June 25, 1917 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



49 



Increases in volume, accompanied by climbing costs of materials, continued 

 the rule from that time on until the United States entered the war. The 

 prospective builder who held up his plans when the war broke out discov- 

 ered a year later that he would have been much better off if he had gone 

 right on with the work. In other words, God hates a quitter, and usually 

 gives material evidence of his displeasure. 



The future is no clearer, so far as conditions to develop in the construc- 

 tion world are concerned, than they were nearly three years ago, but if 

 comparisons are valuable the deduction to be made now is so obvious that 

 any one can make it. 



There is another point that deserves attention in this connection. It is 

 that the actual construction work of the present has not decreased. The 

 figures of building and engineering work for May, based on contracts actu- 

 all.v closed, published in last week's issue of the American Contractor, 

 showed an increase of 20 per cent over May, 1916. The building permits, 

 as tabulated in the present article, "relate partly to future business. There 

 is an abundance of opportunity for the wise ones to change the prospective 

 trend. 



An Anonymous Letter 



Of course no man can blame anybody for desiring to make his pur- 

 chases at as low a cost as possible. However, an effort which has come 

 to light recently to break the hardwood market is not logical in that 

 under present conditions it cannot serve the purpose for which it is 

 intended and because its real effect would be more likely to be the crea- 

 tion of ill feeling between the buyers and sellers of hardwood lumber. 

 Beyond that, such an effort is calculated to create a false impression of 

 actual conditions without the compensation of gaining any definite end. 



The following anonymous letter, which explains itself, has been going 

 the rounds of late. It is unnecessary to say that this spirit will not help 

 to get the buyers and sellers closer together. The development of more 

 harmonious relations is the only goal toward which anyone should work 

 who has a sincere desire to better conditions in the production and con- 

 sumption of hardwood lumber : 



Lr:MBER IS TOO HIOH. It is the time WE CONSUMERS have 

 SOMETHING TO SAX ABOUT IT. It will take UNITED EFFORT, but 

 we cannot organize or w-e stand in jeopardy of the law. Dry stock 

 happens to be scarce, but the mills are sawing more than will be needed 

 for the next two years. 



•lust try this and see how it works towards bringing prices to where 

 they belong. Beginning Juno 15. for thirty davs. don't buv a foot of lum- 

 ber unless .ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, no matter what price they make. 

 Tell all lumbermen salesmen you have enough stock to last you a LONG 

 TIME and that all indications are downward. Enlarge upon this all 

 .vou wish. Tell them business is poor and going to pot. It can't go an.v 

 higher in price: the chances are all in our favor. 



If sixty per cent of the buying trade sit tight and don't talk to people 

 of this effort to reduce price." you'll see prices tumble fast. The lumber- 

 men are the weakest sisters in the countr.v and get scared easily. They 

 haven't the nerve to stick. Just see it these predictions don't come true. 



We are spending our monev and tinle in getting out 20.000 of these 

 letters to trade with NO JOBBING OR MILL CONNECTIONS. You can 

 do the same bv writing a few of vour friends to hold the fort. Relief is 

 coming and .\ DOLLAR S.WED is ONE EARNED. Your pocket book is 

 at stake. Watch it carefully now. Be careful not to let mill people 

 know of this effort. Don't even inquire for stock for thirty days : tlie 

 mills will need money so badly in thirty days they will come to us. — 

 E Pluribus Unum. 



Lumber for War Purposes 



According to computation of the lumber committee of the Council of 

 National Defense, 2,000,000.000 feet of lumber may be used directly for 

 war purposes in the next twelve months. It is now planned, according 

 to latest advices, that each encampment will take care of about 40.000 

 men instead of 2.o.n00 as originally planned, thus, of course, greatly in- 

 creasing the quantity of lumber going into these uses. 



It is estimated that the wooden ship-building program as now contem- 

 plated will call for some 400.000,000 feet of lumber. Among the cases 

 where hardwoods will come more prominently into use are arm'y cots 

 in the construction of which are now going great quantities of maple and 

 beech, tent poles, automobiles, artillery, cooperage, furniture, docks and 

 piers, trench lining, saddles, mine timbers, tools, railroad construction and 

 the lumber necessary in building factories to turn out government com- 

 - modifies. 



Gas Made from Wood 



The making of gas from wood instead of coal is no new thing. The 

 process has been well understood for many years ; but the cheapness of 

 coal, and its superiority over wood, have stood in the way of utilizing wood 

 in the manufacture of gas. At the present time, however, economic changes 

 are bringing wood forward as a gas material. The redeeming feature in 

 the situation is that waste wood is as suitable as any other for gas, and 

 America nas waste almost without limit. The London Timber Trades 

 Journal has the following ; 



The use of wood instead of coal fo^the manufacture of gas is occupying 

 much attention in Scandinavia and other wood-producing countries. Dur- 

 ing the whole of last year, for example, the gas works at Helsingfors manu- 

 factiired gas almost exclusively from wood instead of from coal, and both 

 technically and economically, with good results. In Norway, preparations 

 are being made to alter the methods of production and to change from coal 

 to wood, and in Denmark the gas works at Horsens are adopting the new 

 methods. The alterations and rebuilding which are demanded to make it 

 possible for a gas works to use wood instead of coal are neither extensive 

 nor expensive. The quantity of gas obtained from wood is about the same 

 as that secured from a similar quantity of coal, but less tar and much less 

 coke result. The warming power of wood gas is about twenty per cent less 

 than that of coal gas. but the gas is cheaper to manufacture. All kinds of 

 wood can be employed. 



