36 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



December 10, 1917 



Maine to Virginia. South of New York the spruce Is chiefly conflned to 

 high mountain regions. The subject of reproduction of spruce Is dis- 

 cussed at considerable length. If properly protected against Arc, young 

 growth will come on where the old has been cut, provided seed trees ore 

 within reach of the areas. 



Lists of Soldiers 

 Many firms and corporations are publishing lists oC their emplo:"s who 

 are serving In the United States army. The officers of the forestry regi- 

 ments are desirous of showing their appreciation of the assistance fur- 

 nished by lumber firms whose employes have Joined the forces which 

 will do lumber work. The officers of the forestry regiments are desirous 

 of hearing from lumber firms and receiving lists of their employes who 

 have entered this special service. This Information should be sent at 

 once to MaJ. George H. Kelly, Engineers Uoglment, Washlnijton, D. C. 



Deposits in World's Leading Banks 



According to London Stati.tt of November :{, 1917, the deposits In the 

 large banks of the world agRrcgate approximately ?94,OUO,000,000. This 

 Included no bank whose deposits did not exceed $100,000,000, and there- 

 fore all the banks except the largest were omitted. The figures represented 

 eighty-tour banks. The largest was the state bank of Russia, with deposits 

 of $1,426,063,000; the next is the imperial bank of Germany with $1,166,- 

 775,000; third, bank of England, $894,32.'"),000 ; the largest American 

 deposit Is In the National City Bank of New York, $629,125,000. 



Mahogany Trade in England 

 Consul General Skinner reports from London that the controller of tim- 

 ber supplies has withdrawn, until further notice, all restrictions on the trade 

 In mahogany of all kinds. On September 6 the board of trade In England 

 took possession of ail mahogany stocks exceeding 5,000 feet, and the more 

 recent action is a reversal of that policy. It Is Improbable that this action 

 will have much effect on the mahogany business in the United States, unless 

 indirectly through a change in price. 



Forests Should Supply Fuel 



The government has published a bulletin pointing out the advantages 

 of using wood as fuel while coal Is scarce and high in price. People who 

 live within easy shipping distance of forested regions have doubtless 

 thought of this method of conservation. Weight for weight, It Is generally 

 counted that coal furnishes twice as much heat as wood ; but before any- 

 thing like exact comparisons can be stated the kinds of wood and the 

 kinds of coal must be stated. 



Seasoning of Wood 



Books relating to methods of handling wood In various forms have 

 been following one another from the press fairly rapidly In the past few 

 months. The latest contribution to literature of that class has Just come 

 from the press of the D. Van Nostrand Company, New York, and from 

 the pen of Joseph B. Wagner. It Is a book of 250 pages, well printed and 

 handsomely Illustrated. The book does not Impress the reader as con- 

 taining many results of original Investigations by the author ; but It 

 reviews much work done by others and draws practical conclusions. One 

 of the strongest features of the work Is its Illustrations of dry kilns and 

 apparatus to facilitate the seasoning of various kinds of forest products. 

 This part of the book contains seventy pictures covering machines, tools, 

 and appliances useful in and about the kiln, as well as a number of types 

 of kiln. 



The book Is not wholly taken up with the subject of wooa seasoning, 

 but about one-third of the space Is devoted to a discussion of forests, 

 wood species, and the technology of wood. In some matters Wagner does 

 not precisely agree with some other authors who have written on the 

 subjects ; for instance, he differs from both Sudworth and Sargent In 

 the nomenclature of American trees, or some of them ; and his explana- 

 tion of blrd'seye figure, that It is due to attacks by Insects and is con- 

 flned near the heart of the tree, is not exactly the view which some other 

 writers have held. 



The book is sold by the puldlsher at $.3 a copy. 



Semi-Annual Red Cross Report 



The war council of the Red Cross has published Its first seml-aunual re- 

 port, covering 144 pages of printed matter. The recent nation-wide cam- 

 paign to raise a fund of $100,000,000 for this work makes the report a 

 matter of general Interest, and following are a few of the points brought 

 out : 



The campaign for $100,000,000 has produced $88,000,000 to date, and 

 this will be exhausted by spring. 



Forty-nine base hospitals have been equipped tor the army and five for 

 the navy. 



Twenty sanitary units have been equipped to look after camps. 



Red Cross nurses enrolled for service number 14,000, of whom 2,000 are 

 working abroad. 



Millions of women have been mobilized for work on surgical dressing, etc. 



Courses In home care ot sick and In dietetics have been completed by 

 34,000 women. 



Red Cross membership has grown from 200,000 at the beginning ot the 

 war to 5,000,000. 



The Red Cross is serving 3,423 military hospitals. 



