December 10, 1917 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



43 



oak for war usos. supposed to be for cnnnoD carriages, has Increased 

 activity aDd tended to stiffen prices. Buffalo has quite an amount of tliat 

 lumber, but some dealers tblnk that prices will be higher next year than 

 DOW and do not care to dispose of their stock too rapidly. Oak continues 

 to be about the best wood In demand, though maple is wanted to a large 

 extent. 



The hardwood demand Is fairly large In Industrial plants which are fill- 

 ing war orders. Business at most yards Is about as good as a month ago. 

 though there has been a falling off in the Inquiry from furniture factories 

 and from the building trade. These two lines are not expected to do much 

 during the remainder of the year, though a revival In trade Is looked for 

 next spring. Car scarcity threatens to become worse, while numerous 

 embargoes are In effect upon the rail lines. 



Receipts of lumber by lake during the past month were about .3,500,000 

 feet, bringing the total for the season up to approximately 46,000,000 feet. 

 Vessels have been scarce and freights abnormally high, so that receipts 

 have been less than usual. 



=-< PITTSBURGH y 



Hardwood men are chiefly worried by the difliculties in getting ship- 

 ments and not by the lack of business. Orders are coming along In a 

 very fair way considering the lateness of the season, and business would 

 not be at all bad if deliveries could be made in anything like good time. 

 The railroad situation Is worse this week than ever before. There is little 

 or no hope of any Improvement in shipping conditions for the lumbermen 

 this winter. .\s a result, whole.salers are very careful about the kind of 

 business they take on. Trade with the manufacturing and mining concerns 

 Is good. Those plants which have war orders are buying a lot of hardwood 

 lumber. Mixed hardwoods to the mining trade are good sellers. More 

 Inquiries have also come of late from the retailers, as their stocks were 

 getting very badly broken. 



=-< BOSTON >•- 



The hardwood trade of this district is becoming a sharply defined indus- 

 try, divided into government and non-governmental classes, the former 

 characterized by heavy demands, high prices and favorable transportation 

 facilities, and the latter surrounded by practically insurmountable obstacles. 

 There Is comparatively little interest in the values of stock for domestic 

 consumption, the normal Influences on price being of no operative effect. 

 The manufacturing customers for this class of material express serious 

 doubts as to their ability to continue producing much longer or to deliver 

 goods they are completing whether contracted for or not. The finish and 

 building men being almost out of the market, it is a question with the 

 dealers in general hardwoods what possible opportunity there is for them 

 to operate with safety in any reasonable volume, unless they have the 

 capacity to enter the market with stock directly or indirectly demanded 

 for war requirements. For such of that business as can be handled, which 

 is relatively smaller in a commercial than in a producing section, the 

 problem is reduced to substantially that of getting the lumber on the cars 

 and getting price enough to cover the extraordinary costs. The situation 

 of dealers working in either class of trade is uncertain and productive of 

 much concern of what will happen when a change comes and how long 

 can current conditions be sustained. 



^■< BALTIMORE >-- 



The volume of business in hardwoods keeps up well enough, even though 

 most orders are for immediate delivery. Members never have much 

 ahead and always seem to be just at the end of their activities. The 

 freight embargoes on the railroads, of course, are worse than ever, keep- 

 ing most of the members of the trade busy trying to straighten out trans- 

 portation tangles. But in spite of all these drawbacks, new orders come 

 In with sufficient freedom to bring the aggregate of transactions up to 

 fairly impressive figures. Many of the dealers are using every endeavor 

 to add to their holdings, foreseeing a scarcity of stocks or such serious 

 Impediments in the way of the distriliution as to cause local famines : 

 and tiiey want to be in a position to take care of the wants of their cus- 

 tomers. The mills, for their part, are hampered In their operations by 

 the scarcity of labor, and they experience great trouble In getting rail- 

 road cars or permits to have these cars go forward. While the hardwood 

 trade Is less subject to the requirements of the government than yellow 

 pine, the necessities of the box makers are forcing a general extensicm 

 of the wood used in the manufacture of containers, and the recent an 

 nouncement that some 17,000,000,000 feet of all kinds of lumber would 

 be required to take care of the needs in this direction is certain to cause 

 a tiglitncss in the offerings of poplar, gum, birch, and other woods which 

 have heretofore not been worked up into shocks. That this call will have 

 a pronounced effect upon the value of the woods in question is hardly to 

 be doubted, so that there Is likely to be a further rise even in the higher 

 grades, even though the ordinary activities In which these higher grades 

 And use are being Interfered with. There is also a prospect that the fac- 

 tories which turn out interior trim and which have not been rushed of 

 late will be called upon for larger quantities of their product because 

 of the house construction that Is in prospect, the housing facilities being 

 very far short of those required to take eare of the thousands of workers 



Swain-Roach Lbr. Co. 



SEYMOUR, IND. 

 — We Manufacture 



Elm Ash 



Maple Walnut 



Gum Cherry 



Sycamore Chestnut, Etc. 



White Oak 

 Red Oak 

 Poplar 

 Hickory 



Wc liaise for sale 1 car 10/ J," No. 1 Common <f Better /?o/< Maple; 

 S cars 6/1," Xo. 1 Common tC Better Beech; 1 car J,/ J," Clear Sap 

 Poplar, 5-lG" wide; '/. car J,/J, I'ancl Poplar, lH" <f up wide; 

 £ cars I,/!, FAS Sap Oum; 1 car 5/ J, FAS Plain Red Oak; 1 car 

 1,/k No. 1 Common d Better lied Oak. 



At Two Band Mills 



STRAIGHT or MIXED CARLOADS 



PROMPT SHIPMENT 



Mutual Fire Insurance 



Be«t Indemnity at Lowest Net Cost 

 Can B* Obtained From 



Boston, Mass. 



Tht Lumber Mutual Fire Insurance Company, 



The Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance Company 



Mansfield, Ohio. 



The Pennsylvania Lumbermen's Mutual Fire Insurance Company, 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



The Indiana Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance Company, 



Indianapolis, Ind. 



The Central Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Company, 



Van Wert, Ohie 



CINCINNATI 



Hardwood Manufacturers and Jobbers 



OHIO VENEER COMPANY 

 Manufacturers & Importers FOREIGN VENEERS 



2624-34 COLERAIN AVENUE 



C. CRANE & COMPANY 



Manufacturers of Hardw*«c] Lumber, Oak Sc Poplar especially 



Our location makes posslbU auick deUvery of anything la timbv and bardwoeri 



lumber 



The Tegge Lumber Col 



High Grade 



Northern and Southern 



Hardwoods and Mahogany 



Specialties 



OAK, MAPLE, CYPRESS, POPLAR 

 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 



All Three of Us Will Be Benefited if You Mention HARDWOOD RECORD 