Car Supply Still Spasmodic 



There is no material change in the car situation in Memphis and the 

 Memphis territory as compared with a fortnight ago with the exception 

 that there is perhaps a slight increase in the number of flat cars for the 

 handling of logs and therefore a fair gain in the quantit.v of timber avail- 

 able at the mills here and elsewhere in this territory. More mills in Mem- 

 phis proper are running now than for some time and they are rather better 

 supplied with logs than a short time ago. They are stUl unable to secure 

 enough timber to justify full operations continuously, which is only an- 

 other way of saying that there is room for still further improvement. 



It is offlcially estimated that the shippers of lumber and lumber products 

 are receiving slightly more than 50 per cent of their requirements in the 

 way of cars. Some are running above this figure, while others are falling 

 below it. with the result that it is considered a fair average. The Car 

 Service Commission and the lumbermen are working together in the most 

 harmonious manner. The lumbermen are loading all cars to full capacity 

 and the.v arey likewise loading and unloading more promptly than ever 

 before. The carriers, on the other hand, are switching more frequently 

 and are likewise moving both loaded and empty cars more promptly. The 

 Car Service Commission is securing the co-operation of the cotton people 

 in the matter of full loading of cars and it is now working on the cotton 

 seed people with a view to securing their help. 



The chief complaint of lumber interests lies in the irregularity of the 

 car supply which makes it impossible for them to determine upon any 

 definite policy. "We have plenty of cars for a period of three or four 

 days," said one prominent manufacturer recently, "and think that the car 

 situation is all right. We make our plans accordingly," he continued, "and 

 find in the next few days that the car supply is still far from full and that 

 we cannot afford to base our operations on the assumption that we are 

 going to get plenty of cars." This is the way the situation strikes all of 

 the lumber manufacturers, with the result that they are unable to count 

 definitely enough upon cars to justify them in making plans for full opera- 

 tion of their plants. 



Seasoning Applewood 



The chief use of applewood is for sawhandles. It has been stated that 

 the tendency of this wood to check during the process of seasoning is 

 responsible for a loss of sixt.v per cent. The Forest Service at Madison, 

 Wis., is carrying .on experiments in its dry kiln for the purpose of lessen- 

 ing that loss. It is working with a shipment of green inch apple lumber 

 from Pennsylvania. 



Many Treenails Wanted 



Treenails are wooden pins used in building wooden ships. The Douglas 

 fir ships to be built on the Pacific coast call for 20,000 treenails each. Of 

 these 4.000 must be IH-inch square and 26 inches long, and 16,000 shall 

 be 1% inches square and 40 inches long. They must be of locust, white 

 oak or some other approved wood. The Pacific coast has no suitable tree- 

 nail wood and the East must furnish them. 



Black Gum for Guns 



According to old school books, out of date fifty years ago, the school boys 

 trained with wooden guns in their martial sport, and the poem describing 

 the occasion said : 



Our muskets were of cedar wood. 



With ramrods bright and new. 

 The wooden gun is coming back, not for school boys, but for training 

 real soldiers. The government has ordered 6,000,000 wooden models of the 

 United States army rifle, to be made of black gum. Training camps will 

 use them instead of the real rifle. They will be made by the Adele Perrio 

 Company of Pylant, Miss. Black gum is not liable to split. 



Saving Injured Trees 



The German vandalism during their retreat in France made a specialty 

 of cutting down or girdling fruit trees. An exchange has this to say : 



Thanks to the genius of the French race and its indomitable industry, it 

 is hoped that large numbers of the fruit trees which the Germans did their 

 best to destroy, and in many cases succee<led in destroying, may be saved. 

 Throughout the entire district dev.astated there were thousands of trees 

 that the close pursuit of the French prevented the Germans from cutting 

 down completely. Instead the cultured tree-killers cut off a circle of bark 

 which, with a few days' exposure to the sun would have been enough to 

 kill them. 



These trees presented the easiest problem. The wounds were bound up 

 by thousands of army surgeons, and Red Cross ambulance drivers and 

 stretcher carriers assisted. The circle was first covered with a special 

 graftin'.j cement, and the entire wound then carefully bandaged, often with 

 bandages prepared for human limbs. Tar was also used for the work, and 

 finally even a loamy clay. In the end it was found that moss, twisted and 

 tied about the dressed wound, was as effective as anything else. A much 

 more serious problem presented itself where the trees had been cut down. 

 But here French genius also solved the problem. The stumps, protruding 

 usually two or three feet from the ground, were first trimmed off so as to 

 conserve the sap. This stump was then treated with the grafting paste 

 and carefully bandaged till the tree lying at the side budded from the sap 

 that remained after being cut down. Branches that showed great num- 

 bers of buds were then cut off and grafted into the prepared stump. To- 

 day these grafts are in full leaf and blossom, and years have been saved 

 in restoring the cut-down orchards. 



