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HARDWOOD RECORD 



optimistic regarding the future prospect of gum than it has been 

 for some little time. 



In oak there has been a reall}- noticeable improvement in the lower 

 grades, without any corresponding weakening of the upper grades. 

 The better grades of oak are still slightly off, but there is no logical 

 reason to believe that there will be any further weakening. 



The lower grades of gum, Cottonwood and poplar are seemingly 

 having an excellent call from the box makers, who seem to be doing 

 an active business. 



Without being unduly optimistic, it is safe to say that the last 

 two weeks have brought forth no new developments that could be 

 used as excuses for the belief that the lumber business is in any 

 worse shape than it was two or three weeks ago. It is true that 

 promised renewal of activity has not yet begun to materialize, but 

 it is also true that no further stagnation has been noted and the 

 policy seems to be a waiting one with the multitude of small orders 

 and without any apparent tendency on the part of the buying trade 

 to commit itself to the purchase of any large blocks of stocks. It 

 is entirely likely that this situation will continue to be predominant 

 for some little time to come. 



The Prophecies of James J. Hill 



JAMES J. HILL, THE VETERAN EAILKOAD BUILDEE, and 

 a specialist in statistics, sounded a note of caution, if not of 

 warning, in a speech delivered at a recent meeting of bankers in 

 Chicago. The point in the leading paragraph of his address was 

 that "less than a year's subsistance stands between man and starva- 

 tion." To prove his point he quoted figures showing production and 

 consumption of wheat, and he showed that the margin of safety, on 

 the face of the returns, is small. 



There is nothing new in this. The world has had only one year's 

 supply of food ahead at a time since the earliest records of civilized 

 man. Barbarians and savages seldom have that much, and often 

 food for only a day or two. It took extraordinary exertion in the 

 time of Joseph for the Egj-ptians, on the most fertile land in the 

 world, to grow enough grain in one year to last two. The farmers, 

 considered for all countries, have never produced much surplus of 

 grain, and they are not doing it now. It is not necessary that they 

 should. There is no occasion to lay by vast stores of food, beyond 

 the year 's needs. It would deteriorate, mildew would attack it, 

 worms would infest the granaries, and nothing would be gained in 

 the end. We expect seedtime and harvest to continue. If some 

 great extraraundane catastrophe, like the Glacial Age, should blast 

 the land and upset nature, we would all have to die anyhow, whether 

 we had an extra supply of wheat laid by or not, but this state of 

 affairs is not anticipated. 



The famines of ancient times and of the middle ages were due 

 to lack of transportation facilities rather than to universal, or even 

 a, very general, failure of crops. A rainless season in a certain re- 

 gion brought famine because supplies five hundred miles away were 

 entirely inaccessible. That cannot happen now. Grain can be car- 

 ried half way round the world without prohibitory increase of price. 

 There is no immediate cause for alarm on account of threatened 

 drought or because of exhaustion of soil of farm lands. 



If the ordinary sources of fertilizers and the nitrate beds of 

 South America should prove inadequate, the by-products of coke 

 ovens, the saving of which is now well understood and extensively 

 practiced, will meet much of the need for fertilizers; and if that 

 fails, the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen has no limit, as far as 

 science can predict. Grain crops cannot fail, through sterility of 

 land, as long as the earth has an atmosphere, for exhaustless stores of 

 fertilizers are procurable there. At this time a vast hydroelectric 

 plant for the fixation of nitrogen is under construction in the 

 anterior of Iceland. Fertilizers made from arctic air will enrich 

 the wheat fields in any part of the world. The same work can be 

 carried on in all countries that have water power, and it is being 

 carried on in many places — at Niagara Falls, in the Southern Ap- 

 palachians, in Italy, and elsewhere. The specter of universal famine 

 has no excuse to stalk abroad in these days. 



