August 25, lOin 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



Last Log Raft Leaves Stillwater, Minn. 



Three million ff(;t of timhor on an Immense raft passed under tlie brl(li;i' 

 at La Crosse, Wis., two weeks ago, closing tlie shipment of sawmill mate- 

 rial from the upper waters of the Mississippi river to milling points helow. 

 The raft was assembled at Stillwater. Minn., in two sections, the first 

 having been floated do*n about a month before. 



The pilot boat was the "Ottumwa Belle." which has been operating on 

 the Mississippi as a raft for a good many years. 



The raft was so large It just barely passed between the piers of the 

 bridge, but due to the skillful handling en the part of the captain it was 

 taken from its starting point to destination, Ft. Madison. Iowa, without 

 mishap. Charles Brown, sixty-four years old. is the mate of the "Ottumwa 

 Belle." He has been operating in that section taking care of log shipments 

 for the last forty-nine years. Captain Brown was in charge of the first 

 raft towed down the river by steam. He became first officer under Captain 

 Abe Luney on the "Minie Will," the first steam rafting vessel on the 

 upper Mississippi. 



Will Rebuild SawmUl 



E. W. Brown, vice-president. R. A. Moore, secretary, and F. II. Karwi'II, 

 general manager of the liUtcher & Moore Lumber Company, Orange, Tex., 

 convened In a directors' meeting at Orange on August 2 and announced 

 that the sawmill recently destroyed by fire would be immediately rebuilt. 

 The second mill will be operated day and night until the other .structure 

 is completed. 



Furniture Company Purchases Factory 



The Wallace Furniture rumi'iuiy. recently organized in (;rauil Uapids. 

 has purchased the factory building and real estate now held by the 

 American Manufacturing Company. 1(550 Granville avenue. S. W. On 

 September 1 extensive improvements will be begun. Including an addition 

 of two more stories, giving a total floor space of about G0,000 square feet. 



The company, although under the management of L. S. Wallace, man- 

 ager of the Grand Rapids Upholstering Company, Is not connected with 

 that institution in any way. It will manufacture an entirely different line 

 of furniture. The company Is capitalized at .IJIOO.OOO with .t;i;.j.000 paid 

 In. The officers are .1. A. Rose, president: K. A. Wallace, vice-presidenl : 

 B. S. Warren, secretary, and L. S. Wallace, treasurer. 



Will Cut Hardwood Lumber 



It has been announced thai Ihe Bradley Lumber Company, Warren, 

 .\rk., is arranging to enter the hardwood lield in the near future. The 

 company owns much valuable hardwood timber on its yellow pine land, 

 and as soon as the pine has been disposed of a liardwood mill will take 

 what Ls left. 



Hitt-Bronaugh 



Mr. and Mrs. James Bruce Bronaugh of Madison. Ala., have announced 

 the marriage of their daughter Hattee to Herman Hershey Hitt on Tues- 

 day. August 24, at 9 o'clock in the evening. The ceremony was performed 

 at the Methodist Episcopal Church at Madison. Mr. and Mrs. Hitt will 

 be at home at Decatur, Ala., after September 15. 



Mr. Hitt is well known as a successful factor in the southern hardwood 

 trade, being head of the H. H. Hitt Lumber Company which operates 

 three large mills at Decatur, owns a vast i|Uantity of hardwood stumpage 

 of high-grade character, and operates an extensive barge line in that 

 territory. Mr. Hitt has a great many friends in the hardwood manufactur- 

 ing and consuming trade who will be pleased to learn of his marriage. 



Big Bunch of Timber Discovered 



The discovery of 1,500,000,000 feet of standing timber which former 

 surveyors had overlooked has been reported from British Columbia. A 

 recent dispatch from Victoria, B. C, says that cruisers lately returned 

 from an examination of the valleys of the Elk, Salmon, White and Gold 

 rivers on Vancouver island came across one hundred thousand acres of 

 unalienated crown timber, with an average stand of fifteen thousand feet 

 to the acre, representing a total of one and a half billion feet. This 

 timber is readily accessible. In • fact, the grades which exist in these 

 valleys renders it possible to ship logs across the island from Nootka 

 to Salmon river, crossing the surveys of the Canadian Pacific and Cana- 

 dian Northern railways. 



Pertinent Information 



Baltimore Exports for July Favorable 



The comparative statement of exports of lumber and logs from Balti- 

 more for July is of special interest for the reason that it shows the value 

 of the shipments for the first time during any month since the begin- 

 ning of the war to exceed the total for the corresponding month of last 

 year. As will be remembered, the great conflict did not break out until 

 August 1, 1914, so that July is the last month when peace prevailed 

 and when conditions may be supposed to have been normal. That a war 

 month should go ahead of the peace period is highly gratif.ving to mem- 

 bers of the lumber trade and shows to what extent recovery has taken 

 place. To be sure, the aggregate for July falls behind that for June of 

 the present year, but it must be borne in mind that pronounced quiet 

 always prevails in July, which is one of the least active periods of the 



entire year. Various items on the list last month actually ran ahead of 

 July, 1914. and but for the reduction in the shipments of oak and poplar 

 the showing would have been far more impressive. Gum is attracting 

 increased attention, .ilO.OOO feet having been shipped last month against 

 none at all in July 1014. White jiine also loomed up impressively. Al- 

 together, the exhibit is very gratifying, although the recent demoraliza- 

 tion in foreign exchange, it is feared, may affect the export lumber trade. 

