June 10, 1915. 



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American Woods for the War 



James Eichaidson of London spent a portion of last week among 

 Chicago lumbermen. He represents the British government as pur- 

 chaser of certain woods for export to supply the war department. He 

 came to America in April on the Lusitania. His principal business 

 in this country is to procure walnut for gunstocks and other woods 

 for aeroplanes. The available supply of European walnut is ex- 

 hausted and American black walnut must now meet the demand. 

 This wood is not only supplying the British gunstocks but it is the 

 principal wood now in use for aeroplane propellers. 



That important use of black walnut is the latest, and it is likely 

 to be a large one if the war continues to spread and is continued 

 long. The wood is not so strong as some others, including hickory 

 and maple, but it is probably stronger, weight for weight, than any 

 other wood suitable for propellers. In buUding aircraft the elimina- 

 tion of weight is an important consideration, but lightness must not 

 be secured at the expense of strength. Walnut is also a highly 

 elastic wood, and that quality is needed in a propeller which must 

 run at high speed and under enormous strain while transmitting 

 perhaps one hundred horse power from the engine to the air. 



Still another quality is peculiarly valuable in the exacting service 

 which an aeroplane must do. Walnut does not splinter when struck. 

 If it brealis at all, it breaks clean. That quality comes in good 

 play when a warplane is under fire. Bullets are likely to strike 

 every pai't of it. The propeller is particularly vulnerable, because it 

 cannot be protected by armor or any other device, but is a shining 

 mark for every bullet aimed. If struck, the buUet passes through, 

 leaving only a small hole; but if the propeller is of wood liable to 

 split and splinter, a bullet might tear away a piece of suflScient size 

 to cripple the machine. 



Walnut, after being well seasoned, has little disposition to shrink 



and swell. The propeller is exposed to rain, snow, fog and damp- 

 ness of every kind, but walnut holds its form and runs true. 



American ash, hickory and spruce are the chief woods in the 

 frames of British aeroplanes. Hickory goes across the sea in the 

 form of long logs, straight and faultless. Those now being shipped 

 for the British war department cost sixty dollars a thousand feet on 

 this side, and the freight across the sea costs one hundred dollars 

 more. The freight is thus seen to amount to much more than the 

 hickory costs in New York; but so urgent is the need that the 

 British government willingly pays the freight. Onco again hickory 

 is proving its right to the name ' ' indispensable wood. ' ' The quality 

 which is required for aeroplane work is about the same as is used 

 for sucker rods in pumping deep oil wells; that is, the best hickory 

 that grows in the American forests. 



The ash used is of a correspondingly high grade, and like hickory 

 it serves as frame material, forming the skeleton over which the 

 canvas is stretched. 



Still another wood ranks remarkably high in aeroplane work. The 

 British call it silver spruce, but it is the West Virginia red spruce. 

 For aeroplanes it has been pronounced superior to every other spruce 

 of the known world, even going above the gigantic Sitka spruce of 

 the northern Pacific coast. 



The typical West Virgina spruce grows in thin ground, often 

 upon vast beds of broken stone covered with moss, and with scarcely 

 any visible soil. The best is found at altitudes of 3,500 to 4,500 feet 

 on the mountains surrounding the interlocking sources of the Potomac, 

 Kanawha and Monongahcla rivers. The growth is slow, the tree 

 trunks straight as plummets, and with limbs only at the extreme tops. 

 The wood is straight grained and remarkably free from knots and 

 other imperfections. 



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Export Figures Still Encouraging 



The showing of exports of lumber and logs, together with manu- 

 factures of wood, for May, which has just been completed for the 

 port of Baltimore, makes a less favorable exhibit than did that for 

 April, the total being smaller, but in view of the complications in 

 the foreign situation that have arisen it may be said to prove 

 entirely encouraging. It proves conclusively that in the countries 

 open to American exporters the needs of the users of lumber have 

 become very urgent. In some directions definite gains are recorded, 

 while in others the business has held up remarkably well. One of the 

 striking features of the exhibit is the fact that gum lumber figures 

 therein to the extent of not less than 80,00i) feet, against nothing for 

 the same month last year, when normal conditions were supposed to 

 prevail. The shipments of oak lumber were only a little less than 

 those for May, 1914, while in the forwardings of short leaf pine a 

 great gain is noted. Some decreases are to be recordeil, but in the 

 face of the great conflict raging this is not at all surprising. On the 

 whole the statement is promising. The comparative figures are as 

 follows : 



MAY 

 1915- 



Quantity. 



Logs, Hickory 50,000 ft. 



" Oak 



" Walnut 110,000 ft. 



" All others 



Lumber, Gum 80,000 ft. 



Oal5 901,000 ft. 



" White Pine 



Stiort Leaf Pine. 410,000 ft. 



Poplar 203,000 ft. 



Spruce 14,000 ft. 



All other kinds.. 150,000ft. 



27,247 



Total 



$89,798 



2,670 



10,937 



2,546 



19,914 

 $107,323 



In connection with the general subject of ej^ports it is to be said 

 that the matter of exchange has become a serious problem for the 

 exporters, and that it is receiving the careful consideration of some 

 of the most prominent shippers. Hitherto shipments have been 

 made on the basis of pounds sterling, but in view of the depreciation 

 of the pound that has taken place, the question has arisen whether 

 the time has not arrived for the exporters of American goods to 

 make the dollar the basis. William H. Eusse, of the well-knovm 

 firm of Eusse & Burgess, Inc., of Memphis, Tenn., has sent out a 

 letter dealing with this subject and calling on the exporters to take 

 concerted action. It is feared that the pound may drop to $4.50, 

 and in view of this possibility Mr. Eusse suggests that the exporters 

 get together and determine that they will make the dollar the basis 

 of exchange. In addition to the decline in pounds and nearly all 

 other foreign exchange the war risk insurance is becoming a serious 

 problem. Ever since the attack on the Nebraskan the war risk 

 insurance has taken a big jump, and has reached a point where it 

 cuts seriously into the profits of the exporters. It is probable that 

 both matters will be taken up formally by the National Lumber 

 Exporters' Association and discussed, with the further likelihood 

 of definite action. 



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