30 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



October 10. 1922 



pany, Silsbee, Tex. ; Luke Wright, Wright Lumber Company. Lufkin, Tex. ; 

 B. L. Zeagler, Martin Wagon Company, Lufkin, Tex. ; E. L. Kirth, Angelina 

 County Lumber Company, Keltys, Tex. ; Sam Crawford. R. A. Myer Lum- 

 ber Company, Honey Island, Tex. ; Ward Kelly, Carter-Kelly Lumber Com- 

 pany. Manning, Tex. ; W. C. Trout, Lufkin Foundry & Machine Shops, 

 Lufkin, Tex. ; Milton Lee, R. Pickering Lumber Company. Pickering, La. ; 

 Watson Walker, Southern Pine Lumber Company, Diboll, Tex. ; W. C. 

 Garrett, W. R. Pickering Lumber Company, Cravens, La. ; George Hays, 

 Doucette Lumber Company, Doucette, Tex. ; Harry Hildreth, Kirby Lum- 

 ber Company, Silsbee, Tex. ; F. J. Harte. American Lumber Underwriters' 

 Association, Houston, Tex. ; A. L. Black, Palmetto Lumber Company, 

 Jasper, Tex., and George L. Christie, Lumbermen's Reciprocal Insurance 

 Association, Houston, Tex., and secretary-treasurer of the millmen's asso- 

 ciation. 



conservative way by licensed cruisers of British Columbia. Their cruise 

 was as follows : 



19,501,000 feet flr and spruce 

 149,465,000 feet red cedar 



6,777,000 feet white pine mostly large growth 

 81,725,000 feet hemlock and larch 



With the Trade 



Hardwoods Coming Direct from Australia 



.\rrangements tor shipping great quantities of hardwoods direct from 

 Melbourne. .Australia, to Los .\ngeles. Cal.. for American distribution are 

 in progress by an .Vustralian firm headed by E. A. Noble, who is making 

 an indefinite stay in Los Angeles while conferring with services to arrange 

 the details of transportation. 



Financial arrangements for the venture already have been completed, 

 Mr. Noble states, and the hardwood is now being assembled at Australian 

 ports, where it will be sun-dried for twelve months. Regular shipments 

 will be maintained, Mr. Noble states, once the first lot is started. 



Various kinds of hardwoods are included in the exporting program. 

 Including the well-known eucalyptus of which there Is an Australian 

 species that is said to be highly superior to anything gro%vn in California. 

 The Australian eucalyptus is said to range from about 24 Inches to 36 

 inches in diameter when ready for marketing, with logs 70 to 90 feet in 

 the clear. The wood is said to be exceptionally desirable for fine work. 

 Some of the eucalyptus trees, according to Mr. Noble, attain extreme diame- 

 ters. 



Houston Will Send Hardwood Through Canal to Pacific Coast 



The shipment of large quantities of hardwoods and other lumber In 

 their own ships through the Panama Canal to Los Angeles, Cal., for dis- 

 tribution from concentration yards to Pacific Coast and Oriental trade, 

 win be undertaken by the Houston interests of which George T. Houston is 

 one of the leaders. A long article concerning this project was recently 

 carried in the Times of Los Angeles, the occasion being an Interview 

 with Mr. Houston on his plans. After the preliminary statement, con- 

 cluding with the assertion that shipments are to begin this winter, this 

 article said : 



"This city has been selected for the project, which is unique In the his- 

 tory of the industry, after a careful survey of San Francisco, Seattle and 

 Portland. Mr. Houston explains that Los .\ngeles was chosen because 

 of Its shipping facilities and because it is the largest consumer of lumber 

 on the Coast. Even the lumber designed for shipments to Japan, other 

 parts of the Orient and Africa, will be handled through this port, where 

 the company will build receiving warehouses, docks and oflSces. 



"Mr. Houston is connected with George T. Houston & Co., Chicago ; 

 Houston Brothers, Vicksburg, and Houston Brothers. Bigbee, Miss. The 

 afilliated companies' lands comprise more than 150.000 acres in Mississippi. 

 The annual output is 100.000,000 cubic feet of hardwood a year, besides 

 southern pine, cypress, timbers and logs, railway ties, etc. The companies 

 do their own manufacturing and handle lumber directly to the builders. 



"The Houston interests operate their own river and gulf steamship 

 lines. Mr. Houston said yesterday the lumber would be brought here 

 in their own bottoms. It will be unloaded at Los Angeles Harbor in 

 cargo lots and then distributed to meet the Pacific Coast demand, or 

 reshlpped in the trans-Paclflc trade. 



"At present hardwood lumber is sent here by rail. Mr. Houston said 

 his company formerly had some of this business, but discontinued it 

 because of the high freight rate. Most of the lumber his company will 

 send here will be hardwood, and thus will not compete with the soft wood 

 now sent here by boat from the Northwestern and Canadian fields. Mr. 

 Houston said lumber has never been shipped by water in any quantity 

 from the eastern to the far western field, but that he has become satisfied 

 that the venture will be successful. 



"The traffic manager and other experts of his company have been 

 studying the local market for about a year, but operating quietly so that 

 competitors would not get wind of the matter. 



" 'Our situation is this,' Mr. Houston explained. 'As you know, the 

 European markets are nearly gone and the high freight rate In this coun- 

 try has interfered with our rail shipments. So we have had an excess 

 to take care for. The water route to Los .\ngelcs is the solution. We 

 also are very interested in the Oriental and .\frican trade, which we 

 already have entered. The harbor facilities at Los Angeles are satisfactory. 



