56 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



November lu. Iii21 



VESTAL LUMBER 

 & MFG. COMPANY 



INCORPORATED 



Soft Textured Oak 



Poplar 



Black Walnut 



Tenn. Red Cedar 



KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE 



BAND MILLS AT VESTAL 



A PrlU:RB OF KNOX\TI.LE 



FONDE, KY., & DUFF, TENN. 



STRABLE 

 Lumber & Salt Company 



SAGINAW, MICHIGAN 



Manujaclurers 



Hardwood Lumber, Maple Flooring 



ALL GRADES AND THICKNESSES 



MODERN DRYKILNS AND PLANING MILL 

 Insist upon 



Wolverine Maple Flooring 



"Best by Test" 



i^lrML^le'riXS Maple, Birch, Basswood. Elm, Beech 



The Tegge Lumber Col 



High Grade 



Northern and Southern 



Hardwoods and Mahogany 



Specialties 



OAK, MAPLE, CYPRESS, POPLAR 

 Milwaukee,, Wisconsin 



marked optimism. They expect the marliet to be in gooii condition this 

 winter and they look for a boom period of substantial proportions in the 

 spring. 



The most encouraging news of the hardwood market is the recent 

 stimulus given the market liy improvement in the furniture trade, and 

 the fact that large automobile firms are coming into the market for large 

 orders. These factors are destined to have considerable effect on prices 

 and supply in the next few months, and the automobile movement especially 

 is expected to spread rapidly. 



Some of the large automobile arms that hitherto have been buying 

 exclusively in the middle west are making purchases from eastern firms, 

 with the result the easterners are much encouraged, and some of them 

 see a new angle to business opening up. The reason for this Innovation 

 was not explained by one of the New York lumbermen, who is benefiting 

 as a result of changed conditions, but he said knowingly that the East is 

 destined to get a fair share of the automobile trade in the immediate 

 future. 



Another item of great importance is the great improvement iu the 

 <lemand for piano lumber. The piano manufacturers of New York especially 

 have kept out of the market in the face of persistent warnings from 

 the hardwood wholesalers, and some of them And themselves with stocks 

 sadly depleted. The depletion has forced them into the market, and thus 

 far they have found fluctuations such that they cannot tell from one day 

 to the other what the quotations will be. 



The hardwood manufacturers are giving no guarantee on quotations, 

 and they look for interesting developments in all hanlwood lines in the 

 next few weeks. 



BUFFALO 



I'he haidwuod market is showing a little more strength in the upper 

 grades and in some cases common lumber is also higher. Dealers report a 

 sliglitly increased demand and look for fair business this fall, though they 

 expect customers to buy on a hand-to-nionth basis while the freight rate 

 question is unsettled. Stocks with the Iniyers are not large as a rule, and 

 wholesale yards are also short of some sorts of stock. Mills are report- 

 ing a pretty fair demand. 



Plain oak has been advancing recently, having been out of line with 

 other woods, and sales have been increasing. Red gum has shown 

 increased activity during the past few weeks, which is a pretty good indi- 

 cation that furniture factory trade is improving. Oak flooring has liad an 

 advance and the building situation is such that a larger amount of floor- 

 ing is now iielng called for. 



BALTIMORE 



The hnprovenieni in the liallimore hardwood tradr has become so 

 decided that its substantial character is now generally admitted. Until 

 recently there were members of the traile who dissented from the reports 

 giving favorable accounts of the slate of the business, but by now every 

 one has been won over to the view that the situation has become decidedly 

 better, and that the outlook presents a pronouncedly hopeful aspect. Not 

 only is the demanil for stocks of all kinds increaseil. but prices have 

 stiffened still more, with the market no Kmger in absolute control of the 

 buyers. The mills are at present able to get remunerative returns if they 

 will hold out for their figures, which applies especially to the export busi 

 ness. Advices from aljroad are to the effect that at least some of the 

 shippers are selling for materially less than they can get if they will only 

 stand firm, diflferences of $10 to .$15 per 1,000 feet in the quotations being 

 reported. Coincidently with the augmented movement it has become still 

 more evident that sto<ks of hardwoods at the mills are by no means large, 

 and that in fact something like a shortage looms up. Plants that have 

 been idle for months have resumerl operations in order that tlie assortments 

 of lundter nuiy not become entirely exbansted. while the stocks of consumers 

 have reai'hed a stage of depletion when material additions must be made. 

 The inquiry conies from all directions, though it should be said that the 

 calls from abroad for railroad supplies are by no means as numerqus as 

 Ihey ought to be. All divisions of the market are affected virtually alike, 

 and it looks as though something like a boom were not far away. 



Ilarvey M. Dickson, secretary of the National Lumber Kxporters* Asso- 

 '■iafion, disctissing export conilltions last weekr had this to say about the 

 situation : 



"The gradual improvement in the demantl for American hardwoods in 

 the United Kingdom during the past four or five weeks continues. The 

 tone of the markets in practically all of the ports has InLproved. Mer- 

 chants are bu.ving more freel.v, and it may also be said that the snuill 

 consuming trade is calling for more .-American hardwoods than for several 

 mouths past. As in this country, the demand for lumber from railway com- 

 panies has been practically nil, but indications point to an improvement. 

 Supplies of railroad material on hand are not large and are being slowly 

 depleted, and there is consequently every prospect of an increased demand 

 from this source. 



"High grade stocks in the United Kingdom are reported as l)elng fairly 

 well exhausted, and the dock reports show that only small quantities of 

 American woods are coming forward. Exporters are getting more inquiries 

 and, I believe, hooked orders In October than in any other month of 



