HARDWOOD RECORD 



_53 



there may be a temporary stimulation in certain woods, but that as a 

 general thing the demand for an article, particularly if it is a staple 

 article, is not much increased by breaking a fair and honest price. 



The paper pointed out two avenues open to the manufacturer facing 

 a price-cutting condition; one 'is to persistently refuse to join any 

 such movement and the other is to join the general scramble and fight 

 it out in the best possible shape. He said that whUe in the former 

 case, nine times out of ten, the manufacturer will eventually come out 

 on top, the price cutter not only demoralizes the marliet and injures 

 himself, but he upsets business conditions, making it hard for the 

 rest of the trade as well as for himself. He said that the general 

 sentiment of buyers is that they will pay a fair price for any com- 

 modity which they have to buy unless some producer offers it for less. 



The paper, getting down to the subject suggested by the title, said 

 that the proper way to arrive at a price is by keeping an accurately 

 computed account of cost. Cost maintenance, according to the paper, 

 means more than holding to the same price and refusing to lower it. 

 It means rather tha-t a living price should be maintained and no man 

 should hesitate to raise his selling price when cost of production war- 

 rants so doing. 



In speaking of the accumulation of slow-moving items, the paper 

 suggested that it is more up to a man's business judgment than to 

 anything else as to whether he should cut his price in order to move 

 his stock, or should hold the stock in anticipation of possible better 

 prices. 



The membership committee then reported, submitting applications 

 for membership from the following: Stolle Lumber Company. Tripoli, 

 Wis.; Breece Manufacturing Company, Portsmouth, 0., Anderson 

 Venetr & Sawmill Company, Inc., Louisville, Ky., and the 



W. T. Thompson Veneer Company, Edinburg, Ind. These concerns 

 were duly elected to membership. 



George H. Shepard of the Emerson Company, McCormick building, 

 Chicago, talked on "Efficiency of Production." The theme of his 

 talk was that the best method of creating efficiency of production 

 and low cost of operation is to plan carefully ahead on all operations 

 rather than merely working in a haphazard manner. He said that a 

 responsible man should do the planning for each department of the 

 business rather than leave the important details to subordinates, who 

 would not only lose time in their planning, but whose plans themselves 

 would probably result in-^ loss of considerable time and money in 

 operation. He maintained that anything inefficient at a plant tends 

 to increase unit cost production. He said that by eliminating ineffi- 

 cient methods wherever possible, and planning in their place efficient 

 methods of operation, it is possible to greatly improve the efficiency in 

 most plants. 



The resolutions committee submitted a resolution heartily endorsing 

 the Newlands River Eegulation bill now before Congress at Wash- 

 ington. A further resolution was passed thanking the various speakers. 



The meeting then adjourned to convene at Chicago in December for 

 the regular annual meeting. 



ENTERTAINMENT 

 On Tuesday evening. June 10, all those in attendance made a trip 

 to the South Shore Country Club, where they enjoyed a most excellent 

 dinner, which was accompanied by entertainment of a pleasing nature. 

 Because of the excellent entertainment features offered and because 

 of Secretary Defebaugh's deftness in mixing punch, everyone in 

 attendance pronounced the evening to have been thoroughly enjoyable 

 in every respect. 



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E ag 1 e Wo od 



Aqnilaria agallocha is the agar or eaglewood of commerce. It 

 is produced by a large tree inhabiting Silhet, in India, and fur- 

 nishes an odoriferous wood, called aloes-wood, which is supposed 

 to be the aloes-wood of Scripture. The ancients knew this valuable 

 wood under the name of agallochum, and they frequently confused 

 it with the woods botanically known as Exc<Ecaria agallocho and 

 Alirxiilim agallocho. The wood contains an abundance of resin, 

 and an essential oil, which is separated, and highly esteemed as a 

 perfume. The Orientals burn it in their temples for the sake of 

 its pleasant fragrance. The wood that comes occasionally into 

 the American market as eaglewood is used as incense and also for 

 carving, often commanding a high price. The heartwoou of the 

 stems and larger branches constitutes the only available portion 

 of the tree. One writer states that in the interior of old trees are 

 sometimes found, irregular masses of harder and darker-colored 

 wood, with a honey-like scent, which constitutes the eaglewood 

 of commerce. The wood of this species is, according to reliable 

 authority, naturally white or light yellow, and only diseased por- 

 tions of the trunk and larger branches turn dark and become 

 scented. Gamble, in his book on Indian timbers, states that eagle- 

 wood or agar is found in fragments of various shapes and sizes in 

 the center of the tree, and usually, if not always, where some 

 former injury has been received. 



In collecting this wood the trees are felled and allowed to rot 

 for about three years in the forest, after which the logs are 

 divided up into smaller pieces and the odoriferous wood cut out. 

 The uses of eaglewood are not generally known. It is employed 

 largely in medicine, but the wood is also used for carving and 

 small objects of ornament. In India the wood is recommended 

 for tea boxes, in spite of its lightness, as it is durable and not 

 liable to damage from white ants. The wood is also used by the 

 Karens for bows. The bark of this tree is often removed by the 

 natives and used for writing paper, as it is thin, tough and very 

 even in surface and texture. The tree does not suffer by being 

 barked, and the natives often cut the bark and peel it off for mat- 



tresses, and even counterpanes are made of it. 



True eaglewood has small and moderate-sized pores which are 

 arranged in short radial rows. The pith rays are fine and very 

 numerous; the distance between two consecutive pith rays is less 

 than the tangential diameter of the pores. Other but inferior 

 kinds of so-called eaglewood are said to be furnished by Exasca- 

 ria agallocho and Alwii/lim agallocho', but the true eaglewood may 

 be distinguished from that of Excacaria by its pores being smaller 

 and less numerous and by its pith rays, which are more numerous 

 and finer. Alaxylim comes from Cochin-China, and belongs to an 

 entirely different family of plants. L. L. D. 



A Victory for Wood 



An anonymous correspondent has made certain statements 

 in a letter adilressed to Hardwood Eecord under date June 

 2, regarding the use of rolled steel frames and sash for 

 buildings. The correspondent alleges that while rolled steel 

 sash and frames have been specified in a great many buildings, 

 they have not proven satisfactory for various reasons, one very 

 prominent reason being the fact that it is impossible to main- 

 tain a normal temperature inside of a building so equipped in 

 cold weather. In support of this statement is instanced the case 

 of a great publishing house in Philadelphia, which has spent sev- 

 eral millions of dollars in the last few years for buildings. This 

 concern demanded steel frames and sash in all its windows. It 

 is gratifying to the lumber trade and its exponents to know that 

 this company has now been obliged to tear out every last one of 

 the rolled-steel frames and sash, and to install wooden ones in 

 their places. 



This is merely another one of the many instances constantly 

 coming to light to go to prove that while man}' substitutes for 

 wood are logical in certain places, the wholesale substitution can- 

 not be carried to a successful issue for the simple reason that the 

 so-called "substitutes" are not substitutes at all. 



