W^"^ European Dock JMeasurements Unfair 



Tiioie Mif iiKinv qiu'sticins wljii'li tlio experienced exiiorter takes 

 iuto consideration in figuring up at the end of his year whether he 

 has derived a reasonable profit from his efforts and investment in 

 foreign trade. The long distance between seller and buyer in the 

 case of export shipments makes it necessary that in order to insure 

 satisfaction on both sides and fair treatment of all parties concerned, 

 uniform and practical methods should govern in all phases of such 

 I'lireign shipments. 



One of the features which the lumber exporters have been most 

 opposed to is the practice prevailing on the part of the foreign dock 

 companies in connection with the measurement of import shipments 

 of lumber. A great hardship is worked upon exporters because of 

 the practice on the part of the dock people abroad to make their 

 measurements on a purely theoretical and technical basis, without 

 regard for a practical method as accepted by the lumber trade 

 throughout all the lumber-handling sections of the globe. This has 

 to do with the measurement of thickness, the dock people ruling that 

 a board that is a sixteenth inch scant on the thinnest edge must 

 take the next thickness below what it was marked. 



A recent issue of the Timber Trade Journal of London contains 

 a fair exposition of this matter in the form of an interview given to 

 that paper by a prominent American lumber shipper. His statement 

 is as follows: 



' ' More than a year ago a committee of the National Lumber Ex- 

 porters ' Association, with headquarters at Baltimore, U. S. A., com- 

 j)Osed of representative hardwood shippers, visited London, and had 

 conferences with the liardwood section of the Timber Trade Federa- 

 tion regarding the technical manner in which the dock companies 

 measured all parcels of American hardwoods landed in the London 

 docks. Shippers have nearly always had shortages on shipments 

 measured by the dock companies on account of the technical manner 

 in which the thickness is taken, whereas shipments going overside into 

 lighters for buyer's wharf and measured by the buyers seldom 

 showed a shortage. The principal reason of these shortages is that 

 the thickness, as taken by the dock companies, is not taken in a 

 I'lactieal way. Por instance, take one inch and thicker quartered oak, 

 hich wood always shrinks more on the heart edge than on the sap 

 • Ige, and for which no accurate allowance when sawing can be 

 illowed, as timber from one tree shrinks more than from another. 

 Icing of different texture. The dock companies, when finding a 

 piece one-sixteenth inch scant on the thinnest edge (always the heart 

 edge), put such a piece down to the next thickness. Supposing the 

 . goods happened to be 1^,4 inches by 10 inches and up quartered white 

 oak, with a value, say, of 5s. 9d. per foot cube, every piece one- 

 sixteenth under l'/4 inch at any place would bring the piece down 

 to 1x10 and up, at a %-alue of, say, os. 6d., thus not only reducing the 

 contents, but also reducing the value. 



"At the various committee meetings with the hardwood section of 

 the Timber Trade Federation, those present being mostly the London 

 timber brokers, no support was given the American shippers, the 

 reason being stated that the brokers of the hardwood section of the 

 Timber Trade Federation could take no action without the merchants 

 being present to discuss the matter and vote on same, and at the last 

 meeting it was stated that it was not possible to get the merchants 

 suflSciently interested to discuss the matter, and therefore it was 

 regretted tliat present methods could not be changed. 



"It must be obvious to merchants engaged in importing American 

 hardwoods to London that the dock companies' measurement is too 

 technical, for when these same merchants measure the goods at their 

 wharves there is very seldom a shortage, but if measured by the 

 dock companies there is invariably a shortage. This does not seem 

 fair to the shipper. At the several meetings it was explained by 

 the American committee that it is impossible to manufacture lumber 

 so uniform as to have each piece dry the exact thickness it was 

 originally cut for, the reason being the different texture of the various 

 logs, one shrinking more than another in the drying; therefore, as 

 all the markets in the United Kingdom, as well as on the Continent, 



measure Ajuerican lumber from a practical point of view, including 

 the London timber merchants when measuring at their yards, and 

 as the dock companies' measure is the only technical measurement, 

 and as the Timber Trade Federation would not come to the relief 

 of the American shippers, the matter was referred to the mem- 

 bers of the National Lumber Exporters' Association for action, 

 seventy per cent of whom agreed to sell in London only on the 

 basis of measurement, these being according to conditions asked 

 for at the conference between the Timber Trade Federation and 

 the National Lumber Exporters' Association committee, as follows: 



'In taking the thickness of all American lumber, same to be taken one 

 loot from the thinnest place. 



•In case not more than ten per cent In plain oak ami twenty per cent 

 In quartered oak one inch and thicker should be one-sixteenth scant In 

 thickness and three-quarter inch and thinner one thirty-second scant In 

 thickness, no notice is to be taken and the parcel as a whole is to be 

 considered full thickness. 



•Wlicic shipments are found by the dock company to have the super- 

 flcial contents marked on each piece in figures, such figures must stand, 

 or alternatively, any pieces with the measurements of which the dock com- 

 pany disagrees must be laid aside for Inspection. 



•Where the variation in measure does not amount to one and one-half 

 per cent, no claim for shortage is to be made, provided the wood is meas- 

 ured full board contents.' 



"It was suggested by some of the members of the Timber Trade 

 Federation at the conferences that if these points were agreed to, 

 American shippers would cut their timber specially for the London 

 market, sawing it thinner for the London market alone, so as te 

 reap this benefit. Anyone who has been in the States and is familiar 

 with the workings of an American band mill, and who is at all prac- 

 tical, must know that this could not be done. 



"Eegarding the IV2 per cent difference in measure provided for, 

 this is only a reasonable difl'erence that any two measurers might 

 make in measuring the same parcel, and is reasonable inasmuch as 

 no measurer can say he is absolutely infallible, and that his measure 

 is absolutely correct. In a car of 1 inch boards of 12,000 feet super 

 ficial the difference is only 180 feet superficial. It does not mean 

 that every car of American hardwoods will be 1% per cent short 

 of London measure, but it does mean that if a greater difference 

 than this does not exist, there is no basis for claim. 



"Another point is that no credit is ever given the shipper by the 

 buyer when the parcel shows an overplus, and this does happen, per- 

 haps, fairly often, except when measured by the dock companies. 



"Tn view of the above decision, it would be well for importers 

 whose contracts contain these conditions, and who intend having the 

 goods measured by the dock companies, to notify the dock companies 

 so that measurement can be taken in accordance with contract. It is 

 a pity that the hardwood section of the Timber Trade Federation of 

 London and the National Lumber Exporters' Association do not act 

 more in harmony, as much good would result in exchange of practical 

 ideas from time to time. 



' ' Hardwood forests in the States are rapidly becoming depleted, 

 and conditions in producing and marketing must naturally change 

 from time to time, and unless importers are prepared to lend a help- 

 ing hand to shippers as conditions change, it naturally forces ship- 

 pers to protect their interests as best they can without the help of the 

 importers, which is to be very much regretted. ' ' 



Good Work Spreading 



Forest fire associations among timberland owners, by publicity and 

 systematic organization, are materially reducing forest fire losses. 

 The work begins in the neighborhood and extends to the nation. The 

 government's provision whereby it supplies money for fire-fighting in 

 states which provide money for the same purpose, is helping the 

 work more than almost any other one thing. It is not so much the 

 actual amount of money spent by the government as it is the spread 

 of the right ideas among the people. A majority of the forested 

 states have organizations which are doing effective work in forest 

 protection and education. 