 The comparative statement is as follows : 



July, lOl.i. July, 1914. 



Quantltv. Value. Quantity. Value. 



Logs, Hickory 16,000 ft. * 4'20 



Logs, Walnut ll.OOOft. .$ 1,090 15,000 ft. 900 



Lumber, Gum MlO.iiOd ft. 9.<i:!0 



Lumber, Oak 7.s:!,iioii ft. as. 472 1,272,000 ft. 4«,73S 



Lumber, White Pine OO.uoo ft. 4,42.'i 



Lumber, Short Leaf Pine.. 72.1100 ft. 2,:-i5H 91,000 ft. 2,809 



Lumber, Poplar 2.".."..00ii ft. S.SOO 301,000 ft. 18,648 



Lumber, Spruce ss,( ft. 2,940 40,000 ft. 1,200 



Lumber, All others :!2;:.000 ft. 15,200 255,000 ft. 12,340 



Shooks, Box 448 ft. 434 



Staves 173.140 ft. 10,081 92,812 ft. 4,.540 



Headings 1,400 



All other kinds of lumber 24,1B2 11,563 



Doors, Sa.sh and Blinds 1.500 



Furniture 101 132 



.\11 other mantifactures of 



wood 12,275 16,408 



$110,132 



Totals $122,434 



Ruling on a Walnut Rate 



The Interstate Commerc.. fonimissiuu in session at Washington, D. C, 

 has handed down a ruling on the shipping rates on walnut lumber from 

 Iowa eastward. The complaint in the case was filed by the Des Moines 

 Saw Mill Company against the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railway Company 

 iind others. The existing rates were attacked as unreasonable. Thi' pres- 

 ent proportional conunodlty rate applied to shipments of walnut lumber 

 from Des ^loines to .Mississippi river crossings when destined to points 

 east of the Illinois-Indiana .State line is twelve and one-half cents, or a 

 differential of three cents over the rate of nine and one-half cents per 100 

 pounds in common lumber. This is reduced one cent per 100 pounds by 

 Ihe commission's decision, which is a compromise, the complainant having 

 contended that walnut luiul)er should take the common lumber rate from 

 Des Jloines. 



Saving an Historic Tree 



'the city of Tilliu. 0.. lias emijloyed an expert forester to repair and 

 protect a famous sycamore tree near that place. The tree forks at or 

 ui'ar the ground and is about seventy feet in height. The two trunks 

 were fastened together with chains to lessen their liability to being 

 thrown by the wind. Other preservative treatment was administered 

 and it is hoped that many more years will be added to the life of the 

 tree. Fort Ball, a frontier stronghold erected during the war of 1812. 

 occupied the ground where the tree stands, but the tree was there when 

 the fort was built. General Harrison, who was afterward president, 

 stood under the branches of the sycamore while overseeing the erection of 

 Ihe fort. 



"American Forestry's" New Dress 

 The magazine Amiricaii rurvxiiii. published monthly at Washington. 

 "D. C. with P. .S. Ridsdale as editor, came out in new form in the 

 .Vugust issue. It is planned along the lines of Hardwood Record and is 

 of similar size, and the front cover is illustrated with a three-color pic- 

 ture w'hlch will be ehangefl each month. The practical side of forestry, 

 that is. the lumberman's view of it, is strongly presented, and the articles 

 are made interesting by eliminating most of the technical detail which 

 would appeal to the professional rather than to the practical grower of 

 trees and worker in wood. High-class illustrations are abundantly used ; 

 the type, paper, and mechanical execution are of the best, and the pre- 

 diction is a safe one that the magazine in its new and improved form 

 will grow in popularity and increase its usefulness. 



Newfoundland Again Exporting Lumber 



.\- consular report says that alter some y./ars during which lumber was 

 not exported from Xewfoundland. the island is again sending its products 

 abroad. A great demand has developed in Great Britain, not only for pit 

 props for the collieries, but for lumbe;' for general purposes. Lumber- 

 ing concerns throughout tlie island, which have been operating entirely 

 for the local trade, have decided to go into the export busine.ss on an 

 extended scale. 



The export of pit wood alone for the .vear is estimated at 200,000 

 tons. ,\ regular fleet of steamers has been engaged for several months 

 in transporting this material from Newfoundland and eastern Canada. 

 The British collieries having been unable to secure their regular supply 

 irom Europe because of the closing of the Baltic Sea and the lumber 

 requirements in France. 



liuring the past ten years most softwood logs cut in the colony and 

 not needed for local construction have been sent to the pulp mills for 

 use in the large paper-making industry, which has grown up during that 

 period. 



Losses in the Southern Storm 



The reports of lumber losses in the gulf region of the South, due to 

 the tornado which lately visited that region, are fragmentary, but it is 

 known that damage was serious in a number of places. The worst of the 

 storm struck south of the principal hardwood lumber region, and the pine 