" 'I like this city so well that I am going to establish a home here. 

 There Is a great deal of hardwood consumed here in oak for floors and 

 woods for ornamental purposes, and there is going to be more and more.' " 



Wall Heads Group Which Will Exploit British Columbia Timber 



.\b^nit 17,700 acres of timber in British Columbia is about to be opened 

 up and placed on the market by a group of Buffalo men who purchased it 

 as stumpage twelve years ago. This timber consists of the finest red 

 cedar, flr and spruce, white pine and hemlock and larch that is grown in 

 the northwest. This tract was cruised, surveyed lines run, mapped and 

 facilities for cutting, logging, driving, sawing and shipping done in a most 



Total. ..257,468,000 



Maurice M. Wall, secretary and treasurer of the Buffalo Hardwood Lum- 

 ber Co., is the head and moving spirit of the organization which controls 

 the timber. Mr. Wall and some of his associates traveled a great deal 

 over the northwest examining timber and picked out the best tracts that 

 could be found. Completely satisfied he associated himself with a number 

 of prominent Buffalo business men and financed the purchase of what is 

 said to be one of the best pieces of forest growth in British Columbia. 



The timber Is located in the interior of British Columbia about 400 miles 

 east of Vancouver, and about 65 to 70 miles from the main line of the 

 Canadian Pacific railroad. Conditions for logging are very favorable as 

 the timber can t>e floated on a large river and lake direct to saw mills 

 which can be located in a large interior town where labor is readily 

 available on the Canadian Pacific main line, and has very favorbale freight 

 rates to the great Canadian Northwest where most of the lumber from the 

 interior of British Columbia has been marketed up to this time. 



This great territory is developing very fast and will need vast quantities 

 of lumber in developing their country. 



Mr. Wall knows lumber thoroughly from the estimating of standing 

 timber to the delivering of the finished product to the consumer. As first 

 chairman of the inspection board of the National Hardwowl Lumber -As- 

 sociation he did the pioneer work In organizing its inspection department, 

 formulating uniform rules and appointing the first corps of inspectors 

 under bond. He acted as chairman of the board for several years. After 

 this bureau was organized and was in good running order Mr. Wall re- 

 signed as chairman, but was soon drafted again into the active work of 

 the association, becoming chairman of Its forestry committee. During his 

 years of this service he collected exhaustive data and wrote some valuable 

 papers on forestry and the visible supply of timber in the United States 

 and Canada. 



Convinced that British Columbia is the territory from which the best 

 red cedar and other lumber must come in the future, Mr. Wall acquired 

 this valuable property and time has demonstrated that he made a wise 

 choice. Western red cedar Is rapidly becoming the most valuable wood 

 on the Pacific coast. Immense quantities are annually used in the man- 

 ufacture of shingles, siding, interior finish, boat building, sash and door 

 stock and for any purpose where long-lived wood is required. 



The supply in Oregon and Washington is rapidly being depleted, and 

 today many of the largest mills on the United States side of the line are 

 totally dependent upon their supply of cedar from British Columbia. 

 Even the mills in Vancouver, British Columbia, are now towing cedar logs 

 a distance from 200 to 400 miles. The supply is rapidly diminishing with 

 the result that stumpage prices on cedar are advancing rapidly. 



The best of the cedar In the interior Is situated in the section in which 

 Mr. Wall's property Is located. It is a virgin field which up to now has 

 not been touched and which contains wonderful possibilities. The cedar 

 Is medium size and stated by a licensed cruiser to be the best cedar In the in- 

 terior of British Columbia. 



All Species Southern Hardwoods Will Be Marketed 



The board of directors of the Delta Export Lumber Corporation, at a 

 meeting held in Memphis several days ago, voted unanimously In favor of 

 the handling of all southern hardwoods produced by member companies in 

 the overseas trade. 



This organization, which was launched last May under the Webb- 

 Pomerene law, started out to handle only gum lumber and veneers, but 

 R. L. Jurden, president, explained that the corporation has been so suc- 

 cessful in the handling of gum and that it Is receiving so many inquiries 

 for other hardwoods that it has decided to include these in its offerings to 

 the foreign trade. 



Mr. Jurden says that demand from abroad is more active now than at 

 any time since the corporation was formed and that "delta" brands are 

 meeting a very favorable reception at the hands of foreign buyers. 



The Long-Bell Luml)er Company has become Identified with the corpora- 

 tion. This is the only addition since the original twenty-six firms made 

 application for a charter. 



Acquires Louisiana Timber 



George C. Ehemann of George C. Ehemann & Company, Memphis, an- 

 nounces that his firm has secured 5,500 acres of hardwood timber lands in 

 the vicinity of Tallulah, La., and that the logs being taken therefrom are 

 being converted into lumber at the recently completed band mill of Kurz 

 Brothers at that point. 



Lockwood Installs Band Mill 



Robert J. Lockwood, who was manager of the plant of the Memphis 

 Hardwood Flooring Company for some years and who later entered the 

 hardwood manufacturing business on his own account at Brinkley, Ark., 

 has installed a band mill at Alexandria, La., which, he says, will be 

 idaced in operation next spring. Mr. Lockwood recently sold out his inter- 

 ests at Brinkley and went out west in search of better health. He reports 

 himself much improved. He is in Memphis with his family. 



