HARDWOOD RECORD 



35 



fun ill his coiiiiiositioii ami >(i wlioii ho was appoiiiti'il a police eoiii- 

 missioner oJ: the city they proceeded to do a little jesting along 

 with the tokens they gave him in appreciation of the responsible 

 position he had taken. After loading his desk with flowers, the 

 lumbermen voted him an official policeman's club and turned out 

 one of walnut about the size of a baseball bat, which could also 

 be made to remind everybody of the times he used to strike out at 

 the annual game. 



Not satisfied with that, they decorated the club with a green 

 ribbon, as a hint of his ancestrj'. At last accounts his fellow 

 commissioner was stumping him to go up Main street some after- 

 noon, carrying the club and see what would come of it. 



In spite of all these little pleasantries, it is expected that "Jim" 

 will turn out to be a good deal of a stone-Wall in the city police 

 department, of which there is always much need in a city the size 

 of Buffalo. 



EASY TO SEE WHY HE HAS COIN 



Pennsylvania papers are poking fun at T. D. Collins of that 



state, who is credited with somehow maiia^ging to roll np a little 

 matter of $7,000,000 during his sojourn of eighty-one years in this 

 vale of tears. 



He lives in the little hamlet of Nebraska, Forest county, though 

 the big woods that used to be a leading attraction there are going 

 fast. He took a trip to Warren one day lately and as he was of 

 course much of a lion in those parts in spite of himself, he was 

 naturally pursued by reporters. 



In an interview that he did not manage to escape, he confided 

 with one of the i^encil shovers far enough to say that he usually 

 had to buy a dinner whenever he came to towai, but he could hardly 

 afford to pay fifty cents for a meal! 



SIGNS OF SPRING 



A Chicago lumberman while ou a visit to New Orleans a few days 

 ago was asked if there were any signs of spring in Chicago. 



"Signs of spring! " he replied, "sure there are; the posters are up 

 for Ringling Brothers' circus, and Bowling Arthur Johnson threatens 

 to have a hair cut.' ' 



' 'P^BS:>iMyJM'K?t^^ ?OroiUiiVM^aVUL!it^)MV'>iH ' '.'*l'lVi'^i^ 





Dimension Stock 





Editor's Note. 



Hardwood Recoi!D is indclitod to George E. Breece of the West Virginia Timber Company. Charleston, W. Va., 

 tor the subjoined interesting and instructive suggestions, supplementing Van B. Perrine's recent paper on the 

 subject of "The rrotitable I'roduction o£ Dimension Stock." This publication has urged lor years, that logically 

 and under even reasonably efficient manufacturing and sales methods, there is a handsome revenue to be derived 

 by lumbm' manufacturers from the production of dimension stock, and that its production and distribution would 

 solve not only many important hardwood grading problems, but to a large extent would eliminate the bugbear of 

 losses on low-grade" production. This communication, In connection with Mr. Perrine's paper, certainly should 

 have a concrete and specific value to hardwood lumber manufacturers. 



Referring to an article in H.\rdwood Eecobd 

 of February 25 by Van B, Perrine of Fort 

 Wayne, Ind., on the manufacture of dimension 

 stock and the cost of same. I have been a 

 strong advocate of dimension stock for many 

 years, having been a large producer in this line 

 in hardwoods. Mr. Perrine 's article gives some 

 interesting information, but I will have to take 

 issue with him on one thing. Most millmen have 

 been cutting their timber close in tlie woods, 

 making a large amount of low-grade lumber, 

 and for the past three years have been having 

 an overproduction of low-grade stock. If the 

 sawmill man would watch his production, and 

 take on dimension orders to take care of his 

 low-grade lumber, figuring it ou the basis of 

 the market price, adding the cost of manufac- 

 ture in place of putting it ou the market as 

 low grade, I believe he would be better off. 

 For example. No. 2 common oak — we will say 

 oak, as a large proportion of dimension stock 

 is made from this wood — has to cut fifty per 

 cent clear, while in cutting any ordinary dimen- 

 sion stock you can work out about seventy per 

 cent. No. 3 common oak has to work twenty- 

 five per cent clear, and you can work it into ordinary dimension stock, 

 sueli as chair stock, table tops, barrel shucks and other classes of 

 dimension, and cut out fifty-five per cent. 



The average freight rate ou lumber as a whole, taken from lumber 

 centers, is about fifteen cents. Mr. Perrine fails to tell you the 

 freight saving you will make by working lumber into dimension 

 stock, in place of shipping it as low-grade lumber. In fact, at all 

 my plants in West Virginia I can take No. 3 common oak, maple, 

 beech, chestnut or any kind of hardwood, and work it into dimension 

 stock, and the saving in freight will pay for the cost of manufacture. 

 That is, you ship fifty-five per cent No. 3 common, throw away forty- 

 five per cent, or let the forty-five per cent go into fuel, if you have a 

 market for fuel ; whereby if you ship this lumber to market on an 

 average of fifteen cents per hundred, you would have to pay on the 



GEO. E. CREECE. Cll AiCLL.-STON, W. VA, 



basis of full value of No. 3 common; or in 

 other words, it costs just as much to ship a 

 No. 3 common grade, as it does to ship firsts 

 and seconds. The thing for the sawmill man 

 to do is to cut out his waste, raise his grade 

 and have no low-grade lumber to sell. If he 

 will do this as much as possible, it will have 

 a tendency to raise the price of lumber and do 

 away with the surplus of low-grade stock. 



There is very little money in cutting 1x1 

 inch or 2x2 inch squares, and I would advise 

 every sawmill man to steer clear of such or- 

 ders as this. If they do cut dimension they 

 should turn their stock into other than small 

 squares. Too many sawmill men undertake 

 to put all their waste into squares, and there 

 is always a surplus on the market, and some 

 one is ready to sell at any kind of a price. If 

 sawmill men would put in the proper kind of 

 machinery, and remanufaeture their slabs and 

 edgings, based on such orders as logically will 

 take care of the output from slabs and edgings, 

 it would bring them much higher prices than 

 the squares. In fact, I do not manufacture 

 any squares to speak of, but put all waste 

 into jiggered stock or flat dimensions. 



I am writing this letter because I am afraid many sawmill men 

 making dimension will get a wrong impression of the business. I 

 know Mr. Perrine personally, and know he has made a success in the 

 business, and I agree with him that most people making dimension 

 stock sell it too cheap. 



I know of a concern in New York, that was formerly a large whole- 

 sale lumber house, which went into the dimension business and gave 

 its entire attention to it. This house bought in most cases only one 

 or two cars of the same manufacturer, and kept getting into new ter- 

 ritory, and in this manner made a prosperous business for itself, but 

 not for the producers, as it was instrumental in cutting and main- 

 taining the price of dimension stock to a ridiculously low and non- 

 profitable level for the manufacturer. 