There appears to be really more demand for serious thought in 

 considering the second warning or caution given by Mr. Hill, when 



he said that the people are spending too much money; cities and 

 corporations are recklessly going in debt, and enterprises — some of 

 which do not deserve the name — are being over-capitalized; stocks 

 are sold and bonds issued with inadequate security, and speculation 

 is reckless. Wall street, according to Mr. Hill's figures, sold new 

 securities in 1912 to the amount of nearly $7,000,000 for every busi- 

 ness day in the year. The bankers who listened to the address were 

 warned of rocks ahead unless the course of speculation was not 

 speedily directed into safer channels. Overbonded business was 

 pointed out as one of the country's greatest perils, and the speaker 

 insisted that this condition is growing worse at such a rate that the 

 limit of safety in many quarters has been passed. His si)eech was 

 largely wanting in optimism, and was pitched somewhat in the key 

 of the "Lament.it Ions of Jeremiah" sounding warnings to the reck- 

 less and headstrong inhabitants of Jerusalem. Let it be hoped that 

 Mr. Hill's predictions will not prove as true as Jeremiah's did. 



Cover Picture 



THE PICTURE ON THE COVER of this issue Hardwood Record 

 shows a fine example of the installation of a Kraetzer Prepara- 

 tor at the plant of C. L. Willey, Chicago. This api)aratus has been 

 previously discussed in Hardwood Record. 



There is a growing interest on the part of manufacturers in the 

 use of this equipment for steaming green or partially dry lumber 

 under pres.sure to insure its quick and accurate seasoning. With the 

 increased number of installations in various parts of the country 

 there is a growing popularity of lumber treated by this method. 

 Users of all varieties are fast learning that they can kiln-dry 

 Kraetzer-cured lumber product in less than one-half the time re- 

 quired to kiln-dry unsteamed wood. Besides that, the treatment 

 insures uniform tone, absolute freedom from stain and seasoning 

 defects, lighter weight and very much improved milling qualities. 



The equipment here pictured is employed in handling walnut, 

 Vermillion and black walnut, but in other Kraetzer Preparators at 

 lumber manufacturing plants in various parts of the country, red 

 gum, tupelo, cypress, red oak, white oak, beech, birch, maple, syca- 

 more, elm and other varieties of wood are successfully handled. The 

 apparatus is just as efficacious in handling soft woods as it is in 

 hardwoods. 



The equipment here shown has a capacity of handling well to- 

 wards 100,000 feet of lumber in ten hours. It constitutes the latest 

 and most efficient process known for the quick and accurate season- 

 ing of all varieties of lumber. 



A Logical Method 



THE LUMBER TRADE has felt that the efforts of the railroads 

 to effect a horizontal increase of five per cent in the general 

 freight rates of the country would work a gross injustice upon them 

 because it appeared from reports that it would be very difficult to 

 combat such advances. The reason for this difficulty would have been 

 the fact that such advances as originally proposed were to have been 

 general and without any consideration of different classes of com- 

 modities. The Interstate Commerce Commission, however, has seen 

 the wisdom of passing upon the question of the advances on the 

 individual commodities and has suggested that the railroads file sup- 

 plements of the existing tariffs advancing specific rates as they de- 

 sire, following which the commission will investigate the reason- 

 ableness of each proposed advance rather than of the general ad- 

 vance. 



It is reported that the railroads are now filing such supplements 

 and that numerous advances on lumber rates have already been filed. 

 It is assumed that all lumber rates in the country are to be included. 

 The wisdom of such a course is readily seen when it is learned that 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission will suspend these tariffs pend- 

 ing hearing upon each. If the time of suspension is too short to 

 get around to a consideration of the total number of individual 

 tariffs a further suspension will be granted on such tariffs as have 

 not been considered, which will be long enough to cover a period 

 sufficient to go over the elitire matter in this individual way. 



It can readily be seen that the ultimate decision as handed down 

 by the commission, will be based on a much fairer consideration of 



