THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



13 



iuto general use and make evei'y gum tree 

 in the South valuable. 



It' the foregoing statement is correct, 

 and who can say it is not, it would seem 

 that the timber owner who allows his 

 stunipage to be sacrificed. 01 sold at a low 

 pi'ice, is making a serious mistake; espe- 

 cially the holders of cottonwood and Mich- 

 igan stumpage should make arrangements 

 to conserve their resources, put their prod- 

 uct on the market in sucli quantities as 

 will maintain a highly profitable scale of 

 prices and take things easy. The Michi- 

 gan people have taken a correct view of 

 the matter and have effected an organiza- 

 tion which iji'oniises to put many thousands 

 of dollars into the pockets of Michigan 

 producers, and this movement should re- 

 ceive the saipporl ctf every owner of stump- 

 age in that state. The cottonwood people 

 as .vet have not succeeded in effecting a 

 successful organization. 



The trouble with a good many timber 

 owners is that they take tlic position that 

 the present prices of lumber make them 

 a good profit on their investment, and con- 

 sequently they hurry their product upon 

 the market. They should, however, take 

 the view of it that if the present prices 

 yield them a profit, that is no reason why 

 that profit might not be materially in- 

 creased, or that they should let their 

 stunipage go :,t a profit of $20 an acre, 

 when, by wise precaution and organization, 

 it might be made to yield double that 

 amount. 



We only say these things because it 

 seems a pity, with conditions as they are, 

 and as they inevitably will come to be in 

 the future, that the owners of hardwood 

 stumpage should waste their substance in 

 tlie way they are doing. Timber does not 

 reproduce itself with any rapidity. When 

 an oak tree is cut it takes fifty years to 

 grow another, and as, at anything like the 

 present prices, the growing of timber upon 

 good land is very unprofitable, the chances 

 are that our great supply of hardwoods 

 ouce gone will never be replaced. Every 

 owner of hardwood stumpage should bear 

 in mind the facts as set forth above and 

 lend his support to any movement tending 

 to regulate the placing of his product upon 

 the market. Another conclusion to be 

 drawn is that stumpa-ge of any kind, from 

 white oak to gum, is a safe and profit- 

 able investment at present prices. No need 

 to be afraid because a large portion of the 

 stumpage of a certain tract is of gum or 

 some other wood not at present valuable. 

 The time is coming, and coming very soon, 

 when every hardwood ti'ee in the United 

 States will have a substantial value. 



A tmct of about 10.fX)0 acres of timber- 

 land has been purchased hi Randolph 

 county. West Virginia, from Senator Henry 

 G. Davis. The purchasers are Edw. 

 jNIealey and Richard Halvey of Hagers- 

 town, Md.; John G. Rouse of Bel Air, Md.; 

 J. A. Allen of Davis. W. Va.. and E. M. 

 Allen of Darlington, W. Va. They will 

 incorporate and develop the property at 



A DIFFICULT LINE TO WATCH. 



There is no line of trade with a higher 

 commercial standing than the lumber 

 trade. This is especially true of the pine 

 trade, where the business is largely based 

 on the consumption of the farmers, for the 

 farmers are of the best class of credit risks 

 in the country. They are slow, at times, 

 but they are very sure and the percentage 

 of loss to those dealing with farmers is 

 smaller than that of those dealing with 

 any other large line of consumers. 



The customers of the hardwood lumber- 

 men are, however, largely among planing 

 mills, sash and door and furniture fac- 

 tories, etc., -and are not nearly such good 

 risks as the farmers. Losses fall fre- 

 quently and heavily upon wholesale deal- 

 ers in hardwood lumber, but in spite of 

 that the number of failures among hard- 

 wood lumbermen is surprisingly small. 



The reason for the financial reliability of 

 farmers lies in the almost absolute cer- 

 tainty and regularity of their incomes. In 

 the business of farming the element of 

 speculation Is almost entirely eliminated. 

 The farmer will make a living anyhow, 

 and while he seldom makes large profits he 

 nearly always finds hinself a little richer 

 at the end of the year than at the begin- 

 ning. The farmer is conservative and 

 economical almost to the point of stingi- 

 ness, but he is safe. 



