HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



that that is just the reason for the failure of all co-operative selling 

 in the lumber business. Perhaps _you have never thought about it 

 in that wav. Take the case of a big pine organization. It operates 

 several mills in Xorth Carolina, one mill making practically the 

 same stock as another. Yet customers in dealing with this con- 

 cern specify the mill from which a certain grade is to come, be- 

 cause there is better value in that grade from that point. The 

 writer is given to understand that certain concerns in the South 

 formerly pooled their outputs and the stock was sold by % central 

 ■organization in a large southern city. The same thing happened — 

 customers would specify from which mill the stock was to come 

 and as a consequence some of the mills were oversold all the time, 

 while others had to curtail their outputs. This ended iu dissatis- 

 faction and tinall\- broke up the organization. Why? Just from 

 the variance of grade and manufacture. An efficiency engineer or 

 an organizer from an entirely different line of business would have 

 gone in there and corrected the faults. But lumbermen aren't "up 

 to the times" in these matters. They "know their business too 

 well" and outside help or new methods are not wanted. There is 

 no attempt to see "why" these methods are wrong. Kach man 

 waits for the other to bring out some solution of the problem and 

 the consequence is, they are all waiting and will continue to wait. 

 . The lumber business of the future? The writer is not a prophet 

 l)ut necessity will soon convince lumbermen in general of the fact 

 that to stay in business they will have to change all their methods. 

 It is all very well to sit back with a smile and say ' ' Well, I guess 

 we needn't worry; there will always be a demand for lumber." 

 Granted. But if the lumbermen hadn't been "asleep at the switch" 

 they never would have allowed the substitution of concrete, steel 

 and other commodities that have put the consumption of lumber 

 down each year. The other lines mentioned got their foothold on 

 the consumer by aggressive national advertising and it has already 

 been said that one cement manufacturer spends more in a year 

 for this class of advertising than the combined money spent b.y 

 «very lumber manufacturer in the United States. That speaks for 

 one modern method anyway, and if you want to see how concrete 

 has cut into the consumption of lumber you will find on looking up 

 the matter that the use of cement has increased twice as much as 

 lumber. 



When the government conceived the idea of a lumber trust, it 

 pushed the matter to the fullest extent and finally discovered what 

 we all know — that simply because the lumber business is the most 

 backward and unorganized business of today, there couldn't be a 

 trust. You may not think that public opinion has anything to do 

 with the sale of lumber or the use of it, but good-will is such a 

 factor today that many concerns consider it the best part of their 

 assets and show it as such on their statements. 



In the future, and it won't be so many years from now, there will 

 be one set of inspection rules. There will be a chief whose quali- 

 fications will be unimpeachable and he will be surrounded by 

 deputy inspectors for each wood. There will be a thorough training 

 school where each local inspector wOl get his training from the 

 deputies on each respective wood. The inspectors attached to the 

 consuming factories and lumber yards throughout the country will 

 be required to be trained in the school before their concerns will 

 be able to buy lumber. When changes of the rules are necessary 

 the consumers will be told of the proposed changes, allowed to 

 make suggestions and to discuss them with the members at their 

 meetings. 



Manufacturers will realize that their logical duty is at the manu- 

 facturing end and will devote their time to getting the maximum 

 efficiency out of their plants and their logs, as well as improving 

 their methods of handling and elimination of waste motion, and so 

 reduce their costs. 



Credit and the extension of credit will be judged from the "capi- 

 tal, capacity and character" standpoint with "capital" as the 

 least factor of the three "c's." Business will be done on personal 

 solicitation and personality with, of course, the stock to back up 

 the representation. Salesmen will be trained not only to know the 

 stock they are representing, but scientific .salesmanship as well. A 



man will be e.xpccted to know not only lumber, but its use, proper 

 drying of each wood in the customer 's own kilns, finish, etc. 



Lumbermen will learn to use advertising as it should be used — 

 to bring business and as a means of education similar to what 

 other manufacturers in other lines of business are doing. 



These things and others mean the dawn of a new era in the lum- 

 ber business, and then it will be the science it ought to be today. 



H. E. S. 



Production of Excelsior 



The Bureau of the Census has oomiiiled the first fairly complete 

 statistics ever^ published, showing the annual production of excel- 

 sior in the United States. The figures are for 1911. Excelsior 

 consists of fine ribbons of wood, cut by special machinery, and of 

 various degrees of fineness. In Europe it is made of texture so 

 fine that the excelsior is used in hospitals in place of absorbent 

 cotton. The article in the United States is employed as packing 

 material for dishes, lamps, hardware and other articles liable to 

 be broken in transportation. Some of the better grades are used 

 in cheap upholstery. The first excelsior in this country was made 

 more than fifty years ago. but the demand was small and increased 

 slowly. By 1880 the wood demanded for its manufacture amounted 

 to about 60,000 cords yearly. In 1911 the demand had increased to 

 142,9-1-1 cords, equivalent to approximatel5' 85,000,000 feet, board 

 measure. 



Excelsior is made of both hardwoods and softwoods, but the 

 former supply most. The best grades are of basswood, but cotton- 

 wood leads in quantity. Xew York and New Hampshire lead in 

 the Cottonwood product, but it is probable that aspen is listed as 

 Cottonwood in these states, since the common Cottonwood is not 

 particularly abundant there, but aspen is. Wisconsin leads in bass- 

 wood, and Virginia in pine. Twenty-seven states contribute to the 

 supply, and 122 plants manufacture the article. The total amount 

 weighs 139,830 tons. It is of interest to note that the quantity of 

 excelsior produced per cord of wood varies within rather wide 

 limits. In Virginia the average is 2,286 pounds, Wisconsin 1,757, 

 Xew York 2,092 and New Hampshire 2,132. The average for the 

 whole output of the country is 1,956 pounds per cord of wood 

 consumed. 



The Wood Flour Business 



There were imported into tliis country fur tlio fiscal year ending 

 •lune 30, 1912, according to the figures of the Bureau of Statistics, 

 6,365,375 pounds of wood flour. The import value attached to this 

 was $30,802, that paid an import duty of 35 per cent ad valorem, 

 making the duty paid for this item for the year $10,780.70. This 

 is not a big item when we compare it to many other items in our 

 import list, but when we look at these figures and consider the 

 fact that there are tons and tons of sawdust going to waste in 

 tliis country that could be made into this same wood flour and 

 tliat we have been enjoying a protective duty of 35 per cent to 

 encourage home manufacture, they are quite startling and suggest 

 that we have been rather backward about seizing opportunities to 

 develop and make money out of all of our resources. 



This wood flour business is a growing industry and is beginning 

 to enter into several lines of consumption. One of the important 

 uses seems to be in the making of d^-namite, but from time to time 

 there develop various other uses. Investigation as to present and 

 possible uses is all that is necessary to profitable manufacture in 

 this country. The process consists merely of drying and regrind- 

 ing sawdust. Wood flour seems to be a hardwood sawdust 

 product rather than a pine product, which is well, because the 

 pine sawdust has other substances in it that can be extracted 

 and used otherwise, and the hardwood sawdust may prove to 

 be worth more in the form of wood flour than for chemical 

 reduction. With the figures given above before us, it would 

 surely seem that the wood flour business is worth going after and 

 developing as a means of utilizing part of our waste hardwood 

 sawdust. 



