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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



March 25, 1918 



will stand the trip between the mill and the factory of 

 the consumer in the best possible shape. In fact, re- 

 gardless of what he has known heretofore about veneer 

 manufacturing, he is coming closer to that ideal of a 

 salesman, a real expert regarding the production of the 

 goods that he is selling. 



It must be admitted that during the ordinary course 

 of business, when the chief duty of the salesman is to 

 get orders, he has comparatively few opportunities to 

 take trips to the mill and to obtain information of this 

 technical character. True, he knows in a general way 

 how veneers are made, and perhaps certain processes 

 have been elaborated upon by his principals, as features 

 which are to be stressed in his selling talks. But even 

 though this has been done, he can not have the vivid, 

 definite knowledge of how his stock is made and handled 

 and shipped until he has been at the mill and seen it 

 done, and studied the details of the organization and 

 methods that are applied in getting the ultimate result 

 of a piece of veneer 1 00 per cent good. 



True, a great many concerns, not only in the veneer 

 business but in the lumber trade, have had occasional 



This is certainly a line of work for which the salesman 

 is especially well qualified, and which, as suggested, 

 brings an immediate return to the manufacturer. On the 

 other hand, the salesman who becomes familiar with the 

 production of the stock, and who learns the problems 

 that the superintendent of the mill has to contend with 

 in its manufacture, is likely to sympathize with him to a 

 greater extent than formerly, and hence to tone down 

 some of the specifications that "smart" buyers are in the 

 habit of writing into their orders. He can point out the 

 practical difficulties in the way of fulfilling the desires 

 of the customer and suggest that some concessions be 

 made along this line. 



The salesman who gets business under the right condi- 

 tions, because he has been able to show the customer 

 why his demands in certain directions are unreasonable, 

 is a better salesman than the man who takes the order, 

 though at the right price, on such a basis that it is diffi- 

 cult to fill it, and certainly more expensive to produce 

 the stock. In this way the experience acquired at the 

 mill by the man on the road is going to make him more 

 conservative. He will want to work more closely with 



visits of their men arranged for just this purpose — that the men in the production department, and not assume 

 they shall have knowledge of the inside of the business that, no matter what the demands of the customer are. 



which they are representing on the outside. Sometimes 

 a few days spent in this work, and sometimes a week or 

 more; but while this is excellent training as far as it goes, 

 it does not as a rule go far enough. Salesmen in some 

 branches of the steel business are given regular courses 

 ir the technical side of their trade, and stand examina- 



they are to be taken care of without unreasonable trouble. 

 Looking at it from all standpoints, it appears that the 

 manufacturer of veneers who has his salesmen spend their 

 time at the mill, taking what might be called an exten- 

 sion course in veneer production, is using their services to 

 the best possible advantage. He gets some immediate 



tions to make sure that they know all of the details of benefits and he is assured that later on, when competi- 

 it. TTiis is carrying the idea a bit far, but it suggests tion tightens up, and everybody is hustling for orders, big 



what emphasis is sometimes laid on the matter of sales- 

 men, who are in a very special sense representatives of 

 their companies to the trade and the public, having suffi- 

 cient knowledge to represent them properly. 



Another way in which the salesmen who go to the mills 

 are able to work to advantage, and one which produces 

 immediate results from the standpoint of the house, is 

 assisting in the inspection and loading of orders which 

 they themselves have handled. They are familiar with 

 the needs of the customer, they know what his business 

 requires, and they are able to load the cars in such a 

 way that the chance of a mistake being made is reduced 

 to the minimum. 



Sometimes shipments are made in such a way that the 

 letter of the specifications is adhered to, and yet the cus- 

 tomer does not get what he wants. The customer is dis- 

 gruntled, the salesman is disgusted, and no one in par- 

 ticular is at fault. After the salesman has had an oppor- 

 tunity to talk to those in charge of the shipping depart- 

 ment at the mill and explain the likes and dislikes of the 

 concerns to w^hich he is selling the product of the plant, 

 the business is sure to move forv/ard more smoothly, and 

 both the house and the customer will be benefited. There 

 vvfill be fewer complaints, fewer cases of rejected stock, 

 and life will be happier for everybody concerned. 



and little alike, the men who are representing him will 

 be qualified to do business more effectively and more 

 successfully than they have ever been able to do before. 



G. D. C, Jr. 



Shipments of Kauri Gum 



During the year 1917 the quantity of kauri gum shipped from 

 New Zealand to the United States totaled 7,359,709 pounds. The 

 shipments in 1916 were 8,516,935 pounds. This gum is used 

 in the manufacture of varnish and the decline in quantity was 

 not due to decrease of demand or the lessening supply. This gum 

 is a vegetable resin, derived from the kauri pine; but the commer- 

 cial supply is not derived from trees now in existence, but from 

 fossil deposits buried in the ground where forests once grew, but 

 have now wholly passed away. The gum is mined by removing 

 the soil and separating the gum from it. The resin is in hard lumps 

 of various sizes and has a market value of ten or fifteen cents a 

 pound. Before the war most of the mining was done by Austrians, 

 but they no longer are doing the work, and the shortness of the 

 labor supply at the diggings is responsible for the falling off in 

 the shipments to this country. 



Those cheap woods we used to turn to for backs and fillers 

 in the veneer trade are not cheap any longer. Some may cost 

 a little less than others but there ain't no sich animal as a cheap 

 wood any more. 



The Helena Veneer Company, Helena, Ark., has been sold to 

 the Chicago Mill 6c Lumber Company. 



