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Copyright, The Hardwood Company, 1917 



Published in the Interest of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and Logging, Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the lOlh and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edgar H, Defebaugh, President 

 Edwin W. Meeker, Managing Editor 

 Hu Maxwell, Technical Editor* 



Entire Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 

 Telephones: Harrison 8086-8087- 



Vol. XLIII CHICAGO, JUNE 25, 1917 



Review and Outlook 



General Market Conditions 



IF ANYONE DOUBTS the strength of the hardwood situation or 

 feels at all uncertain as to continued strength in future months, 

 that individual needs only to make a trip to mill points to be speedily 

 and thoroughly convinced that his doubts are unfounded. Whether 

 it be the hardwood middleman handling stock to the ultimate consumer 

 or the factory man himself, who pays his good money in increasing 

 quantities for his raw materia], but one impression could result from 

 his tour of the producing sections. 



It has been suggested from some directions that so much lumber 

 win be produced this summer that the market will be flooded by fall, 

 or at the latest by the early winter months. There is a two-fold reason 

 why that cannot be. In the first place, the present demand is so enor- 

 mous and the stocks ready for shipment are so thoroughly depleted, 

 that it would take a production far above normal to come anywhere 

 near filling the broken lists. On the other hand, such a production 

 is totally impossible, for the combination of weather conditions and 

 labor shortage has kept production well below normal. The ques- 

 tion of labor alone is serious enough and its probable effect upon 

 lumber production is definite enough to indicate to anyone who has 

 kept closely in touch with conditions the impossibility of catching 

 up with hardwood consumption now or in the immediate future. In 

 many cases mills have not been able to operate more than fifty to 

 seventy-five per cent of their capacity because of total inability to 

 ship in sufiicient logs to keep them going. A week spent in the delta 

 country from Memphis south would enable the traveler to witness a 

 constant wrangling over car supplies, and this does not necessarily 

 mean merely cars with which to ship out lumber. The ears are 

 simply not to be had, and as a result the logs are either staying in 

 the trees or in the woods. "With the damp spring days on us and the 

 prospect of the usual heat and dampness of the southern summer, these 

 logs piled along the right of way, ready for loading onto cars, must 

 either be moved quickly or be subject to material damage. This 

 damage is of a definite character and its extent is easily measurable. 

 If it exists to any great extent it will constitute an added factor 

 tending further to raise the price of lumber made from the good logs. 



Of course the same conditions do not exist in the North, that is, 

 the same factors influencing lumber production. However, labor 

 shortage is sufiiciently serious to have already had a very real effect 

 upon the output of northern mills, and everything promises much 

 greater seriousness. 



Of course no one questions for a moment reports of scarcity of 

 available dry stocks. The situation in this particular is altogether 

 too well known to leave any room for argument or uncertainty. The 



only argument that could be reasonably advanced by anyone contend- 

 ing that the future will bring softening in hardwood values is that 

 consuming trades wUl decrease the amount of material which they will 

 need. Undoubtedly this result will come in many cases, but the con- 

 tention made in this report in the past, that new outlets for hard- 

 wood lumber will develop more rapidly than old channels will be 

 clogged, is being borne out already. Both direct and indirect results 

 of war preparations are having their effect upon the amount of hard- 

 wood lumber turned into the new channels. As practically all of the 

 stuff cut for war purposes is of a radically different character from 

 the normal line of standard size and dimensions, the result must be 

 that the amount available in the ordinary stocks will be decreased. 

 This development is a practical certainty. 



It has been a fact that oak has not shown the progress of some of 

 the other woods, primarily because it does not lend itself so well to uses 

 for which cheap material is required. Developments, however, in the 

 past few months have brought into more extensive use many supple- 

 mentary woods that were not heretofore so great a factor in total 

 hardwood production. The result is most certainly going to be a 

 lessened production of oak, and as great quantities of this wood are 

 going into war uses, the available commercial stocks will show con- 

 siderably less in quantity. 



And as to prices, it must be borne in mind that even though hard- 

 wood values have advanced sensationally in every direction, Ixmiber- ' 

 men have been operating for years on a dangerously narrow margin, 

 in fact in some cases have been putting out some of their species at 

 an actual loss. Mounting costs have so far kept ahead of increased 

 selling prices. So when it comes to the question of quotations, it must 

 be remembered that lumbermen are not getting more than they must 

 get in order to make a reasonable profit from their manufacture. As 

 this fact is generally recognized in manufacturing circles, and as the 

 situation is now pretty strongly in the hands of producers, there is no 

 logical reason to expect that there will be any recession in values made 

 voluntarily by lumbermen. 



The Cover Picture 



TWO OBJECTS STAND OUT PROMINENTLY in the cover pic- 

 ture which illustrates this issue of Hakdwood Eecord, one is the 

 building and the other is the pine tree. The scene is laid in Piqua, 

 Ohio. The building is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the town, 

 and dates back a century. That would not be considered very old if 

 it were in Europe, or even in New England, but a hundred years in 

 Ohio goes back pretty well into the golden age of the pioneers who 

 blazed the trails through that region. 



The building, as is indicated by the name on its front, is a lumber 



