demand for ties, notably on 

 the railroads north of the Ohio river. During the last two 3'ears 

 these railroads have been buying millions of both cross ties and 

 switch tics, sawed from coarse and small northern timber, such 

 as beech, birch and maple, and are putting these ties through 

 wood preservative processes. Hence it is that there is a decadence 

 in the demand for railroad ties from oak and other standard woods 

 that have formerly monopolized the larger portion of this busi- 

 ness. Seven to ten years is the life of even the best quality of 

 white oak untreated ties. Experiments carried on during the last 

 quarter of a century indicate that even a beech tie properly creo-' 

 sotcd will last for fully twenty-five years, and can be purchased in 

 this treated form at about the same price as an untreated oak tie. 

 Haedwood Record has a copy of a letter from the purchasing 

 agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in which he says he 

 believes the substitution of treated woods has been responsible 

 for the decadence in the demand for white oak ties. He notes 

 that the situation is such at the present time that his company is 

 not in a position to go abroad for any part of its requirements. 



Trade in oak ties and coarse oak timber has made it possible 

 to utilize a great deal of this variety of wood at a very good 

 profit for many years. It now looks as though other methods of 

 utilizing coarser oak would have to be developed. Experiments arc 



still being continued by several railroads in the use of concrete 

 ties, or steel, concrete and wood combination ties. Thus far very 

 little satisfactory results have been obtained by these experiments, 

 but it is possible that eventually a combination tie with a wood 

 cushion under the rail, to provide for resiliency, may be worked 

 out. In any event there is a distinct evolution in the tie demand 

 which is making for fairly good financial results for low-grade 

 northern hardwoods, and is materially militating against the sale 

 of the heretofore standard oak ties on northern railroads. 



Chestnut Tree Blight 



For years the public has heard, usually indirectly, of the destruc- 

 tive workings of the chestnut tree blight, which originated in the 

 vicinity of New York City. Reports have usually dwelt upon 

 the ravages of the fungus among the shade trees in that section, 

 and until more or less recently, it was not realized that there was 

 any immediate possibility of the blight assuming such proportions 

 as to threaten the conunercial stand of chestnut timber, but that 

 condition is evident today. The disease has spread with such 

 rapidity that there is a grave danger of an astonishing loss in the 

 principal stands of chestnut. Primarily the danger seems to be 

 in Pennsylvania. 



With the realization that the disease had gained headway in 

 commercial timber, there has been agitation looking towards 

 cheeking its spread, and the crystallization of these efforts was 

 the calling of a conference by Governor Tener of Pennsj'lvania, 

 at Harrisburg on February 21, with a view to advancing ways and 

 means of preventing a further spread of the disease. 



Some startling figures were presented as to the possibilities of 

 destruction, Governor Tener himself being authority for the state- 

 ment that Pennsylvania and Virginia alone have chestnut timber 

 valued at eighty-five million dollars, all of which is threatened 

 with destruction by the blight. 



It is further estimated by S. B. Detwiler, chief executive of the 

 Pennsylvania Chestnut Blight Commission, that chestnut timber 

 to the value of ten million dollars has already been either entirely 

 killed or affected by the disease in Pennsylvania alone. These 

 statements make it apparent that the blight is far more worthy 

 of consideration from a commercial and economic point of view 

 than the average lumberman realizes, and that it is up to the 

 lumbermen in co-operation with state and Forest Service authori- 

 ties to help put into effect some means of checking its spread. So 

 far there has been no unanimity of opinion regarding the best 

 means of prevention of further infection, but it is generally agreed 

 that immediate action is necessary to prevent enormous loss. 



The Pennsylvania commission has been donated $270,000 by the 

 state for work in this direction, and it is hoped and expected 

 that the conference called by Governor Toner will result in similar 

 action by other states and by private timber holders claiming any 

 considerable amount of chestnut stumpage. 



Conditions in Wisconsin 



A report from the ollice of the Nortliorn Hemlock & Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association, covering the cut and shipment of 

 hemlock and hardwood of fifty-six members of the association 

 during .January, establishes the fact that in spite of prevailing 

 opinions to the contrary, the month of .Tanuary was very credit- 

 able. 



There were increased shipments in both hemlock and hardwood, 

 while reports show that hemlock bark is practically sold up, 

 though it can not be said that prices for bark were entirely in 

 accordance with the wishes of the members of the association. 



The report showed shipments of hemlock aggregating 22,234,000 

 feet, while the cut was but 17,147,000 feet. It is a notable fact 

 that the excess in shipments during .January, 1912, over January, 

 1911, approximated one million feet. The figures show that there 

 was a three per cent increase in hemlock shipments, and an in- 

 crease of eleven per cent in shipments of hardwoods. At the same 

 time the cut of hemlock increased thirty-five per cent iin.l nf hard- 

 woods decreased five per cent. 



