32 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Juuf 1(1. 1921 



Manufacturers 



SOUTHERN HARDWOODS 



A^^ Mixed Oak ^^f ^^"^^ 



Poplar j,j^ Soft Maple 



Red Gum Tupelo 



CUMMER LUMBER COMPANY 



SALES OFFICE: 



280 MADISON AVENUE 



NEW YORK, N. Y. 



MAIN O F F I C !•: 



JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA 



The producers and buyers of southern lirirdwood lumber through- 

 out the country will no doubt be amazed at the facts revealed in 

 the adjoining table of production prei)ared by- May Brothers, 

 Memphis, Tenn. It has long been known that the percentage of 

 firsts and seconds grade cut hardwood logs was suffering a serious 

 decline. Manufacturers of hardwood lumber have been poignantly 

 aware of this, because it sat upon their ledgers like an incubus, 

 depressing their profits and sending their cost of operation higher 

 and higher. Buyers have also been aware of the steadily increasing 

 shortage of FAS lumber, because of the growing difficulty of 

 filling their requirements. Of late, while there has been a con- 

 siderable accumulation of the lower grades, at no time during the 

 period of "non-buying" has there been a noticeable accumulation 

 of PAS. In fact, there has been, and is now, an actual scarcity, in 

 spite of the relatively slack demand. 



Thus it appears that every one concerned has been made to feel 

 this situation, but no doubt none realized that it was as serious 

 as May Brothers' figures show it to be. Because of the general 

 lament over the shrinking percentages of FAS, few thought of the 

 additional fact that a like decline was taking place iu the money- 

 making species, such as white oak, red oak, ash, cottonwood and 

 poplar, with at the same time an alarming increase in the per- 

 centage of elm, sycamore, maple, hackberry and other secondary 

 southern hardwoods. You will note in reading the table that in 

 1908 to 1913 there was practically no gum in the run of timber, 

 but by 1919 and 1920, 43.8 per cent of the product of the mill has 

 become gum, 40 per cent of which is plain sap No. 2 common and 

 better, which can not be sold today for more than cost. 



Note all along the line the heavy decline in the percentage of 

 FAS and the corresponding increase of No. 2 common and lower 



grades. Then remember that hardly 50 per cent of the stock credited 

 to No. 3 common will grade as No. 3 common. 



In the years 1908 to 1910, 54.3 per cent of the output of the 

 mill was FAS, while in 1919 and 1920 only 15.7 per cent out of a 

 total cut of 44,490,197 feet was FAS. 



Accompanying this decline in the percentages of the money- 

 making grades and items of southern hardwood lumber, which in 

 itself was burden enough to bow the back of any industry, there 

 has been a steady pyramiding of freight rates. This pressure has 

 been brought to bear from two sides. For instance, the average 

 freight rate on logs hauled to the May Brothers' mill in 1908 was 

 .t^ per thousand feet whereas the current rate is $7 per thousand. 

 This is in addition to the several heavy increases in rates on the 

 finished product, increases which the manufacturer of hardwood 

 lumber must absorb when marketing his product under the condi- 

 tions now prevailing. Thus while the percentage of FAS grade in 

 southern hardwood lumber shipments was shrinking from 54.3 per 

 cent to 15.7 per cent of the cut of the log, freight rates advanced 

 50 or 75 per cent. It is hardly necessary to point out the glaring 

 injustice of a rising freight rate on a commodity declining in value. 



In submitting this table to Hardwood Record. May Brothers 

 directed attention to the fact that the decline in upper grades in 

 the cut of small mills, which represent the majority of production, 

 has undoubtedly been greater than the shrinkage at their opera- 

 tion. The smaller mills do not have as good nor as large stands 

 of timber to draw from and manifestly their cutting methods are 

 not as efiSeient as those of an organization the size of May Brothers. 

 Consequently they would produce a relatively larger percentage 

 of low grade stock per log. 