In the manufacturing line, however, the 

 very qualities which make the farmer so 

 good a credit risk are apt to have an ex- 

 actly opposite effect. There are dozens of 

 planing mills and factories of various kinds 

 in Chicago to-day which have practically 

 become bankrupt through too much con- 

 servatism. Through the great advance 

 in labor saving, cost reducing machinery, 

 the equipment of those jilants not having 

 been renewed or kept up with the times 

 has become obsolete. There are dozens of 

 those plants, whose equipment cost many 

 thousands of dollars eight or ten years 

 ago, and where that equipment is still car- 

 ried on the books at near its origiiial cost, 

 and is at present of absolutel.y no value. 

 The machines are so far behind the times 

 that they can no longer be operated at 

 a profit, and are consequently only worth 

 what they will bring for scrap iron. Such 

 concerns, and there are mau.v of them, 

 make very uncertain credit risks. 



The lumber trade of Chicago will have 

 no trouble in recalling the great number 

 of failures in the factory trade in '93 and 

 '94, as many as half a dozen a week at 

 times. Most of those failures were among 

 concerns which, while they could do fairly 

 well in very good times, could not keep 

 afloat in a financial storm. A good many 

 of those old plants have been cobbled up 

 and are still going, but they need con- 

 stant watching, and the credit man of a 

 hardwood firm needs be alert and watchful. 



It used to be that the tools of a handi- 

 craft were handed down unchanged from 

 father to son for many generations, Ijut it 

 is not by any means the case to-day. A 



few years will put almost any tool out of 

 business and the manager of a factory 

 needs to be a ver.y watchful man or he will 

 soon drop out of the running. 



In considering tlie ilnancial standing of 

 the factory trade you have to consider not 

 merel.v the firm's financial standing, as 

 shown by the credit agencies, and its moral 

 standing, as shown by its past business 

 career, but also whether it is keeping up , 

 with the march of progress in the matter 

 of equipment. We know some mighty 

 good men who failed during the business 

 depression following the panic, men of in- 

 tegrity and good average business capacity 

 and a number who shaved the line mighty 

 close, simply because they had failed to 

 keep up with the great advance which had 

 been made in labor saving machinery. 



The difficulty in gauging the credit worth 

 of such people is that the cost of their 

 equipment furnishes no index as to its pres- 

 ent value. The equipment of a factory 

 may have cost .$100,000. and be carried on 

 the books and in commercial reports at 

 that figure, when, in fact, it is valueless. 



A man once asked the advice of a friend 

 in regard to a deal: 



"I am offered what seems a good trade," 

 he said, "and want your advice. I have a 

 piece of land which cost me $20,000. I 

 am offered in exchange for it a manufac- 

 turing plai t which cost .^l.jO.OOO." 



"Can the manufacturing plant be oper- 

 ated at a profit?" 



"That's what puzzles me. They don't 

 seem to be making any money out of it. 

 But its a mighty fine ])lant and I know it 

 cost them all of .$1.50,000." 



"I don't care if it cost a million." said 

 the friend, "if it can't be operated at a 

 profit it isn't worth anything." 



We write this because we know there 

 are manufacturing concerns in Chicago 

 that are receiving credit from hardwood 

 lumbermen to which they are not entitled. 

 Lumbermen will do well to remember the 

 lesson of a few years ago. 



POOR LOGS DON'T PAY. 



Charles Christianson, the great hardwood 

 inspector of Manistee, Mich., was in Chi- 

 cago this week and in speaking of the in- 

 advisabilit.v of manufacturing poor logs 

 into lumber, told tlie following incident of 

 Mr. Archie Cameron, of Cameron lAimljer 

 Company, Torch Lake and Central liake: 



"Mr. Cameron is a Scotchman, as his 

 name indicates, and very shrewd, clear- 

 headed man, and w-hen a man approached 

 him to buy some land, the lumber on which 

 was very inferior, Mr. Cameron said: 



" 'I'll buy no poor timber. It doesn't 

 pay. You want me to pay !j!25 an acre for 

 the land; then I must pay GO cents a thou- 

 sand for cutting. 75 cents for skidding, Sf'.j 

 for hauling, 50 cents for decking. 25 cents 

 to get them into the mill, $2.50 for sawing: 

 and then the handling, piling, etc, and then 

 we must pay Charley Christianson 40 cents 

 a thou.saud to come up from Manistee and 

 tell us the lumber is of no account' " 



