January I'.'i. lUlS 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



47 



A. Doutsih, prcsiilcnt of Uip Saliiiio River I.uiiilpi>r anil Locglng Company 

 o( Oakilnle. I-a.. and San Antonio. Tex.. Is pre.^l.lent of the eluli, and pre- 

 sided at the nii'etlng. Others present were: .\. C. Havla. Sabine Tram 

 I'onipaii.v. Itoaiiniont ; Rex H. Browne. Beaumont I-umbor t'o., Beaumont; 

 r,. X. I'loveland. Jr.. South Texas Lumber Company, Houston: V. A. Ryan, 

 rhillip A. Ryan Lumber Co., Lutkln : J. B. Robinson, Pelican Lumber 

 Co.. Mound. La. : G. V. Patterson, .Mexandria Coopornge and Lumber Co., 

 Alexandria : Ferd Brenner. Ferd Brenner Lumber Company, Alexandria ; 

 IT. G. Bohlssen, IL G. Bohlssen Lumber Company, New Oaney, Tex. 



A Yellow Poplar Veteran 



Now and then a yellow p«>pl;ir giant comes to the market, proving that 

 there are .still a tew of them in the woods. The latest halls from Letcher 

 County, Kentucky, on the headwaters of Kentucky river. The big tree 

 measured a little over 7 feet in diameter at the "butt," and contained 

 live 12-foot cuts and three 10-foot cuts. Five heavy yoke of oxen were 

 required to snake the big cuts from the mountain sides to the local mill, 

 where it was manufactured into lumber and shipped to a Cincinnati 

 wholesaler. When cut the measurement totaled nearly 6,000 feet of fine 

 yellow poplar lumber, which brought a fancy price on the "Queen City" 

 market. This was the largest poplar tree cut and marketed from eastern 

 Kentucky in many years — although others of unusual .size have been cut 

 in that section within the past twelve nu»nths. 



With the Trade 



Harrison Parker 



The last issue of H.tRDWooD Record contained a brief notice of the 

 death ot Harrison Parker of the well-known Boston firm Palmer & Parker. 

 Details at that time were not available. 



Mr. Parker was first employed by his uncle, Harrison Parker, who 

 established the first mahogany sawmill in Boston, in 1S67 for the pur- 

 pose of sawing mahogany and rosewood lumber and veneers — rosewood, 

 then being a very popular wood, for piano and furniture manufacturers. 

 The business prospered from the first, and supplied mahogany and veneers 

 to all the piano forte makers, whose business in those early days settled 

 around Boston. 



In 187." he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, the late Irving 

 S. Palmer, in the name of Palmer, Parker & Co., which continued with 

 Increasing success, for 32 .vears. This partnership was succeeded in 

 1907. by the corporation of Palmer & Parker Company, of which Harrison 

 Parker was president, the late Irving S. Palmer, treasurer, Frank D. 

 Sawyer, vice-president, and William I. Palmer, assistant treasurer. 



Harrison Parker, as well as his partner, the late Irving S. Palmer, have 

 been held by their large business acquaintances in the highest esteem, as 

 types of the old-style high minded business men, who have stood as pillars 

 of integrity in the business world. Now, they are fast finishing their 

 course, but fortunately, leaving as a precious heritage, their business 

 standards, as guides to the younger generation, now taking their places. 



William I. Palmer, Gordon Parker, and Frank D. Saw.ver, are succeed- 

 ing to the business and they propose to assume the same high ideals of 

 business Integrity as in the past, continuing the business with the fol- 

 lowing personnel : Frank D. Sawyer, succeeding to the presidency ; Will- 

 lam I. Palmer, treasurer and vice-president ; Gordon Parker, secretary. 



Creditors Committee Discharged in Houston Case 



The creditors ooniniittep under whose jurisdiction the affairs of George 

 T. Houston & Co. and Houston Bros., have been conducted during the past 

 .vcar, was discharged on December 28 pursuant to full liquidation of all 

 liabilities, the principle part of the assets and land holdings of the Hous- 

 ton company remaining undisturbed. The demands were brought about 

 principally by the sale of surplus properties. The company still holds 

 about 110,000 acres of timber and farm lands. The mill plant and equip- 

 ment, the stock of logs, lumber, etc., are still Intact, and the business will 

 be conducted as formerly. 



Mills that Did Not Shut Down 



The eighty mills of the Nnrthern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association did not close during the five-day period during whfch 

 a great portion of the nation's Industries were ordered to close recently. 

 These mills manufacture their own fuel in the form of wood waste and 

 while running produce more than they can use, the .surplus being sold to 

 private consumers. Had the mills stopped during the prescribed period 

 they would have had to keep the plants warm by burning coal and thus 

 a greater waste of the fuel would have resulted. Moreover, many of the 

 plants are producing lumber which Indirectly Is being consumed in the 

 manufacture of various government war requirements and the produc- 

 tion of this essential material was not curtailed or interrupted. Per- 

 mission to keep the plants running was obtained from both the federal 

 fuel administrative department and State Fuel .\dmlnlstrator W. N. Fitz- 

 gerald in behalf of the association members by Secretary O. T. Swan. 



