HARDWOOD RECORD 



It^ 



inaiiulai luivil artii'li-s tliat ileloiiiiim-s the ixteiil (if woinl iisiiij; in halainivl stati' in iiKHliutidii (if luuyli liiniln'i- anil it. iiiaiiMfail uied 



.liistrios. Idaho ami South Dakota havo eight such iiKhistrios each. articles. It has forty-t«o industries and leads all the otber states iu 



The slate (if Washington, which produces more lumber than any the extent of its wood manufactures, and it likewise stands liigli in 



other, has nineteen industries; Louisiana, which is second in produc- output of rough lumber. The standing lindic:-, the taitorics and the 



tion, has only twelve. Perhaps Pennsylvania is (he most evenly markets are near together. 



Consignments Demoralizing Abroad 



"^ji 



Holding back with foreign slii|inicnts is still in iiiilir, as is iiidi 

 cated by the report of exjiorts for the month of January, compared 

 with the corresponding month of 1913. The difference is no longer 

 as great as it has been, but the tendency to curtail forwardings is 

 none the less unmistakable, and would be even more so if allow- 

 ance were made for the shingle shipment of West Virginia spruce 

 sent out last month to South America, which added some .'ii30,U00 to 

 the total for the month, and yet cannot be regarded as really a part 

 of the exhibit for the reason that such shipments are only occasional. 

 The ditfereuce between the two montlis, as can be readily seen from 

 the figures, is almost entirely in oak, both log and lumber shipments 

 having fallen off. Thus, there were no shipments of oak logs at all 

 last month, against 4.i,000 feet in .lauuary, 1913, while the forward- 

 ings of oak lumber were 1,618,000 feet, worth .$.54,149, against 

 3,573,000 feet, valued at .$122,043, in January, 1913. The.se two 

 items alone account for the difference. As to the rest, there are 

 shiftings, to be sure, but a deficiency in one is off-set by an excess 

 in another, so that they about balance. Poplar exports even in- 

 creased, and It is with regard to poplar as one of the woods that 

 exporters issue warnings against shipping on consignments, as such 

 shipments are almost certain to net losses. The exports reflect fairly 

 well the state of tli(» foreign markets and should serve as a guide to 

 sliippeis. The figures are as follows: 



— inii^ --liii:;-- 



Quantity. ijicintity. 



I..ii;s — feet. Value. feet. Value. 



Hickory :'4,Ono .$ !I4C, lim.OOO .f 5,G41 



( ink 4."),000 2,294 



Walnut 184,0110 1 li.K'.Ci ] 88,000 11.82s 



All others 40.000 l.o:!0 T.'i.OOO 2.710 



Lumber — 



(■y|ires.s l.'i.OOO 5.S:i 



Dak 1,«18,000 .")4,14!1 :!..-i7:{,000 122.04a 



Shortleaf pine 08.000 S.lSa :i72,000 8.704 



.\11 other pine 10,000 700 70,000 2,24!l 



Tiipinr 380,000 20,407 303.000 1 L.S.jI 



.Spruce 074.000 30.208 . . 



.\11 others 310.000 ir,..-)l.-| 244,000 in.li41 



.lolsts and scantlings 33,000 l,0.-i7 



Shocks, all others .S07 888 0,072 7.014 



Staves l.-)0,13(i 0,200 342,821 1 2,441 



\U other kinds of lumber 21.812 4.080 



Doors 8.828 4,00o 



furniture 1.100 1.740 



Trlinmini;s 1,113 37i; 



