'.'C« *:<gg'gasagtf>ita«r>aTOi!>m^^^ 



A sawmill man who recently init in a Kraetzer pieparator said that 

 one of the greatest advantages he expects to derive from its use is 

 in being able to take advantage of special conditions, and chantTe his 

 alignment to meet variations in market and other factors. 



"Under the usual mode of operation," he i)ointed out, "the lum- 

 berman cuts his stock without knowing who is going to buy it, or 

 what dimensions \vill be most in demand by the time it is ready to 

 ship. The result is that frequently he finds that ai\ item which was 

 in great demand at the time he cut it has slumped down to nothing, 

 forcing him to carry a big block of stock on l-is yard until the 

 pendulum of demand swings back the other way. 



"The concern which can ship its lumber thirty days after manu- 

 facture can epeeialize. It can watch the situation and plan its 

 manufacturing operations accordingly. It can make the lumber 

 when the demand for it is good, and ship before the demand has 

 tapered off. In other words, instead of being several miles behind 



the procession, it will be right up in the band wagon. ' ' 



* * * 



A good many sawmill men overlook a good point in not tagging 

 their pUes with the kind, quantity and age of the stock which they 

 contain. For stock-keeping purposes, and also for other obvious 

 advantages, this method ought to be carried out in detail. In the 

 case of the wholesaler, whose pUes are usually being taken down and 

 the lumber rehandled rather frequently, tagging the ])iles would not 

 do much good; but in the manufacturers' yard, where the lumber 

 remains on sticks for several months, it is not only desirable but 

 almost necessary to have the information which is readily conveyed 

 by the simple device of noting the date on the tag when the lumber 

 is piled. 



There are plenty of customers who are finicky about the age of 

 their lumber; and it would be a considerable lalking point with 

 these buyers to be able to say that every ]>ile is carefully tabulated 

 and that the exact age of every stick of lumber on the yard is known; 

 with the assurance that shipments would be made only when the 

 lumber was thoroughly dry, or had reached the exact age demanded 

 by the consumer. 



A good point in this connection would be to have the tags in 

 duplicate, with a full record of the number of piles kept in the 

 office; as shipments were made, the tags on the piles could be turned 

 in and the duplicates checked off, so that at all times the lumberman 

 Mould have a graphic record before him of the kinds and quantities 

 of lumber in his yard. 



* * * 



While a good many lumbermen shy at making eoutracts witii con- 

 sumers for deliveries extending over considerable periods, this char- 

 acter of business is often of the most desirable and satisfactory kind. 

 It goes witliout saying, of course, that it calls for nuitual confidence 

 and the right kind of people at each end of the contract. If either 

 the lumberman or the consumer is the sort of chap who will forget 

 that he has signed an agrponent the moment the market changes 

 enough to make carrying it out undesirable, the situation is sure to 

 be unpleasant. But if the seller and the buyer respect their obliga- 

 tions, and continue to move the lumber at the contract price, the seller 

 enjoys the advantage of having a certain outlet for his stock, and the 

 buyer has the assurairce that no matter what happens he will get his 

 lumber at the price he figured on when he made up his quotations on 

 the finished goods. It 's advantageous from many standpoints — but 



everybody has to play fair. 



« « « 



One of the advantages of dimension stock bobbed up a few mouths 

 ago during the flood season, when a lot of good lumber was greatly 

 reduced in value by having plenty of rich river mud deposited upon 

 it. Lumbermen who were confronted with the task of cleaning this 

 stock and then getting buyers to take it without a discount realized 

 before they were through that they were up against r. knotty problem. 



Those who were making dimension stock, however, had no troubles 

 at all, comparatively. Of course, they had to clean the lumber before 



—28— 



it could be dressed; but after that it was cut up and shipiied without 

 anybody being able to say a word on the subject of flooded lumber. 

 That fact made no difference, of course, but the man who had that 

 sort of stock to sell in the rough usually had to make concessions to 



get people to take it. 



* * « 



Poplar men who have found the manufacture of siding one of the 

 best methods of moving their stock are also learning that it pays to 

 handle the commodity as carefully as the flooring men do theirs. 

 Instead of tying the bundles of siding with cord, as was formerly 

 the rule, many of the manufacturers are now using wire and making 

 the ties as neat and secure as the hardwood flooring man does in 

 sending out his product. This not only improves the appearance of 

 the stock, but affords a real protection, insuring its delivery without 

 danger of lireakage. And as some export business is being handled 

 on siding, the matter of packing is all the more important. 



Speaking of poplar siding also calls attention to the fact that those 

 in this business have learned how to move at least part of their 

 waste by manufacturing it into moulding, which seems to bring a 



better price than lath and most other byproducts. 



* * * 



A hardwood man wfio recently called attention to the fact that the 

 railroads get more money for transporting lumber than any other 

 coarse commodity also pointed to a condition which ought to be taken 

 into account in figuring the rate. 



' ' If you happen to be a railroad and have a wreck of a train in 

 which there arc a lot of cars loaded with livestock," he said, "your 

 los.scs can be figured down to a cent from the bills of lading of the 

 shippers; because there is mighty little salvage to be gotten out of a 

 wreck of that kind. On the other hand, sujipose lumber is in some 

 of the cars, and is dumped out along the track when the big smash-up 

 comes. The chances arc that it will be loaded back into the car and 

 shipjied on to the customer without anybody ever knowing there was 

 a slight halt in the movement. The insurance feature, as it might 

 be called, is certainly one the railways ought to consider in fixing the 



charges for handling commodities like ours." 



* * « 



The possibilities of the planing mill business from the standpoint 

 of the small operator in the hardwood field were interestingly dis- 

 •■ussed by one of the uiost successful lumbermen in the country 

 recently. He pointed out that the planing mill man doesn't need 

 big bunches of hardwood stock, and therefore is not in a position 

 to buy carloads of any one item, as he does in the case of pine or 

 cypress. 



"What he wants," continued the speaker, "is a few thousand feet 

 of inch quartered oak, say, a little thinner stock; and then plain 

 oak in two or three thicknesses and as many grades. In order to 

 fill a car for him you 've got to handle eight or ten different items. 



"But that's just what the small man in the lumber business is 

 looking for. He isn't able to pile up a full carload of every kind 

 and grade and dimension of lumber being offered; and when he can 

 move his few thousand feet of each without having to wait for the 

 pile to grow to carload proportions, he has scored a point. I think 

 that if the small wholesaler and the small sawmill man would study 

 the needs of the planing-mill operator in the hardwood line more 

 closel.y, and then build up a business on mixed cars for this trade, 

 the.v would find it easier to keep their yards clear of the odds and 

 ends that tie up a lot of money but never seem to be available. 



* * * 



Large manufacturers of poplar are adopting some of the methods 

 of the yellow pine mills to their own business. For one thing, they 

 have found that the demand for poplar is getting to be a specialized 

 proposition, and that widths must be piled separately. In other 

 words, a consumer doesn't want to bviy random sizes any more, as 

 to width, but insists on being able to get the lumber of the size 

 which works into his own requirements most exactly. 



Just now, wlien poplar, as a rule, is pretty dull, it will be noted 



