HARDWOOD RECORD 



49 



The W. H. White Company of Boyne City has 

 placed an order with a Grand Uapids nursery for 

 4,000 cherry trees, 800 apple and (iOO peach trees, 

 which will be planted on the company's big farm 

 In Antrim county. W. H. While will Rive the 

 fruit orchards expert care and he believes that 

 sclentltlc fruit culture may be nvide profitable in 

 that section of northern Micliigan. 



It has been practically decided that the William 

 Horner flooring mill will be rebuilt at Heed City. 

 The entire plant was recently destroyed by Are 

 and Reed City people have feared that the in- 

 dustry would be located elsewhere. 



S. P. Coppocic, of S. r. CopiJocl; & Sons, Ft. 



Wayne, has been calling on the trade in Grand 

 liaplds and vicinity of late. 



O. E. Faught, representing the C. U. Hall Lum- 

 ber Company, manufacturer and wholesale dealer 

 in southern hardwoods, and E. D. lioiger. of tlie 

 Ohio Veneer Company, Cincinnati, were in Grand 

 Uapids recently. 



Another recent caller on the local trade is 

 W. n. Appleby, of J. S. Houston & Co., Chicago, 

 a concern having a band mill at Memphis, cir- 

 cular mills at Newport, Ark., also a veneer plant 

 at Memphis. 



L. I.. Skillman, of the Skillman Lumber Com- 

 imny. is ill at his Iiome with typhoid fever. 



Hardwood Market. 



(By HARDWOOD RECORD Exclusive Market Beporters.) 



CHICAGO 



The condition of the hardwood market in 

 Ciiicago is practically as it was two weeks ago, 

 though every indication points to a steady 

 and gradual improvement. In spite of the com- 

 plaints of numerous concerns, there has been a 

 general tendency on the part of buyers to get 

 hack to normal business, a condition probably 

 forced by their own need for a greater output 

 of their own product. One indication of an 

 especially encouraging nature is from the offices 

 of the railway supply companies, several of 

 whom report having placed, in the last couple 

 of weeks, very substantial orders with the car 

 companies. Inasmuch as the lumber trade is 

 already beginning to experience a car shortage 

 which, however, seems most evident from the 

 southern pine district, this is a condition not 

 at all surprising. The railroads have evidently 

 let their rolling stock run down to a point 

 where a good percentage of it is utterly useless. 



The unsatisfactory prices which have pre- 

 vailed for some time past are gradually righting 

 themselves, though still below what the lumber 

 trade believes its products are worth. The more 

 or less concentrated movement in various sections 

 of the country with a view to realizing a more 

 profitable figure on low grades has as yet not 

 made itself evident in the local market, though 

 manufacturers of cheap furniture and other 

 users of low grade oak and birch and similar 

 woods have been slightly more consistent in 

 their buying recently. Sales are still, however, 

 predominantly in wagon load lots, with a balance 

 gradually going over to car and cargo sales. 



Birch has regained its high degree of popular- 

 ity and now with maple and well dried oak 

 leads the market as far as sales and prices are 

 concerned. Box makers seem to be in a better 

 humor than a short time ago and are beginning 

 to pick up enough business to keep the dealers 

 in low-grade cottonwood and poplar more or less 

 busy. This condition has not prevailed for a 

 good many weeks, ^^'ide poplar and Cottonwood 

 are good sellers and while the wagon people are 

 not unusually busy still they are taking their 

 due portion of good hickory. Red gum remains 

 firm, with prices in proportion. Basswood is 

 still an uncertain item, while elm is fairly 

 strong. 



NEW YORK 



The local hardwood market does not show 

 much activity at the buying end, although in 

 certain channels there seems to be a fair run of 

 business, liut the whole situation seems to lack 

 snap. Prices as a rule do not show any ma- 

 terial readjustment, good-grade lumber still 

 commanding firm prices on such orders as are 

 being placed, with low-grade stocks sul).iect to 

 more or less competition on sales by reason of 

 their more plentiful supplies. Good-grade lum- 



ber will undoubtedly continue to liold its own 

 right along, as supplies are low at mill points 

 and are for the most part in strong hands. It 

 Is generally believed that there will be a fair 

 run of business right along in all local consum- 

 ing channels, but it does not seem likely to be 

 of sufficient volume to make any great activity 

 in the buying end of the market. Some of the 

 dealers report being fairly busy and others to 

 be dull, but there is a fair reason to expect that 

 there will be sufficient consumption right along 

 to keep the market fairly steady until such time 

 as the business situation readjusts itself to a 

 more normal condition. 



There is a slightly better tone to the export 

 marliet and more inquiries are out, but as a rule 

 the export shipments of lumber continue to he 

 of a hand-to-mouth order. The demand for for- 

 eign mahogany and cedar is light, although im- 

 ports of logs continue in fair volume and con- 

 sequently prices show some fluctuation. The 

 hardwood flooring market is in very fair shape 

 and prices are firm. In the domestic woods, 

 poplar, maple and birch are the strongest on the 

 list, with oak, ash and chestnut holding their 

 own. 