A\[ other manufiictures of wood 11,963 3!l,."iS2 



Totals $190,790 .'F2.-.0.044 



Shipping lumber on consignment to some of the foreign markets 

 has again become an acute problem, and prominent shippers are issu- 

 ing warnings against the practice as productive of serious losses if 

 persisted in. The markets especially to be guarded against are those 

 of the United Kingdom, Rotterdam and some others on the Conti 

 nent, which have become so congested with stocks, chiefly oak and 

 poplar boards and oak jilanks, that the exporters who ship on con 

 signment only have a hard time of it in the face of the active com 

 petition and the low prices that prevail, while the consignment ship- 

 ments are kicked about like a football, to be finally sold for what- 

 ever they will bring, which is often considerably Ik-Iow their actual 

 cost to put down on the other side. The steamship comjianies, ]ier- 

 haps unintentionally, encourage the nnsettlenient, on account of con- 

 signment shipping, by exposing their manifests to whomever will 

 inspect them. It thus often happens that a foreign buyer receiving 



.1 slii|pincnt ipf iiintr:iit lunilicr. fm v.lii.li lie stninls l(. pay a certain 

 prii'e, learns that on the same vessel which bronglit his lumber came 

 fifteen or twenty cais or even more of consignment stuff, which, 

 having no contract guarantee behind it, is thrown upon the market 

 and goes for what it will bring, whether the market is in shajie to 

 take it or uot. The contract consignee immediately becomes dissatis- 

 fied, as is quite natural, and begins to find fault with the shipment, 

 which may have come up to requirements in every respect, with the 

 idea of getting the price he must pay down to the cost of the con- 

 signment lumber, with the result that the exporter is put to more or 

 less trouble and the entire market is unsettled. The history of the 

 export trade is one long record of disasters, due almost entirely to 

 consignment shipping. Sooner or later every one of the exporters 

 who engage in the practice indiscriminately is overtaken by misfor- 

 tune. It requires a careful study of the foreign markets and close 

 regard for their requireu'.ents to steer a safe course, and the fact 

 cannot be too strongly insisted upon that the ]iresent is a time when 

 it behooves the exporters to go slow about forwarding stocks. The 

 chief incentive, naturally, is that of being able to draw- on consign- 

 ment shipments for seventy-five per cent or more of the value of a 

 shipment the moment the invoice is at hand. The foreign broker 

 gets his, commission on this seventy-five per cent or so, and frequently 

 does not bother greatly about realizing the difference between it and 

 what would be a fair market price. In fact, his shaic in the differ- 

 ence is so small that he cannot well atfurd to spend a day or more 

 finding a taker who will pay the full price. The c(msignment, there- 

 fore, is often sacrificed, and quickly turned over, realizing perhaps 

 $.5 or so per 1,000 feet less than it should liring. This $'> is gener- 

 ally the difference between a profit and a loss. If th<? bad effects 

 of consignment shipping were confined to the men who engage therein, 

 they might be quietly left to become the victims of their own rash- 

 ness, but, as pointed out, the evil is far-reaching .and affects thft 

 entire trade. The situation in the markets mentioned is reported to 

 be worse at present than it has been for some time, and consignment 

 shipjiing will only add to the contusion. 



Unavailable Assets 



The state of Xevv York 's ownership of forest lands affords an 

 unique example of unavailable assets. It possesses several hundred 

 thousand acres of timber, yet it cannot touch a stick of it. The state 

 constitution forbids. Not a tree must be cut, even though it is over- 

 mature, or even though it becomes a menace by dying. It may bo 

 infested with enough beetles to stock the surrounding timber, yet the 

 law will not jiermit its removal. Advocates of forestry in the state 

 recommend the purchase of more land and the |ilanting of more trees, 

 while timber already over-ripe is permitted to die and rot. The 

 state owns one-fifth of the forest land within its borders and one- 

 fourth of the standing timber. Its stumpage is estimated at (),()00,000- 

 000 feet; yet this is left untouched while factories in the state send 

 outside $20,000,000 a year to buy Iiinibei. The annual demand for 

 crossties is 10,000,000 and more than half of them are bought beyond 

 the borders of Now York. It is estimated that the growth of the 

 state-owned forests amounts to .'12.5,000,000 feet of lumber a year; 

 but it grows to die unused unless the pe0]ile of the Umpire state 

 get busy- and change their constitution iu a way to permit lumber- 

 ing operations on state lamls. The proposed change in the constitu- 

 tion has been advocated for ten or fifteen years, but it is appatv- 

 entlv as far from consummation as ever. 



