HARDWOOD RECORD 



41 



The engineers have thirty men in the field at present, and are plan- 

 ning to complete the worli in a year and a halt. The limits comprise 

 approximately 2.700 square miles in the western part of Quebec prov- 

 ince. A thorough cruise, survey and appraisal will he made, studies 

 compiled of the growing capacity and reproductivity of the tract and 

 other information gathered which will assist in putting the huge prop- 

 erty on a scientific basis for management. 



It is a sign of the progressive spirit in the Canadian provinces, when 

 such farsighted, practical and scientific worli is put into effect on some 

 of the great timberlaud holdings. 



Change in Company's Name 



The Cherokee Lumber Company, which has a big plant in West Nash- 

 ville, has filed an amendment to its charter, changing the name to the 

 Farris Hardwood Lumber Company, and increasing the amount of author- 

 ized capital stock from .$40,000 to $75,000. The company is composed 

 of W. M. Farris, Sr., W. M. Farris. Jr., A. C. Farris, L. 11. Farris and 

 Frank Farris. It Is the purpose of the company to enlarge its opera- 

 tions greatly in the near future. 



Pertinent Information 



Hearing on Through Bills to New Orleans Cancelled 



The Interstate Cnuinurd- Commission has canicllc d the liearing in the 

 case of the Anderson-Tuily Company vs. Morgan's Louisiana and Texas 

 line involving tlie issuance of through bills of lading on export ship- 

 ments of lumber over the west side lines via New Orleans. This action 

 was taken at the request of the Southern Hardwood Traffic Bureau, 

 which originally brought this case before that body. The west side lines 

 have already announced that they will not issue through bills on any 

 commodity, not even cotton, after Aug. 23. It is understood that the 

 Illinois Central will issue revised tariffs in the near future eliminating 

 through bills on all commodities with the exception of cotton. This 

 case was on the suspended calendar for July 20 but the oflicials of the 

 bureau thought that it was best to have the hearing cancelled in order 

 that they might gain a clearer idea of the attitude of the Illinois Central 

 and other east side lines. J. H. Townshend, general manager of the 

 bureau, has recently returned from Washington, where he had a confer- 

 ence with the chairman of the commission during which the latter sug- 

 gested that he hoped it would be ijossible for the east and west side 

 lines on the one hand and the steamship companies on the other to get 

 together on this subject without any further hearings. This is another 

 reason why the commission cancelled the proposed taking of testimony 

 at New Orleans July 20. 



Liunhermen Lose Memphis to New Orleans Rate Protest 



The Southern Hardwood Traffic Bureau has advised its members, 

 through J. H. Townshend. general manager, that the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission decided against tliat organization in the case against the 

 Illinois Central and Yazoo & Mississippi Valley roads. It held that the 

 rate on all lumljer from Memphis to New Orleans, including Cottonwood 

 and gum, should be twelve cents per hundred pounds. The lumbermen 

 here a few years ago were able to show that the proposed advance from 

 ten to twelve cents per hundred was not justified, the commission at the 

 time ruling to that effect. However, the arguments this time were not 

 quite so successful. Manufacturers of cottonwood and gum north of the 

 Southern Railway in Mississippi, according to this decision, are allowed 

 a rate -of eleven cents from points on the Illinois Central and Yazoo & 

 Mississippi Valley roads to New Orleans, while those south of the South- 

 ern Railway are granted a rate of ten cents per hundred on the same 

 items. Some of the members of the Southern Hardwood Traffic Bureau 

 have mills on these roads in Mississippi and will profit by the conces- 

 sions made b.v the commission with respect to cottonwood and gum. The 

 bureau advised its members that an effort was being made to have the 

 effectiveness of the proposed advance changed from Aug. 20. the date 

 named by the commission, to Sept. 30 in order that the higher rates 

 may not affect business which was booked prior to the decision of that 

 body. This decision is regarded as of rather far reaching importance as 

 it reverses the position taken by the commission several years ago and it 

 is the first victory wliicli the railroads have won over hardwood lumber 

 interests here in several years. 



Complaint Against Kate Advance on Louisville & Nashville 



The complaint against the recent advance in rates on the Louisville & 

 Nashville railroad from points north of Decatur, Ala., to Louisville, Is 

 now formally liefore the Interstate Commerce Commission, John R. 

 Walker, acting as attorney for the Louisville lumbermen, putting in the 

 complaint under date of July 11, 1913. The companies Joining in the 

 complaint are the W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Company, Edward L. 

 Davis Lumber Company, Louisville Veneer Mills, Booker-Cecil Company 

 and the Ohio River Sawmill Company. The complaint alleges, among 

 other things, that the tarifl providing for the increases made the effective 

 date seven days after the date of publication, whereas the act to regulate 

 commerce provides for thirty days' notice, which was not waived in this 

 case. It is also asserted that the tariff was issued as a subterfuge, in 

 rhat it purported to be issued in compliance with Interstate Commerce 



Commission opinion No. 2026, whereas examination of the tariff does 

 not disclose any such fact. The complaint asks for concellation of the 

 tariff and reparation. 