BUFFALO^ 



While the hardwood trade unite in saying 

 that business is quiet, one or two report big 

 contracts and the yards of some others show 

 an improvement in the situation. There is a 

 feeling with man.v, however, that things are 

 liicely to go on about as they are until the 

 first of next year. 



Oak is still tlie leading seller in both plain 

 and'quartered and a good deal is being received 

 by local yards. Chestnut is in demand, but is 

 rather scarce. Orders are coming in more freely 

 and for all grades and thicknesses of poplar. 

 Receipts of birch, which has been scarce lately, 

 are growing larger and good-sized shipments 

 of basswood, elm and ash are coming in by 

 lake as the season draws to a close. 



Pacific coast lumber is making much prog- 

 ress in this market and taking the place even of 

 oak to quite a considcraljle extent. A Buf- 

 falo jobber slates that he some time ago sold 

 .some Washington fir to New York barge build- 

 ers and now they are asking for more, saying 

 that their barges built of it several years ago 

 are giving excellent satisfaction. They want 

 it in lengths up to SO and 100 feet. 



Sawmill owners in the oak trade in the South- 

 west agree in saying that the shortage in the 

 cotton crop will make logs cheaper and some 

 of them will wait until this happens, as the de- 

 mand for dry lumber is not great. 



PITTSBURQ 



any big buying movement this fall. Neither is 

 I here any reason to believe that a serious slump 

 in business will occur. Hardwood mills are 

 working hard to get a little dry stock ahead for 

 wliatever demand may come. Plants in western 

 Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio, 

 wliich were down part of the summer, have 

 resumed operations in full. Koad men report 

 lliat stocks of really good dry hardwood at most 

 plants are low and that the tendency under 

 normal conditions would be toward higher 

 prices. This theory is working out with some 

 woods. Hickory and ash, for instance, arc badly 

 wanted, as is also maple, and the man with dry 

 slock can hold his quotation firm. On the other 

 band, Oie best grades of white oak, which have 

 been selling splendidly all summer and fall, 

 have dropped olf suddenly in demand. Low- 

 grade oak and in fact most low-grade hardwoods 

 liave come forward during the past few weeks 

 in such quantities as to cause quite a slump in 

 price. This is true also of sound wormy chest- 

 nut and spruce boxing material. The yard tr.ade 

 is a little lietter in spots. City trade does not 

 improve. Business with the manufacturers 

 sliows some improvement in certain lines, but Is 

 not what it should be at this season, and these 

 concerns seem to he holding off from buying 

 large quantities, i)0ssibly in the belief tliat lower 

 prices will prevail later. 



BOSTON 



While reports from some of the hardwood 

 centers have been more encouraging, local deal- 

 ers do not report much of any change for the 

 better. The yard trade has been fairly busy, 

 but the wholesale business has lacked snap for 

 some time. The price question is attracting a 

 good deal of attention and is responsible to 

 some extent for the conservative way that buy- 

 ers are taking hold. Many believe that prices 

 will be lower and for this reason are not will- 

 ing to anticipate their wants. Lower quota- 

 tions have Ijeen named by some manufacturers 

 who a few weeks ago were not willing to make 

 concessions. While there is talk of concessions, 

 buyers admit that they are not finding any 

 surplus of desirable grades of hardwoods. Deal- 

 ers state that any improvement in demand 

 would be followed by a hardening of values. 

 Consuming manufacturers are beginning to be a 

 little more active, although few are being oper- 

 ated to full capacity. 



The market for quartered oak is fairly steady. 

 Some report stock being offered at inside prices 

 but sales have been made at as high a figure 

 during the past two weeks as at any time this 

 year. Plain oak is fairly well held. A good 

 call for maple and an export demand for black 

 walnut is reported. Chestnut is in moderate 

 call. Birch has had a fair volume of new busi- 

 ness of late and prices are well held. Some 

 dealers report the call for cypress as. a little 

 less active and manufacturers are willing to 

 accept lower bids in some cases. Poplar is not 

 as active, especially widths suitable for the 

 automobile trade. 



BALTIMORE 



The 

 "fair." 



lardwood situation may be marked up as 

 Nothing appears at jiresent to indicate 



There is as yet no such pronounced recovery 

 in the hardwood trade as was looked for by 

 Ibis time, but it is equally true that the move- 

 ment continues to be of fair volume. There 

 seems to be considerable buying in nearly all 

 departments, and the prospects encourage the 

 belief that the near future will bring improve- 

 ment, both as to quantity and values. Effort Is 

 required to get business, and members of the 

 trade able to make a good showing have done, 

 perhaps, more hustling in the past months than 

 ibey found necessary for years. Millmen say 

 they are disposing of their stocks as fast as the 



