HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



to L-oiupare notes with others in the same business on. goaio intelli- 

 gent basis. To do this terms ami methods used in arrivinfj at 

 results must be common; otherwise the comparison is of little 

 benefit. 



Frequently there is a wide variation in figures quoted by two 

 different manufacturers as to the cost of performing certain work. 

 This leads to an analysis of the figures, to determine how they 

 were arrived at. U.suully this indicates that different methods 

 were used, and that one man included certain things that the 

 other left out. 



In order to avoid thii necessity for such analysis, and to make 

 a comparison of real value without questioning the method used, 

 uniform systems ought to be employed. Sawmill men, planing- 

 niill operators, furniture manufacturers and others who are study- 

 ing costs should consider uniformity as carefully as they consider 

 accuracy in building a cost system. A standard system used by 

 everybody is immeasurably superior to a score of methods indis- 

 criminately employed. 



THE IDEAL FLOORING WAREHOUSE 



One of the most important problems which the manufacturer 

 of hardwood flooring has to contend with is that of keeping his 

 stock in storage in good condition. The conditions of the business 

 are such that a large amount of material is carried on hand, some 

 of it remaining in the warehouse for months at a time. Protect- 

 ing it from moisture and from wide variations in temperature is a 

 necessity of the manufacturer. A lot of care has been given to 

 the work of keeping it in good condition. Heating arrangements 

 have been made which maintain an even temperature all the 

 time. Walls and floors have been built with a view to excluding 

 and eliminating excess moisture, and the stock of flooring is 

 looked after as carefully as a week-old baby. 



This is all^ necessary and desirable; but at the same time it 

 should be remembered that the flooring not infrequently passes 

 through several hands before it reaches its ultimate place, in the 

 floor of the user. Does the manufacturer protect his product, or 

 see that it is protected, from the time that it leaves his ware- 

 house until it is used? If not, then much of his eff(Jit at the 

 factory is wasted. 



The flooring man who is proud enough of his goods to stamp 

 his trade-mark on each piece should also see to it that they are 

 properly handled by dealers and contractors, so that the ultimate 

 user will get the sort of material he has a right to expect. 



THIS GRADER WORKS BEHIND TRIMMER 



A trip to the mill of a prominent Indiana operator recentlj' 

 disclosed several interesting features, one of which particularly is 

 of rather vital importance, or at least touches a question of vital 

 importance, namely, the grading of lumber. This gentleman goes 

 on the theory that one man should be responsible for getting out 

 the entire product of the log as far as actual money value is 

 concerned. He believes that the man who naturally should have 

 the supervision of that work is the man who actually puts his 

 mark on the boards designating their actual worth. That man is 

 the grader, who in usual operations works alongside the grading 

 chains. 



At the mill in question, however, the owner, who is pretty well 

 noted for his sagacity, has decided that inasmuch as the grader is 

 responsible he should be in closer touch with the operations. 

 Hence, instead of putting him at the grading chains he is placed 

 immediately behind the trimmer. Thus he can get in instant touch 

 with the sawyer the minute he sees there is anything wrong with 

 the manufacture of the lumber coming from the band saw, and 

 valuable time will not be wasted and valuable logs sawed up into 

 mis-manufactured stock while the grader is going through the 

 process of informing the sawyer and shutting down the mill to 

 change saws. 



The grader in this case is given absolute authority over the 

 entire organization, and the operator says that the scheme is 

 working out to a nicety. 



TRIMS VENEER AFTER DRYING 



The wisdom of the usual ]irocess of triiiiiiiing rotary cut veneer 

 before drying has been questioned by a cortaiu manufacturer in 

 North Carolina, who says that he reverses the process and trims 

 his stock only after it is dry. lie says there are many advantages 

 in this method of operation, and that ho lias j'et to discover any 

 disadvantages. According to this particular operator he saves 

 about fifteen per cent in the actual amount of waste resulting 

 from trimming, and turns out a far more uniform product than he 

 could possibly do if he were to trim his stock first and then allow 

 it to shrink to the size assumed after drying. 



The suggestion does not have anything in it of a particularly 

 radical nature, and inasmuch as it has been very successfully tried 

 out by this North Carolina man, it would seem that it is worthy 

 of consideration on the part of other manufacturers of rotary 

 stock. 



Memphis Log Supply Not Promising 



The movement of timber from the Mississippi valley to mills 

 at Memphis and elsewhere in this territory promises to be com- 

 paratively light during the next three or four months if weather 

 conditions are not such as to make logging operations possible 

 on a scale larger than normal for this time of the year. This 

 outlook is based on reliable information to the effect that the 

 supply of timber on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley line of the 

 Illinois Central System awaiting loading is not more than from 

 twenty to twenty-five per cent of the corresponding time a year 

 ago. The movement during the four months beginning August 1 

 was exceptionally heavy, but the indications now are that the 

 small movement which became evident around the first of Decem- 

 ber will continue in force for some weeks unless, as already 

 suggested, the weather is such as to make the preparation of 

 timber for shipment possible on a pretty full scale. 



From Arkansas a better movement of timber is promised. This 

 is particularly true of the territory served by the Memphis- 

 Marianna cut-off of the Iron Mountain System and the Missouri 

 and North Kansas roads. Both of these lines are comparatively 

 new and the timber in the sections traversed thereby is closer 

 to the railroads because the development is in its infancy. This 

 means a much shorter haul and it also means logging conditions 

 much more favorable in some important particulars than those 

 in the delta. The Valley Log Loading Company is operating now 

 on the Memphis-Marianna. cut-off and it reports that the amount 

 of timber awaiting handling is much larger, proportionately, than 

 on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley road. 



The amount of timber arriving by water is fairly large and 

 conditions, from the standpoint of water transportation, are some- 

 what more favorable, so far as some of the tributaries of the 

 Mississippi are concerned. This applies particularly to the St. 

 Francis river, on which timber is now being moved in large enough 

 volume to enable some of the plants which were closed down to 

 resume operations. There are a number of tow boats and barges 

 engaged in the handling of timber on the Mississippi and its tribu- 

 taries and the movement of logs by water is supplementing the 

 receipts by rail at a time when the latter are, relatively, somewhat 

 small. The mills here are generally pretty well supplied with 

 timber and there is little or no short time on account of lack of 

 raw material. 



In connection with the movement of logs, it may be noted that 

 the officials of the Southern Hardwood Traffic Bureau and those 

 of the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad Company have reached 

 an agreement whereby the rate on logs over that line to Memphis 

 are to be reduced two cents per hundred pounds. The bureau 

 some time ago filed a petition in behalf of the Nickey Brothers 

 Hardwood Lumber Company and the Tschudy Lumber Company 

 with the Interstate Commerce Commission seeking a lower rate 

 on log shipments to this center. The matter now goes to that 

 body on an agreed statement of facts and if the latter is approved 

 the petition itself will bo withdrawn and the incident closed. 