Foodstutrs to the value of $2,870,000 have been furnished tor military 

 and civilian relief In France. ' ' 



The work has been extended to all belligerent countries. 



The Burl Record Broken 



A redwood burl nine feet in diameter and weighing seven tons has been 

 brought out of the woods of nortliern California and Is on exhibition in 

 •San Francisco. It grew one hundred and fifty feet from the ground. 

 The tree fell and watj consumed l)y Dre, but the burl was little dimaged, 

 ixcept that a hole was burned through Its center. This Is the largest burl 

 in existence, so far as known. The Field Museum In Chicago has a section 

 of one nearly as large that was brought a few years ago from the redwood 

 region. 



Interesting Dispute on Fire Loss 

 Gratifying progress Is being made In the movement of the fifty-seveD 

 cars of hardwoods, which had been held at Atlantic ports ever since March 

 25, 1916, under a British order in Council, and permission to forward 

 which was recently obtained from the British authorities. A number ot 

 the cars have been moved from Baltimore and others from New York, 

 Philadelphia and Boston. Norfolk and Newport News appear to offer 

 less facilities, and It has been arranged to divert the shipments held 

 there to other ports, no cargoes going out of Newport News that require 

 dunnage. The arrangements for the shipment were made by Harvey M. 

 Dickson, secretary of the National Lumber Exporters' Association, at the 

 conference wliich he held with Connop Guthrie, British minister of ship- 

 ping in New York. Three of the cars which belonged to Smith & Co. of 

 Parkersburg, W. Va., were lost in the big flre at the docks of the Balti- 

 more and Ohio railroad at Locust Point here several weeks ago, when a 

 damage estimated at $5,000,000 was done. Mr. Smith came here a week 

 ago to confer with the insurance men, the latter having raised the ques- 

 tion that because of the long time the cars had remained here the insur- 

 ance had lapsed and the company was no longer liable. This contention 

 is of course combatted l)y the firm, whicli maintains that as there is no 

 time limit in the policy it makes no dilference whether the shipments were 

 on the way one month or one year or two years, the insurance being tor a 

 continuous shipment until the lumber is laid down at the dock on the other 

 side. 



Mechanical Qualities of Wood 

 Bulletin 556 has been published by the Forest Service as a profes- 

 sional paper prepared at the Madison, Wis., laboratory. It was compiled 

 and written by J. A. Newlin and Thomas R. C. Wilson, timber engineers, 

 and Is the result of tests which have been going on for years. The 

 publication deals with scientific questions and the language is largely 

 technical, but most of the terms are explained in a way to make them 

 easily understood by the reader ot average information along that line. 

 Part ot the information was contained in preceding publications by the 

 Forest Service ; but this bulletin brings it together and presents it with 

 the latest revisions. The bulletin ought to be read and kept for reference 

 by all persons who manufacture articles of wood. It deals with weight, 

 hardness, strength, stiffness, shrinkage and other qualities ; and figures are 

 given for the same wood in both its green and dry condition, thus mak- 

 ing comparison easy. For the purpose of Illustration, the weights of a 

 few well known woods, both green and air-dry, are quoted from the bulle- 

 tin in pounds per cubic foot as follows : 



Green Dry Green Dry 



White ash 51 40 Red oak 64 44 



Basswood 41 26 White oak 62 48 



Yellow poplar 38 27 



Beech 5 



Yellow birch 58 



Cottonwood 49 



White elm 52 



Tupelo 56 



Red gum 50 



Shag bark 64 



Sugar maple 56 



44 . . 



44 Sycamore 52 84 



28 Black walnut 58 37 



35 Hemlock 48 28 



34 Longleaf pine 52 42 



34 White pine 39 27 



53 Red spruce 34 28 



43 



A Valuable Food Tree 



The carob tree of the Mediterranean countries supplies much provender 

 for horses, cattle, sheep and goats, and also human food. It closely re- 

 sembles the honey locust tree of the United States, and its beans and 

 pods are the edible crop. It is claimed this was what John the Baptist 

 ate with honey. It was the "locusts" — not Insects as some suppose. It 

 is claimed also that this was the lotus which Homer says caused those 

 who ate It to forget all they had ever known. Carved carob wood 4,000 

 years old Is In existence. A recent consular report published by the 

 government gives an account of this tree's food value. Our honey locust 

 should be as valuable. 



Hardwood ^ews l>Jotes 



-•<, CHICAGO >-= 



A. C. Qulxley, head of the Quixley & Bulgrin Lumber Company, city, 

 announces a change In style to the Qulxley Lumber Company. The busi- 

 ness will be continued as heretofore by M'r. Quixley, with offices In the 

 Fisher building. 



The Nashville Hardwood Flooring Company, manufacturer of the 

 "Acorn Brand" of oak and beech flooring at Nashville, Tenn., with branch 