The association has received a government order to supply 000,000 feet 

 of hemlock of which fourteen carloads go to the army cantonment at 

 Rockford, III., and fourteen to the cantonment at Battle Creek, Mich. 



Plant to Cut Airplane Stock 

 A plant to cut up spruce alrjilaiio sluck to the amount ot 300,000 feet 

 each twenty-four hours Is under construction at Vancouver, Wash. The 

 plant will be operated by electricity secured from an existing power line, 

 so that It will not be necessary to build a separate power plant, and con- 

 struction Is to be completed within sixty days. The construction of the 

 plant alone will require 1,200,000 feet of Douglas fir lumber. The lumber 

 manufacturers throughout the spruce district will cut flitclies of the proper 

 grade and dimensions, which will then be shipped to the government plant 

 at Vancouver, where they will be cut up to the finished sizes required for 

 the various airplane parts, and then shipped east to the many aircraft 

 factories. This arrangement is expected greatly to Increase the outnut of 

 aircraft material, and to make possible a total production of the 10,000,000 

 feet of alrphine stock wanted every month for the government program. 



Experienced Labor Needed for Lumbermen's Regiment 



The work of recruiting the 20th Engineers, the largest regiment In 

 the world, which will help convert forests of Europe Into materials to be 

 used by our armies abroad has not been completed. A good many special- 

 ized mechanics and those skilled in specialized branches of labor are re- 

 quired. 



.\ complete statement of the needs of the regiment can be secured by 

 writing Major-Generai W. M. Black, Chief of Engineers, War Department, 

 Washington, D. C. The essential needs though, are men for all branches 

 of woodswork, for all phases of logging operations, including logging rail- 

 road work, all branches of sawmilUng, also a few planing mill operators 

 and a few stenographers experienced in sawmill office work. 



Major-General Black has just issued a statement to this effect, which 

 also gives an outline of the organization of the 20th Engineers, method 

 of selecting officers, requirements for enlisted men, and instructions as to 

 how to enlist. 



The regiment is now in immediate need of auxiliary road and bridge 

 builders to the extent of three thousand men. 



V>\y.v/ga^:; i W^^t.VyKW>)it';.H:>aAliWt^^ 



Pertinent Information 



Baltimore Exports for December 

 The exports of UijiiIm-i- fcir Di-ieiiilM-r show some expansion in the list as 

 far as variety of items is concerned, with a material increase in the volume 

 ot business done, which confirms the belief that stocks on the other side 

 have been so seriously curtailed as to make replenishing necessary. It 

 may be accepted as a fact that if the lumber were not urgently needed it 

 would not be allowed to go forward at a time when other freights are 

 simply swamping the available tonnage and when the greatest -conomy in 

 the use ot materials must be exercised. For the first time in months 

 cypress again figures on the list, even though the quantity shipped is 

 small. Poplar also once more holds a place on the schedule, with oak cut- 

 ting quite an important figure, and a lot of other hardwoods sent out in 

 addition. Ot course, as far as this port is concerned, it must be borne in 

 mind that much of the lumber credited to exports is really carried as dun- 

 nage, very little tonnage being available otherwise, except with regard to 

 spruce, which continues to head the list and makes up the great bulk of 

 the shipments. 



Weather Holds Up Big Timber Port Development 

 The plans of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Corporation of Tacoma in regard 

 to making Baltimore the chief distributing center for Pacific coast woods ' 

 have been held back very much by the inclement: weather and the railroad 

 situation, but it is said that the project will be taken up energetically in 

 the spring, and that tangible results may be looked for soon thereafter. 

 The company, as announced some months ago. has bought a portion of the 

 old qiiaranline grounds here and will establish its depot there, erecting 

 big piers, with the latest facilities for loading and unloading, and a large 

 mill wherein the heavy timber brought from the coast by water can be 

 resawed and dressed according to the requirements of the customers. The 

 lumber will be brought here by vessel, and will call for the creation ot a 

 fleet of steamers. Stocks destined for the export trade will go through, 

 probably by way of the I'anama Canal, while those intended for distribu- 

 tion In the territory east of the Mississippi Ulver will be yarded here and 

 cut into the sizes called for. The most improved resawing and planing 

 machinery will be Installed, and, apart from deep water, the depot will 

 have connection with all of the railroads running out of Baltimore. It 

 is estimated that the equipment of vessels and the yard will call for an out- 

 lay ot not less than J.'j,00o,000, making the establishment one of the largest, 

 it not the biggest, along the Atlantic seaboard. The Weyerhaeuser Cor- 

 poration will be represented here by George P. M. Ilauck, a partner in the 

 wholesale lumber firm of T. J. Shryock & Co., and widely known in the 

 trade. Mr. Ilauck has made several trips to the coast in connection with 

 the matter and is very optimistic as to the opportunities for the distribu- 

 tion of Pacific coast woods in this section of the country. He thinks the 

 section will afforil a constantly expanding market tor the Far Western 

 lumber, and the facilities to be provided will take Into full consideration 

 the possibilities presented. 