Fred Esch, examiner for the Interstate Commerce Commission, held a 

 hearing in Louisville July IS and 19 for the purpose of taking evidence 

 in a complaint of local hardwood concerns against a large number of 

 railroads running into Louisville from the South and out in central 

 and eastern territory. The complainants were tlie Norman Lumber Com- 

 pany, W. P. Brown & Sons Lumber Company, Louisville Point Lumber 

 Company, Edward L. Davis Lumber Company, Ohio River Sawmill Com- 

 pany and the Booker-Cecil Company. It was charged that rates to and 

 from Louisville are greater than those to and from Cincinnati, and the 

 local concerns asked that combination rates be made uniform. Objection 

 was also made to the charge of a bridge toll of 1 cent a hundred on 

 both in and outbound shipments. 



Hearing in Western Carolina Case Continued 



The protest of the Western Carolina Lumber and Timber Association 

 against recent "Changes in the milling-in-transit rate in effect on the 

 Southern Railway has been continued until Sept. S. Evidence was taken 

 for several days and a protest was made through the association. How- 

 ever, Examiner C. R. Marshall of the Interstate Commerce Commission 

 has gone to Greenville, S. C, to hear another case with the result as 

 above noted. 



The former milling-in-transit rate allowed a local rate on shipments 

 from a manufacturing point to a milling point and after the lumber 

 was finished it could he shipped on a through rate from which was 

 deducted the excess of the local rate for the distance between the two 

 local points. This really amounted to a through rate for the entire dis- 

 tance. The new rate, it is claimed hy the lumbermen, is absolutely pro- 

 Iiibitory and they are pleading for the restoration of the former ar- 

 rangement. The lumbermen object to the fact that the new regulations 

 prohibit the handling of common lumber on a common basis in fixing 

 rates. They maintain that in mixed car shipments each kind of lumber 

 contained in the car must be considered separately and where the weight 

 of any kind is less than a thousand pounds, no refund is given from the 

 resulting througli rates. In addition, the exhaustive system of reports 

 required by the railroads is objected to as it is claimed that it greatly 

 increases the cost of bookkeeping and similar labor. 



The delay is favorable to the lumbermen as it will give them an op- 

 portunity of more fully preparing their case. 



Asks for Lower Mahogany Rate New Orleans to Memphis 



The Southern Hardwood Traffic Bureau, with headquarters at Mem- 

 phis, has filed a petition with the Interstate Commerce Commission, 

 which petition is instigated by the Memphis Veneer and Lumber Com- 

 pany. It pleads for a rate of nine cents for mahogany logs imported 

 through New Orleans as loading point, consigned to Memphis territory 

 for manufacture and re-shipment. The Memphis Veneer and Lumber 

 Company is getting largely into the manufacture of mahogany and it is 

 hoped by this concern that the Interstate Commerce Commission will 

 give the petition an early hearing. 



Aimed at Car Shortage 



It is proposed by the railroads centering in Chicago to file a new 

 team track storage tariff" to become effective Aug. 1. The rate has been 

 $1 per diem for each day after forty-eight hours have elapsed following 

 the arrival of the car and it is given as the reason by the railroad that 

 various shippers and receivers of merchandise have taken advantage of 

 this charge in order to save storage, it being stated that the cost of 

 storing in the freight cars is in many cases less than renting storage 

 room in warehouses. The proposal is to continue the initial charge of 

 .$1 per diem for the first forty-eight hours but to make the. charge $2 

 for each day thereafter. It is expected that the proposal will be strenu- 

 ously objected to. 



Preservative Treatment of Timber 



Parts 4. 5 and 6 of a work on timber treating has been published by 

 W. F. Goltra of Cleveland, O. Former parts of the treatise were pub- 

 lished some time ago. A good many questions are discussed which appeal 

 more to the technical men engaged in timber treating than to the general 

 public : but the history of methods which have been tried in the business, 

 from the days of Pliny until the present time, is interesting and instruc- 

 tive. The cause of the decay of wood is a comparatively modern dis- 

 covery, though the ancients probably had some vague notions on the 

 subject. It was not generally understood that timber decays because 

 fungus gains access to its interior and simply "eats it up" ; that is, it 

 softens and dissolves' the woody cells and fibers. Modern wood pre- 

 servatives are devised with the idea of keeping the fungus out ; but the 

 ancients had no very clear ideas on the subjects. 



It is, therefore, interesting to study the processes tried during a 

 thousand years to hinder the decay of wood. Some of these, accidentally 

 or otherwise, hit upon correct methods, while others were as wide of 

 the mark as some of the medicines concocted by Chinese doctors to cure 

 diseases. Some of the wood preservatives that have been recommended 

 or tried during the past thousand years or so are the following : Garlic 

 boiled in vinegar ; oil of cedar ; tar and linseed oil ; crude petroleum ; 

 charing and pulverized charcoal; tar and decoctions of tobacco leaves; 

 rosin and fish oil ; India rubber and oil ; sulphate of iron ; sulphuric acid ; 



