54 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Filiruai-y 25, 1922 



Plain and Qtd. Red and White 



Even VJ A JV Soft 



Color AND OTHER Texture 



Hardwoods 



Soft Yellow Poplar 



MADE (MR) RIGHT 



OAK FLOORING 



PROMPT SHIPMENTS 

 The 



Mowbray 8C Robinson Co, 



(INCOHI'OKATK.n 



CINCINNATI, OHIO 



STRABLE 



Lumber & Salt Company 



SAGINAW, MICHIGAN 



Manufacturers 



Hardwood Lumber, Maple Flooring 



ALL GRADES AND THICKNESSES 



MODERN DRY-KILNS AND PLANING MILL 

 Insist upon 



Wolverine Maple Flooring 



"Best by Test" 



l^'AV^X Maple. Birch, Basswood, Elm. Beech 



The Tegge Lumber COi 



High Grade 



Northern and Southern 



Hardwoods and Mahogany 



Specialties 



OAK, MAPLE, CYPRESS, POPLAR 

 Milwaukee,. Wisconsin 



uary was an exceeilingly dull month anil Frtiruary has not been any bet- 

 ter. There is of course some business but it lacks life and both wholesalers 

 and retailers are buying in limited quantities and just as they want the 

 lumber. In some instances they wait until the last minute and then 

 order by telegraph. Practically none of the hardwood mills in this sec- 

 tion are being operated at all and it is not known at this time when they 

 will resume operations. There are few logs coming in and manufacturers 

 who are not running their mills are making no special efforts to get logs 

 and will not in fact until business conditions are better. Lumber prices 

 are holding their own very well and no material reduction in prices is 

 looked for for at least another year, according to the leading wholesalers 

 here. The various wood consuming plants in Evansville are being operated 

 on an average of about 80 per cent normal and the factories at Owensboro, 

 Ky., Henderson, Ky., Tell City, Ind.. and other towns within a radius 

 of fifty miles of Evansville also are running on about the same average. 

 Some of the manufacturers believe that a little later on they will be able 

 to run on better time. The manufacturers of farm implements in the cities 

 of this section report that they now are employing about 50 per cent of 

 their normal force. 



MEMPHIS 



The demand for hardwood lumber is slowly but steadily increasing, as 

 evidenced by the fact that each of the three weeks just past has seen a 

 gain over the one preceding, thus suggesting that the increase is cumula- 

 tive. Manufacturers of flooring, sash, doors and interior trim are the most 

 active bu.vers, according to practically all members of the trade. Reports 

 being received from the building trades suggest that there will be a record 

 amount of building under way by April 1 in all parts of the country, and 

 those who are engaged In preparing the necessary materials are becoming 

 increasingly active. Furniture manufacturers are still placing orders with 

 considerable conservatism. But hardwood lumbermen here are not giving 

 themselves much concern on this score. They insist that the enormous 

 amount of home and apartment construction must necessarily be followe<i 

 by a big demand for the furniture with which to make these structures 

 livable, thus paving the way for active buying on the part of the furniture 

 group. They also point out that manufacturers of furniture are running 

 their plants very close to capacity, and that they are eating into their 

 reserve stocks, thus hastening the day when they must come into the 

 market in a big way. 



.Vutomobile manufacturers are credited with sizable purchase of ash and 

 other hardwoods for use In the making of closed cars. Bo.v manufac- 

 turers are showing increased activity and are consuming considerable 

 quantities of low grade cotton wood and gum. Wholesale Interests are 

 in the market in a fair way, and altogether members of the trade feel 

 encouraged over more recent developments in the general situation. Prices 

 are firmer than recently, and it is notable that some holders here are refus- 

 ing to make sales of high grade stock unless they are able to work off 

 some of the lower grades for which demand is less active than in the case 

 of No. 1 common and better. 



Production is not making particularly striking headway. Much inter- 

 rupti<in is reporlcil on ac<'ount of unfavoral>le weather. It is estimated 

 that hardwood output Is not al)ove 50 per cent of normal, and some hold 

 the view that sales and shipments arc quite as large as daily output, with 

 resultant maintenance of the somewhat strained relations between supply 

 and demand. During the dullness Just before the holidays and during 

 practically the whole of .lanuary, production probably exceeded shipments, 

 but, it Is regarded as doubtful it they are doing so now. Furthermore, in 

 the o|)inion of tho.se best informed, there is every probability that demand 

 win show heavy expansion during the next few weeks, while prospects are 

 very slight for any increa.se in hardwood output until early summer. 

 Spring rains and spring floods are still ahead, and, unless they are 

 unusually mild, they will severely handicap manufacturers of hardwood 

 lumber attempting to operate their plants. 



Export demand is reported rather quiet as a rule, although one firm in 

 the Memphis territory Is credited with having booked an order for 750.000 

 feet of hardwood lumber to be sent abroad within the next three or four 

 months. The further increase in the value of exchange and the lowering 

 of the discount rate by the Bank of England are regarded as favoring devel- 

 opments. Kxchange is now at practically the maximum level for the past 

 three years, and this appreciation in this item tends to materially decrease 

 the cost of importing lumber from the United States. 



NEW ORLEANS 



"We have not yet experienced quite the improvement we had anticipated 

 for the late winter, but there can be no doubt but that the hanlwood 

 market, is in perhaps the strongest strategic position it has been in for 

 two years and we still hold to the opinion that business certainly will be 

 good before the spring passes by." 



Thus is the hardwood situation and outlook epitomized by a representa- 

 tive nuinutacturer of the Southwest and this estimate seems to be meeting 

 with uniform approval throughout the Southwestern ami extreme Southern 

 territory. 



Buying Is not very active Just at the present writing, but there Is some 



