August 10, v.m 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



37 



Thrashing Rivals to Death 



The gray birch which overruns abaudoned fields in New England is about 

 as worthless a tree as cumbers the free soil o£ America. It is small 

 and limby, and its only redeeming trait is that it is rather pretty and is 

 full of fight. It is probably the gamest fighter of the forest. It cannot 

 grow in the shade of other trees, so it goes out into the abandoned 

 fields where sunshine and air are plentiful, and the soil is so poor that 

 few kinds of trees can grow there. It flourishes and soon covers the ground 

 with thousands of young birches. 



About tliat time a rival puts in an appearance. White pine seeds are 

 carried by the wind, drop among the seedling birches, germinate in the 

 cool shade cast in summer by the birch leaves, and in a short time 

 a generation of young pines covers the ground as thick as hair on a 

 dog's back. The birch seems to recognize the pine as a dangerous rival ; 

 for, if the pines are given half a chance, they will shoot up, overtop the 

 birches, and shade them to fleath, but the birches see to it that the pines 

 do not get half a chance. 



The birch branches are long as whips and tough as rattan, and they 

 begin to whip the leaves off the pines. Winds are strong on the New 

 England hills, and they furnish the thrashing power, and the birch 

 branches hit and cut to right and left, taking advantage of every wind 

 that blows, until they strip the little pines of their foliage, and leave 

 them to die of their wounds, and thus mutilated they are not slow in 

 giving up their little ghosts. 



This gives a black eye to the doctrine of evolution ; for it is not a sur- 

 vival of the fittest. The white pine is a better tree than the gray birch, 

 but it gets the worst of it when it infringes on the birch's preserves. 

 In the same way, a horse is better than a yellow jacket, hut that 

 does not mean that the horse can nose with impunity round the yellow 

 jacket's nesf. 



National Forests Almost Self-Sustaining 



Report from Washington on the fiscal year ending in 1917 shows that 

 the National forests are now almost self-sustaining. The total cost of 

 operating is about $4,000,000, while receipts were $3,4.50,000. The bulk 

 of this comes from timber business, grazing permits, and water power 

 development permits. Tliere are various other ways in which the B''orest 

 Service realizes a revenue from the National forests, and it is expected that 

 in the next fiscal year, the income will more than exceed the cost of 

 operations. 



Celerity and Competence 



The paragraph below is from an editurial appearing in a recent issue of 

 the Chicago Herald: 



General Goethals' picturesque but unhappy statements that "birds are 

 still nesting in the trees out of which the wooden ships are to be built" 

 has received a renuirkable commentary in the record achieved in the con- 

 struction of the military cantonments. Fairfax Harrison, chairman of the 

 i-ailroads' war board, has drawn attention to the fact that within five days 

 trees growing in the Mississippi forests have been transformed into lum- 

 ber and laid down at Louisville for the use of the army engineers. Trees 

 felled on Saturday were kiln-dried on Sunday, loaded on Monday and 

 actually delivered at the Kentucky camp on the following Wednesday. 

 This unquestionably is a record in which both the lumber companies and 

 the railroads may take a reasonable pride. That it is not exceptional is 

 revealed by the fact that within thirty days of the time the first order was 

 placed 12,000 carloads of lumber arrived at the training places for the 

 National army. In this mobilization which necessitates the transmuting 

 of the most peaceful of the great nations into an armed camp there have 

 undoubtedly been some hesitation and blundering. But upon the whole an 

 unprecedented task is being accomplished with marvelous celerity and 

 competence. 



The Embargo Situation 



-\ circular sent out August 2 by W. W. Schupner, department manager 

 of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association, gives the status 

 of the railroad embargo on lumber in a number of districts, and improve- 

 ments in the situation were shown in several important particulars. On 

 July 9 a conference was arranged witli the car service commission at Wash- 

 ington, and even before the meeting was held an improvement in the 

 service was apparent. For instance, the Norfolk committee had been in- 

 structed, prior to that time, to Issue no permits ; but soon the order came 

 to i.ssue 100 permits a day. A few days later the authorized number was 

 increased to 200 cars a day, via Norfolk : and within a week it was further 

 increased to 300 cars daily, of which number 45 cars were assigned to New 

 York delivery. 100 to New England, and l.'iO scattered. These 300 permits 

 were in addition to 100 issued on shipments by way of Potomac Yard. 



In the matter of the Hagerstown gateway, at which point the Norfolk 

 & Western embargo became effective at midnight. July 22, they stated that 

 there had been an increase of 310 per cent in the movement through this 

 gateway, which had caused serious congestion. The opening of the Nor- 

 folk and Potomac Yard gateways, however, as above outlined, will help ma- 

 terially to relieve the congestion at Hagerstown, and it is expected that 

 this .embargo will be removed within the next few days. 



