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The Low Grade Problem 



Editor's Note 



The following article on the subject of tlie low-grade lumber problem, and especially its relation to forest 

 conservation, is one of the most intelligent ami careful analvses that h;is ever been made on this important 

 subject. The article was wrilti-n b.v Bruce (liiell. sales manager of the ("ummer-Diggins Company. Cadillac, 

 Mich., and presented at the recent Chicago annual meeting of the National .-\ssociation of Box Manufacturers. 

 Mr. Odell is one of the foremost practical stuiients of hardwood lumber utilization and conservation in the 

 country, and his figures and deductions are accurate anu authoritative. The paper constitutes an important 

 contribution to the suljject. and should interest every lumber producer. The concrete facts pertaining to lumber 

 production and forest conservation tliat have been acquired atul so successfully employed by Mr. Odeli and his 

 confreres in Michigan are worthy of study and duplication in every hardwood producing state in the country. 



1 sliall confine my paper to low-grade liard- 

 wooil lumber from the viewpoint of the Mieli- 

 igan manufacturer, anil primarily as seen by 

 the members of the Michigan Hanlwood Manu 

 faeturers' Association, who represent, as va- 

 riously estimated, seventy-five to eiglity per 

 cent of the hardwood lumber production oi 

 Michigan. 



Our association has carefully prepared quar 

 terly reports, since July, 190(1, showing the 

 amount of hardwood lutnber of the various 

 size.-;, kinds and grades at the mill, or yard of 

 each manufacturer; the amount sold, and the 

 amount unsold, and in .laiuuiry of each year, 

 a report of the amount of hardwood lumber 

 produced by each member during the preceding 

 year, and the estimated cut for the following 

 year. This we have found absolutely reliable 

 information as to the available supply, and a 

 comparatively reliable inde.x to market condi- 

 tions. 



It is reliable for the reason that all of the 

 reports, except the estimated cut for the follow 

 ing year, are based, not on the impression of 

 any one manufacturer or dealer, nor on the 



Judgment of any set of manufacturers or dealers, but on the actual 

 inventory of each manufacturer. Our experience of the past six 

 years has proven that these reports are honestly and accurately made. 

 Tlw estimate of the cut for the succeeding year has also inoven very 

 accurate as, in the absence of some unusual \Hiforeseen conditions, 

 such as severe storms or disastroous fires, the estimated cost often 

 comes within one or two per cent of the actual cut. Our experience 

 has also demonstrated that, while our membership represents only 

 approximately seventy-five per cent of the hardwood lumber produced 

 in Michigan, conditions as shown by our reports, not only fairly 

 represent the proportionate cut of the entire state of .Michigan, but 

 that of practically the entire northern, hardwood district. 



I mention these facts for the reason that I may make sonn' 

 positive statements, and some of you being "from Missouri," 1 

 want -to show you at the beginning that the statements are backed 

 up by reliable informatioii. 



Assuming that the members of the Michigan Harilwood Manufac 

 turers' Association produce seventy-five per cent of ■ the cut of 

 hardwood lumber in Michigan, and the best information we can get 

 leads us to believe that this estimate is correct, Michigan has pro- 

 duced annually, during the past six years, approximately five hundred 

 and forty million feet of hardwood lumber, about one third of which 

 is No. 3 common or eull. To this add the No. 2 common and we 

 have approximately one-half of the entire cut or two hundred and 

 seventy million feet per year of what is ordinarily termed low-grade 

 hardwood lumber. 



The total annual production during the past six years has not 

 varied materially, and while there will be some decline in the annual 

 production, there will not be an alarming decrease in the amount of 

 low-grade hardwood lumber produced per year in Michigan during 

 the next five years. Many manufacturers in Michigan, some of Ihem 

 large producers, will finish their cut during the next one, two, or 

 five years, but there will be enough of them resume opera 

 tions in some other locality to keep the average yearly production 



iii:i.i.. i-.\iiii.T.Ac. \iiiii. 



reasonably close to that of the past five years. 

 After five years, however, you may expect a 

 very shtirp reduction in the annual produclion 

 of hardwood lumber in .Michigan, as within 

 five years more than twenty-five per cent of the 

 manufacturers will have finished their cut; eight 

 years will see forty per cent of them cut out, 

 .•ind ten years will leave less than fifty per cent 

 still in the business. After five years nearly 

 every manufacturer of hardwood lumber in 

 .Michigan that finishes his cut at his present 

 locality will be out of the business for good, 

 as 'he will be unable to secure a further supply 

 in that state. 



While, as previously stated, there will not be 

 :in alarming decrease in the total annual pro- 

 duction of hardwood lumber in Michigan dur- 

 ing till next five vehrs, there will be quite a. 

 reduction in the amount of low-grade lumber 

 available to the i)ox manufacturer, owing to 

 an element that has only recently entered the 

 northern hardwood district to such an extent 

 as lo seriously influence the sujiply of low- 

 grade hardwood lumber, I have reference to 

 Ihe demand for sawed railroad cross-ties made 

 from iKuMlicrii liai .h\ oods. We are reliably informed that one railroad 

 system took mil "1' .Midiiyau during the year I!)ll approximately 

 8(1(1,000 ties, ami that this one railroad system will require from 

 Michigan during 1912 about 1,.500,000 hardwood ties. This is only 

 one of many railroads that will consume low-grade hardwood lumber 

 in the form of ties at a rapidly increasing rate. 



The tie business put a very ]ierceptible mark on the production of 

 low-grade lumber as lundier, in Michigan during the year 1911, as is 

 shown by our statistics regarding No. 3 common. I quote as follows 

 from our secretary's annual report in .lanuary of this year: 



"Total amount of No, 3 common hardwood lumber at the mills or 

 in the yards of members of our association on Jan, 1 of the years 

 named were, 1910, seventy-four million; 1911, seventy-two million; 

 1912, forty-four nnllion," 



The fad that the eight liundrcd thousand ties takcu out of 

 Michigan by one railroad system during 1911 is the equivalent of 

 twenty fi\c million feet of lumber, and that our members hail on 

 .1.111. 1. I'.M'J. twenty-eight million feet less of No. 3 conunon hard- 

 wood lunibci- than they had Jan. 1, 1911, is quite significant — a 

 significance that S|ie!ls higher prices for low-grade northern liardwood 

 lumber during lin2 at least, and probably for all time in the future 

 than iirevailed during 1909, 1910 and 1911, 



Kxtensive tests and experiments covering a period of forty years 

 ha\e fully demonstrated that maple, beech and birch ties, properly 

 treated by many of the numerous processes to preserve them against 

 decay, will last longer and give more satisfactory scrviio than the 

 untreated ties from any of the other woods used for that purpose 

 heretofore. As the expense of freighting oak ami nuiny of the othei 

 southern woods, heretofore used almost exclusively for ties, to the 

 northern railroads will nearly equal the cost of treating northern 

 hardwood ties prodiwed right on their lines, the northern railroads 

 will look more and more to the northern liardwood district for their 

 supply of cross-ties. 



So much for the prob.able supply of low grade northern lianlwiMM; 



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