40 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



January lo. inift 



Shawano County Hard Maple 



Is Our Specialty 

 Complete Stock of Northern Hardwoods 



WAUSAU, 



WISCONSIN 



GILL-ANDREWS LUMBER CO. 



^HEELER-XlMLIN LHM„1,IE, C2MP,^NI 



MANUFACTURERS AND WHOLESALERS 



HARDWOOD - HEMLOCK - PINE 



WAUSAU, WIS. 



Northwestern 

 Cooperage and Lumber Co. 



GLADSTONE, MICHIGAN 



Western OfBce: Mills at Gladstone and 



516 Lumber Exchange, Minneapolis, Minn. Escanaba, Mich. 



Chicago Office: 812 Monadnock Block 



Manufacturers of the following 



"PEERLESS" STANDARD BRAND PRODUCTS 

 Hardwood Flooring, Staves, Hoops, Heading 

 and Veneers, Hemlock Lumber, Lath, Shingles, 

 Posts, Poles and Ties, and Hemlock Tan Bark 



The Tegge Lumber Coi 



High Grade 



Northern and Southern 



Hardwoods and Mahogany 



Specialties 



OAK, MAPLE, CYPRESS, POPLAR 

 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 



Rattan Restrictions Removed 

 Tlic Hill- ii-iiiU' lioanl auuoimcfs that W. T. B. R. 176. issuert July 26, 

 1918, restricting the importation of rattans and reeds has been revoked, 

 and that henceforth applications for licenses to import rattans and reeds 

 will be considered by the war trade board for shipments from any coun- 

 try by any means of transportation. 



Building Permits for October 



The darkest hour comes just before the dawn. The total value of build- 

 ing permits issued for private cons^truction worlj in 142 cities throughout 

 the United States in October was less than for any month during the 

 past six years. The nearest approach to this low-water mark was In 

 January. 191S. when the returns from 110 cities showed a total of only 

 $400,000 greater value. 



Official Reports prom 142 Citie.s 

 The total value of these building permits. Issued in 142 principal cities 

 throughout the United States, as officially reported to the American Con- 

 tractor for October, 1918, was $26,279,711, as compared with $43,244,788 

 in October, 1917, a decrease of thirty-nine per cent. The following table 

 gives an interesting comparison of construction work in October for the 

 past five years : 



No. of cities 

 reported 



1918. 

 1917. 

 1916. 



191.T. 



1914. 



142 

 142 

 111 

 111 

 73 



Estimated value 

 of buildings 

 $26,000,000 

 43,000,000 

 99,000,000 

 78,000,000 

 44,000.000 



The recent ban on buildings which went into effect during September 

 was fully operative during only one entire month, namely, October. It is 

 obvious that once the government decided to eliminate private construction 

 work, the measures it took to do so were very effective. 



Gains are shown in twenty-six of the 142 cities listed, but these are 

 only significant as indicating centers of war activities. 



Portable Sawmills 



Reports issued by the government are seldom interesting reading though 

 they may be valuable as sources of information. The Forest Service has 

 done the unusual thing by publishing bulletin 71.S — dealing with small 

 sawmills. It was written by Daniel F. Seerey, logging engineer, and it 

 is readable. It contains human interest which is a rare thing in any 

 government rei)ort. 



-Mr. Seerey has evidently been through the mill himself, for he speaks 

 with too much understanding to have acquired his knowledge from hear- 

 say. He gives fatherly advice to those who contemplate going into the 

 small sawmill business, pointing out the dangerous places. Some of his 

 maxims and aphorisms sound like Emerson's philosophy or Franklin's 

 "Poor Richard's Almanack." His commentary on the unprofitableness of 

 green bands is very pointed, and he dpes not hesitate to say that many 

 of them do not do enough to pay their board. His advice on the subject 

 "f kinspeople who tag around after the proprietor of a portable mill is 

 lull of pep. "lio not." Mr. Seerey advises the operator in a calm, 

 fatherly way. "do not make your camp a dumping ground for all your 

 male relatives. You are supposed to be running a sawmill, not a rest 

 t'ure." 



He has a good word to say for hens and hogs that are kept about the 

 niills to eat the peach seeds and bread crusts that may be thrown out. He 

 likewise puts in a good word for the horses which do the hauling. "An 

 operator," sa.vs he, "will save money by keeping his horses idle in the 

 barn, no matter how l>adl.y their services are needed, rather than allow 

 a brainless teamster to pound them through the timber and over rocks, 

 stumps, and mud holes." 



Mr. Seerey sa.vs there is no money in sour dough grub although it 

 may be all right in novels. Some of the highbrow experts on "cost find- 

 ing," may think the author of the bulletin too primitive in his plans for 

 keeping the books in a small sawmill : but he shows some ways of doing 

 it which sound a little like the old bookkeeping with chalk on the barn 

 door ; nevertheless, he says, "Do not keep your accounts on a shingle," 

 Mr. Seerey is very strong on little maxims and suggestions for the 

 small millman. "If you are financially unable," he says, "to make more 

 than $300 in advance payments, do not sign a contract to pay $500." 

 Siniilarly be suggests that a man whose mill can cut only 500,000 feet 

 a year, should not sign a government contiVK-t to cut 5,000.000 feet in 

 three years. 



"Do not try to keep axes sharp with a rusty file. Try a grindstone." 

 "Do not try to manufacture merchantable lumber with a dirty, rusty 

 engine set on a rotten foundation with a shaky mandrel, rotten belt- 

 ing, a saw out of true and running at half speed under insufficient steam 

 from a leaky boiler. It can't be done." "Blow your whistle at seven 

 every morning and go to work at seven, not nine." 



The bulletin contains 68 pages and it cannot be adequately reviewed 

 in 1 the small space that can be given it here. It is presumed that the 

 Forest Service will send It tree to those who ask for it, as no sale price 

 is printed on it. .\11 operators of small mills will find it interesting 

 reading : and doubtless many a large mill owner, who passed through the 

 small-mill stage long ago. will find it a stimulation to his early recollec- 

 tions when he "used to be so happy and so poor." 



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