About 68.000 cars have been ordered to the southern and southwestern 

 states to relieve the shortage there, and 48,000 of the cars are reported 

 to have reached that territory, and the others are expected in a short time. 



The railroads are being called upon from time to time to move a vast 

 amount of material for the Government's cantonments, of which there are 



sixteen in all, each one of which will require about 800 cars of lumber, 

 and altogether about 100,000 carloads of materials, which in itself Is a 

 task of no small proportions. 



Exports of Wood Products 



The figures have been published showing the export of lumber and other 

 foreign products from this country dui-ing May, 1917, with comparisons 

 with exports for the corresponding month last year. Totals are given 

 below : 



Commodity 1916 ini7 



Round logs ■ $ ISLS-IO $ i:ui 233 



Firewood 16.669 16.313 



Square logs 499.110 361 450 



Lumber 2.286.052 2.774 704 



Railroad ties 203.051 191,528 



Shingles 3,799 15,439 



Box shooks 230.46S 190 429 



Barrel shooks 79,791 267 378 



Staves 308,071 20o|544 



Heading 12.035 27,488 



Other lumber 350,959 223 541 



Doors, sash and blinds 40,000 28627 



Furniture 275,218 326,801 



Empty barrels 53,976 61,786 



Incubators 6,000 19,020 



Interior house finish 69,224 23,927 



Woodenware 30,110 35.444 



Wood pulp S5..399 112,829 



All other 791,534 942,778 



Total $5,523,426 



$5,956,379 



=-< MISCELLANEOUS >= 



The .Vmerican Bentwood Chair Company has been incorporated at Ashe- 

 boro, N. C. 



The Biloxi Ship Yard & Box Factory is building boats and manufactur- 

 ing shooks at Biloxi, Miss. 



Richard M. Coleman has been appointed receiver for the Meridian Manu- 

 facturing Company, Indianapolis, Ind. 



With a capital of .$25,000, the Saginaw Sectional Book Case Company 

 has been incorporated at Saginaw, Mich. 



W. T. Holland has been appointed receiver for the Perkins Windmill & 

 Engine Company, Mishawaka, Ind. 



The Seymour Woodenware Company has been incorporated with a capi- 

 talization of $10,000 at Seymour, Wis. 



The capital stock of the Cleveland Chair Company. Cleveland, Tenn., has 

 been increased to $100,000. 



A loss by fire has been sustained by the Sabine Tram Company, Dewey- 

 ville, Tex. 



The Pacific Northwestern Manufacturing Company, Seattle, Wash., has 

 been incorporated to manufacture furniture ; capital. $100,000. 



The Detroit Sash & Door Company has been incorporated at Detroit. 

 Mich., as has the Champlin & Hobbs Box Company at Berwick, Maine. 



At Charleston, W. Va., the Blue Tom Lumber Company has been incor- 

 porated. 



The Bartelme Company of Illinois has been incorporated at Cairo to 

 handle the business of the Bartelme Company coming through this point. 



The Meridian Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis, Ind., has become 

 an involuntary bankrupt. 



The Saginaw Sectional Bookcase Company has started in the manu- 

 facture of sectional bookcases at Saginaw. Mich. 



The Kittinger Furniture Company of Buffalo has been reorganized as 

 The Kittinger Company. 



< CHICAGO >.= 



Hardwood Recokd is in receipt of notice of the death of John W. 

 Shanahan, superintendent of the Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company of 

 Grand Rapids. ^Ir. Shanahan died last month. 



Richard J. Pender, representing E. A. Howard & Co., lumber merchants 

 of San Francisco, passed through Chicago the early part of the week on 

 his way East. Mr. Pender talked very optimistically of trade conditions 

 on the coast, although he says trade has slacked off considerably in cer- 

 tain factory lines and in the building business. He gave the encouraging 

 word that on account of means of getting shipments in Japanese oak, he 

 is entirely out of the market, but he added that Japanese oak companies 

 have announced to the trade that within a few months they will have 

 new stocks to offer. Philippine mahogany also, according to Mr. Pender, 

 is well cleaned up, so the field is now open exclusively to American hard- 

 woods. Mr. Pender made\ the interesting observation that while San 

 Francisco is decidedly a gum city, his company is selling more gum than 

 any other wood in that territory, other important western centers scarcely 

 know this wood and a good deal of introducing will be required before It 

 is firmly and generally established. He said that the largest department 

 store in Los .\ngeles has recently been finished in gum and that this will 

 probably have a considerable bearing upon future markets tor this wood. 



Chas. Ransom of the Gayoso Lumber Company, Memphis, accompanied 

 by Mrs. Ransom, passed through Chicago last week on his way to Lud- 



