52 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



May 10, 1922 



Manufacturers 

 of 



Stimson's 



HARDWOOD 

 LUMBER 



Annual Output: 50 Million Feet 



J. V. Stimson 



Huntingburg, Ind. 



Stimson Veneer & Lumber Co. 



Memphis, Tenn 



J. V. Stimson Hardwood Co. 



Memphis, Tenn., and Helena, Ark. 



YELLOW PINE 



Short Leaf 



SHOP LUMBER 



Steam Dried l"_li^"_ii^"_2" 



For Sash, Door and Finish Manufacturers 

 A Good Cutting Grade at Less Than B and Bet. 



LET US TELL YOU ABOUT IT 



KENTUCKY LUMBER CO. 



.»/;/,/..S: sii/(i>e,it, .«.i. Lexington, Ky. 



The Hardwood Situation 



In view of prevailing conditions in this important market, 

 we have considered the present an opportune time to pre- 

 sent a chart on the movement of hardwood luinber prices 

 as a basis for an analysis of the situation. In the chart we 

 show the movements of two composite groups of hardwood 

 lumber prices from July, 1916, to March, 1922, compared 

 with the movements of Bradstreet's Inde.x Number repre- 

 senting the general level of prices for the same period. 



A free copy of this chart will he mailed 

 upon request. Write Department M today 



The Brookmire Economic Service, Inc. 



25 West 45th Street, New York City 



**The Original System of Forecasting from Economic Cycles*' 



the usual sources at once, with the building demand from the retailers and 

 planers, along with small .vard jobbers, better than for some years past. 

 Flooring is a big item. The usual lines are active, and then there is the 

 increased export demand. The wagon trade continues very slow, but the 

 implement people report increasing business, which is beginning to move 

 out surplus warehouse stocks. The coal strike is not having any effect 

 on industrial operations so far, and it looks very much as if the nonunion 

 coal fields will be able to supply present demand in fair shape. At least 

 they are running almost full and prices are only up about a dollar a ton. 

 So far there has been no industrial distress for lack of fuel. With pine 

 prices uj) several dollars a thousand, hardwoods and veneers are due to 



follow. 



NEW ORLEANS 



Further curtailment of production because of record-breaking flood condi- 

 tions throughout the Mississippi delta and its tributaries has been the 

 outstanding change in the hardwood market for the extreme South during 

 the past fortnight. At Xew Orleans, for instance, the Mississippi river has 

 re'ached an altogether unprecedented height and the effect on hardwood 

 logging operations throughout the Crescent City territory has been such 

 as almost completely to preclude any manufacturing operations whatever. 

 Though the river is now falling with considerable rapidity, a subsequent 

 crest is apprehended and the result is expected to be a quite total in- 

 capacity for further output until late in June or probably until some time in 

 July, thus another month than was originally expected. 



Meanwhile inquiries, demand and actual buying are gradually and 

 steadily increasing in volume and the price tendency is distinctly on the 

 ascent. The natural result is a gradual clearing out of all supplies of 

 stock, until recently held by most mills in a superabundance, with a happy 

 clearing out of the lower grades and a rather acute scarcity of the uppers, 

 W'ith such supplies of the latter as remain being rather badly broken up. 



Fortunately, but little damage has been sustained by the stock through- 

 out the delta regions, due principally to the fact that certain concessions 

 were made without hesitancy on the part of the manufacturers in the early 

 stages of the threatened flood situation to clear their lumber out of the 

 paths of the floods, or. in some cases, to make special arrangements for its 

 protection. These emergency concessions for a brief time produced a 

 natural adverse effect upon prices, but this factor is now definitely removed 

 from the southern and southwestern field with the result of a better tone 

 in this respect as indicated above. 



CHICAGO 



There has been little change in the state of demand for hardwoods in 

 the Chicago market during the past fifteen days. Business of local whole- 

 salers handling southern hardwoods has been somewhat reduced because 

 of the sale of distress stocks by mills in the South threatened with inun- 

 dation. However, this lumber is about all cleared away, and from now 

 on it is expected that a shortage of southern stocks will develop. There- 

 fore, a firming of prices for southern woods is expected during the next 

 thirty to sixty days. Prices for northern stocks have held up strongly and 

 are expected to continue a bullish tendency because of the increasing short- 

 agH of upper grade stock. The sale of oak to the flooring factories con- 

 tinues in fine volume; in fact, the millwork trade is especially good. 



BUFFALO 



The hardwood demand is slowly improving, though the buying is still 

 of a hand-to-mouth character and industrial plants arc expecting to make 

 purchases cautiously for some time to come. Increase in trade has been 

 brought al)out to a large extent by the improvement in building operations 

 and a gocul amount of interior trim and flooring is being used. The feel- 

 ing of the wholesalers is that trade will show up fairly well in the near 

 future, though some problems, including that of freight rates, must be 

 settled before business is brisk. 



The demand covers a %'ariety of woods, with oak and birch among the 

 leaders, and a little better call for maple. An increase in the sale of 

 poplar has alsn taken place lately, after a long period of quiet in this 

 wood. Chestnut is wanted in fair iiuantity for interior trim. The larg'- 

 amount of advertising given to oak recently has undoubtedly been of benefit 

 in stimulating the sale of this wood. Some wholesalers say that their 

 sales of cypress are better than for two or three years. Gum is also going 

 iiitn consumers* bands to a fair extent. 



BOSTON 



In a general way the Imsiness in the hardwnod niarket is improved, but 

 tli<' bettering of the market is coming very slowly. Probably there is a 

 less satisfactory improvement here in the hardwoods market this spring 

 tiian in any other line of lumber dealing in this section. There is an un- 

 nness in the business that is disheartening. .Some report a fine improve 

 niitit. but a good many report a poor showing compared to what they rea- 

 sonably expected, and there are some who say they are having almost no 

 business at all. Nor can it be said that the tone of the market is wonder- 

 fully firm. To be sure, the market is not positively weak, but there bavr 

 been some reductions even in F.\S. The fact is that the ranges in prices 

 are far too wiile. The ranges in F.\S current here at present are as much 



