DccembPr 10. 1918 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



(Continued from par/c 24) 

 but iu beech tlie contrast is so strong that heart and sap flooring 

 do not harmonize if laid side by side, and selection iu regard to 

 color is made somewhat carefully. 



Both beech and maple flooring may be quarter sawed and a 

 figure of small, pleasing pattern is developed iu each; but it is nor 

 often considered worth while doing it for the figure alone. The 

 quartered figure in beech is more prominent than in maple. Beech 

 never exhibits birdseye or wavy figure, while it is rather common 

 with maple. 



In point of durability, so far as decay is concerned, little dif- 

 ference exists between maple and beech. If the wood is kept dry, 

 decay has little eifect on either. Sometimes floors are wet most of 

 the time. That may be the case in mills and factories, and undei 

 such circumstances, beech flooring is better than maple. It resists 

 wear better. Water does not soften it much. 



Sugar maple is not tlie hardest American wood, and some that 

 are harder but are not now in much use as flooring, present possi- 

 bilities in that line. Fourteen woods harder than sugar maple are 

 given in the following list, and the list might be considerably ex- 

 tended. Bearing in mind that maple's hardness, side test, is repre- 



sented liy 2,000, the following woods and figures may be compared 

 with it: 



In point of wearing qualities, persimmon is probably the best floor 

 wood of this country. It ought to last twice as long as maple, but 

 so far as statistics show, no persimmon flooring is manufactured in 

 the United States. The wood is not very plentiful and is more 

 valuable for other things. It was proved in a Philadelphia store 

 where the wear was excessive, that maple floors outlast marble. 

 The period of service which persimmon flooring would give is un- 

 known, and it is reasonably certain that some of the extraordinarily 

 hard tropical woods, lignum-vitae for one, would last still longcn 



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Pertinent Legal Findings 



Discrimination by Carriers 



A contract between plaintiff railway company and defendant 

 lumber company, entered into in 1899, covered traffic arrangements 

 governing the movement of defendant 's logs to the mill, and con- 

 tained a clause to the effect that defendant should not be held to 

 demurrage charges. This clause is held by the Michigan supreme 

 court to be invalid as involving unjust discrimination against other 

 shippers who are required to pay $1 per day demurrage after two 

 days' free time. The 1909 statute of Michigan, which forbids dis- 

 crimination between shippers, applies to demurrage charges as well 

 as transportation charges proper. That the contract was made 

 before this statute was enacted does not exempt it from the opera- 

 tion of the law, since all contracts with common carriers are subject 

 to exercise of the state's regulatory powers. (Michigan supreme 

 court. Grand Eapids & Indiana Railway Co., 168 Northwestern 

 Reporter, 961.) 



Unguarded Circular Saws 



AfSrming judgment in favor of the estate of an employe in a 

 woodworking establishment, who was fatally injured through a 

 board being thrown against him by a circular ripsaw which he 

 was operating, it is held by the Iowa supreme court that an 

 employer's statutory duty to properly guard such saws is not dis- 

 charged by installing such guard as may be used or laid aside by 

 the operator at his caprice, and an employe does not assume the 

 risk of his employer's failure to provide a proper and permanent 

 guard, unless he encounters a danger so obvious that a workman 

 of ordinary prudence would not encounter it under the same cir- 

 cumstances. (Nodland vs. Kreutzer & Wasem, 168 Northwestern 

 Reporter, 889.) 



Passing of Title to Lumber 



The case of Hubbard vs. Ellis & Myers Lumber Co., 96 South- 

 eastern Reporter, 754, reviewed by the Virginia supreme court 

 of appeals recently, involved a controversy between creditors of 

 a lumber manufacturer and defendant company, which had con- 

 tracted to buy lumber from such manufacturer and had made 

 advances thereon. The precise point in dispute was as to whether 

 defendant company had become vested with title to certain quan- 

 tities which had been manufactured under the contract and piled 

 on sticks. Deciding the case in defendant's favor, the court holds 

 that although it is impossible for legal title to personal property 

 to pass to a buyer until it has actually come into existence — as 

 in the ease of lumber to be specially manufactured for a buyer — 



title may pass immediately thereafter, or not, according to the 

 expressed intention of the parties. If consistent with such inten- 

 tion, title to lumber may be deemed to have passed to the buyer, 

 although there has been no physical delivery, although the manu- 

 facture may not have been completed, although there may have 

 been no inspection on the part of the buyer, although there may 

 have been no grading or ascertainment of quantity, and although 

 there may have been no payment on the price. In this case, the 

 court determined the question of passage of title in accordance 

 with an expressed agreement between the manufacturer and the 

 defendant that title should pass on the lumber being placed on 

 sticks on certain premises. 



Sales of Standing Timber 



A contract for a conveyance of standing "merchantable timber" 

 carries with it all timber, whatever its size, that had at the date 

 of the contract, or may have during the life of the contract, a com- 

 mercial value in the particular locality, for the purpose of manu- 

 facture into lumber, or for any other purpose. 



And a clause in a contract of this kind providing for payment 

 of one-half of the cash consideration when "transfer papers are 

 properly gotten up" makes the payment due when the grantor 

 furnishes a conveyance properly acknowledged for recordation. 

 (Virginia supreme court of appeals, Adams vs. Hazen, 96 South- 

 eastern Reporter, 741.) 



Defense of Personal Injury Suits 



In a suit against a lumber manufacturing company for injury 

 to one of its employes while operating a planing machine, or in any 

 other personal injury suit, it is improper to permit the jury to 

 consider the fact that the company carries insurance indemnifying 

 it against liability, or that an attorney of the insurance company 

 is defending or directing the defense of the suit. The reason for 

 this rule is that these facts have no legitimate bearing upon the 

 question whether the employer has been guilty of actionable negli- 

 gence producing the plaintiff employe's injury. (Alabama supreme 

 court, McLain vs. W. T. Smith Lumber Co., 79 Southern Reporter, 

 370.) 



Along some parts of the Atlantic coast where hickory is not 

 very abundant, ax handles are made of young, tough white oak. 

 The finished handle is boiled in oil until it soaks up all it will hold. 

 That is supposed to make the handle tough and elastic. 



