

Published In the Interest of Hardwood Lumber, American Hardwood Forests, Wood Veneer Industry, Hardwood Flooring, 

 Hardwood Interior Finish, Wood Chemicals, Saw Mill and Woodworking Machinery. 



Vol. XX. 



CHICAGO, APRIL 25, 1905. 



No. 1. 



flaMwoMRocoM 



Published on the 10th and 25lh of each month 



By The HARDWOOD COMPAINY 



HENRY H. GIBSON 

 FRANK W. TUTTLE 



President 

 Sec-Treas. 



OFFICES: 

 .sixth Floor Ellsworth Bldg., 355 Dearborn St., Chicago, III., U.S.A. 



Telephones: Harrison 4960. Automatic 5659. 



TERMS OF ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: 



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In all other countries in universal postal union 3.00 



Subscriptions are payab'e in advance, and in default of written orders to the 

 contrary are continued at our option. 



Entered at Chicago Postojfi.ee as Second Class Matter. 



Advertising copy must be received five days in advance 

 of publication date. Advertising rates on application. 



General Market Conditions. 



The past fortnight has shown an improvement in hardwood trade 

 conditions throughout the country. Buyers from all consuming sec- 

 tions in veritable phalanxes are visiting the manufacturing districts in 

 search of dry stocks of many varieties of lumber. Foreign buyers of 



hardw Is are also much in evidence, having rejected for the past 



three months proffers of stock at prices that would be regarded low 

 today. They have come over to see what the "bloody row is all 

 about," and cables have been passed back and forth between this 

 country and the home offices with great frequency of late. In com- 

 mon with the domestic buyer, the foreign agent has arrived at the 

 conviction that if he is going to have American hardwoods this year, 

 he is going to be obliged to pay the manufacturers' prices for them. 

 A good many manufacturers, who have been soliciting foreign trade 

 for years, on account of the strong home demand and prospects, are 

 now actually indifferent to foreign orders, as all of them prefer to 

 sell lumber at home when it can be marketed for as much money as 

 they can get on the other side of the Atlantic. 



Every buyer is anxious t.. secure both white and red plain sawed 

 oak, and the dry stock in first hands is cleaned up to the very finish, 

 and a good many blocks of green stock have been sold for future 

 delivery. 



Agreeable to the prophecies made a month ago in the Hardwood 

 Record concerning poplar, the opening up of logs at the river mills 

 demonstrates the fact that the average of quality is running nearly 

 twenty percent lower than the stock of the last few years, while the 

 widths are showing an average of four and a half inches narrower. 

 All signs, therefore, point to an unusual shortage in firsts and sec- 

 onds, box saps and No. 1 poplar. Astute buyers have awakened to the 

 situation, and some recent shipments of box boards from the Ohio 

 river mills have been made fresh from the saw. loaded on flat ears, 

 piled on lath stickers. The coarse end of poplar is not showing any 



increase in price, owing to the competition of common and cull bass- 

 wood, cottonwood and gum. 



Southern ash and hickory are in strong and increasing demand and 

 the stock in sight is far below the normal requirements of the trade. 



The good end of cottonwood is in fair demand, and red gum is 

 doing better than ever before in its history. 



Of northern hardwoods maple is undeniably the leader in volume 

 of saje, although a large portion of the season's cut was sold several 

 months ago and is now just coming forward. Navigation is fully 

 opened on the lakes and the movement of hard maple thus far, has 

 exceeded that of the soft woods. It was assumed at one time that 

 there was going to be an overstock of maple for the season, but the 

 present demand would now indicate that every foot of maple manu- 

 fai'hin d this year would be bought just as fast as it was in shipping 

 condition. The price is remaining firm, with a tendency to advance a 

 little over earlier values on desirable lots. 



The elm, black ash, rock elm, birch and bassw I. which constitute 



the remaining chief hardwood products of Michigan, are all doing 

 fairly well. 



The interior hardwood mills of Wisconsin hail a total dry stock of 

 hardwoods on hand thirty days ago, approximating only about 75,000,- 

 000 feet. Of this quantity about one-third was basswood, the 

 remainder being birch, gray elm, rock elm, ash, maple and a small 

 percentage of red and white oak and butternut. The sales of the last 

 month have reduced this total holding to less than 50,000,000 feet, and 

 therefore the Wisconsin interior hardwood market is very bare of 

 dry stock. Last winter's logging in that state was handicapped by 

 heavy snows and unfavorable conditions generally, with the result that 

 the total input of logs is very much less than normal. This situation 

 combined with heavy buying, has materially assisted in advancing 

 values in the Badger state during the last few weeks, and notwith- 

 standing the fact that prices have been advanced on many tten 

 orders are coming in which will practically clean up the greater por- 

 tion of all dry stock. 



Mahogany is ruling very low in the consuming market, owing very 

 largely to increased production of American manufacturers and to 

 the inroads made on the trade by mahogany veneers in the cabinet 

 and interior finish trade, which prevails to such an extent at the 

 present time. Recent sales of high-class, thick, clear, dimension stock 

 of « ulian wood have been made and delivered at Grand Rapids, Mich., 

 at from ten to ten and a half cents a foot. Every mahogan; pro- 

 ducer seems to be long on plain wood. It is to lie hoped that the low- 

 prevailing price of mahogany will stimulate its use in furniture and 

 interior finish to an extent that the surplus stock in the market will 

 disappear, aud its price rise to something like the relative value of 

 other high-class woods. 



Mahogany and other fine wood veneers are also suffering by reason 

 of the low prevailing solid wood prices, and veneers that a Mar ago 

 commanded three cents a foot in many case s are being offered today 

 at one-half that price. 



Black walnut is running along in its steady course at fair values. 



The foreign trade is absorbing all the g I end of the stock it ran 



get, and American buyers are using the remainder. 



