8 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



adays is reasonably competent to figure the cost of the box upon 

 which he is required to estimate, with the result that while box 

 making was formerly the poorhouse business of the lumber trade, 

 it has now achieved the distinction of being a legitimate and 

 profitable part of the industry. 



It is high time that the leading hardwood dimension stock 

 makers of the country should get together and organize an asso- 

 ciation in order primarily to educate themselves fully to the cost 

 and value of their product, and then in turn enthuse the minor 

 producers of this class of material to join the organization and 

 teach them the same things. The only disastrous competition in 

 the world is unintelligent competition. When one's neighbor can 

 be educated up to high-class and sensible methods in the conduct 

 of his business he becomes an aid rather than a menace to the 

 totality of the business involved. The price obtained today for 

 clear hardwood lumber in the form of dimension stock is an abso- 

 lute commercial scandal, and the sooner plans looking to the gath- 

 ering of the members involved in this industry into a coherent 

 and well-organized association are made so much better will it be 

 for the trade and for each individual operator. 



The owners of the hickory handle industries, which have grown 

 into a badly demoralized condition, are now being organized into 

 associations which undeniably will result in much good to the 

 trade. Unfortunately handle people have engineered several minor 

 associations in place of getting together in one first-class organiza- 

 tion. It is to be hoped that when the hardw 1 dimension stock 



people start an organization they will have but one. and that will 

 represent the industry in fact as well as in at 



Pennsylvania Forestry Legislation. 



The recent Pennsylvania legislature passed two acts that 



promise to be of great benefit to the hardw I int. -rests of the 



state. One provides for a rebate of eighty pel cent of the taxes 

 of lands devote. I to the growing of timber, while the other imposes 

 a special tax on the lands of the state where forest reserves are 

 located. This legislation is intended to increase the avails of 

 taxes in ..ne direction while they are decreased in : ther. 



It is thought that the laws will Bave land owners a good inanv 

 thousands of dollars, as there are still many Pennsylvania farms 

 which have from twenty to fifty acres of woodland, and on this 

 portion of the farms the owners will receive a rebate of eighty 

 per cent of their taxes. It is anticipated thai the laws will also 

 stimulate the planting of trees on the big traets of waste land in 

 Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Clearfield, Indiana and Huntingdon coun- 

 ties, and thus relieve the owners from tour tilths of the taxation. 



The first mentioned law provides thai any land owner planting 

 three hundred or more timber trees to the acre shall receive a 

 rebate for a period of thirty-five years, provided that his rebate 

 does not exceed forty-five cents per acre. It further provides 

 that whenever any tract is selected for forest preservation con- 

 taining fifty or less original forest trees to the acre, the owner 

 may plant sufficient trees to make up the required three hundred, 

 and still get the rebate. It prohibits owners claiming rebate of 

 taxation under this law from pasturing sheep, cattle, horses or 

 goats upon the land until the trees are at least four inches in 

 diameter; but no more than five hundred acres of land owned by 

 the same interest shall be entitled to the rebate. 



& second provision of the act provides that whenever an ownei 

 has land upon which there are fifty or more trees to the acre thai 

 are eight inches in din meter, he shall be entitled to eighty per cent 

 rebate of his taxation, but no owner shall receive rebate on more 

 than fifty acres of land under this act. 



In order to equalize the revenue for school and road ] 



in counties where state forestry reserves have been established 

 a second bill has been passed. This provides that forest n 

 lands owned by the state and previously exempt from taxation 

 shall hereafter be taxed five rents an acre for school and road 

 purposes. 



n " enactn I the legislature are a step in the right direc- 

 tion, but are deficient in the respect that they permit pasturing 



stock at any time on lands which are devoted to timber raising. 

 While sheep, cattle and hogs cannot do as much damage to forest 

 trees that have attained a diameter of four inches as they can to 

 small growth, still they will do so much injury as to seriously 

 impair the intent of the bill, which undoubtedly is for the purpose 

 of regrowing commercial forests within the state. 



Beech Flooring. 



The once despised beech of the forest is fast coming into its 

 own as a flooring material, and already ranks in third place as a 

 material for the making of hardwood floors. In quantity of out- 

 put maple stands in first place, and the oak output is fast increas- 

 ing to a good second position in volume of production. While the 

 milling qualities of maple are very difficult, rendering the expense 

 of floor making from it very high, beech is almost an ideal hard- 

 wood in its working qualities. Beech is not quite so dense a wood 

 as maple, and its wearing qualities are not equal to it, but for 

 many purposes it has all the advantages of its higher priced pro- 

 totype, and possesses some advantages of quality not held by the 

 other wood. 



It is doubtful if handsomer Hooting can be obtained from birch, 

 ch.-rry or even mahogany than can be secured from strictly red 

 beech, which is the heart wood of the tree. The sap or white 

 portion of the wood is not to be despised, but the heart portion 

 is infinitely its superior in wearing qualities and in its ability to 

 resist decay. 



Beech is now being produced in thicknesses of from three- 

 eighths to one and a half inches, from both Michigan and Wis- 

 consin stock, as well as from Tennessee and Kentucky growth. 

 The wood growing in the two different sections is very similar 

 save that the southern wood is not quite so free from dark streak 

 di fects as its northern prototype. Beech seems to stand better as 

 a floor material than it does as a finishing wood. In this latter 

 use it is quite prone to check and split, especially wdien used in 

 pieces of considerable width. Beech flooring can be obtained for 

 approximately the same price us soft wood floors of yellow pine, 

 white pine or spruce of common grades, and from its superior 

 quality is reaching a wide .and rapidly increasing distribution. 

 The several flooring plants at Cadillac, Mich., are the chief pro- 

 ducers of beech flooring in the north, while the big flooring plant 

 at Nashville, Tenn., is a large maker of flooring from the southern 

 growth. 



The Foreign Market. 



The condition of the foreign market reflected bj several of 



the leading wood brokers in London and Liverpool, as will be 

 noted in the market department oi recent issues of the Haedwoo 

 I.'i.'ORd, shows very little of an encouraging nature for American 

 exporters of hardwoods. It is undeniably true that the domestic 

 market is much better than that abroad. 



The market condition of hardwoods that prevails in England 

 and on the continent can ordinarily be traced to the lack of wis- 

 dom of American exporters. The foreign market is almost exclu- 

 sively dependent on this country for its supply of oak, poplar, 

 walnut, ash and hickory, and it is only when exporters of this 

 country overload these very sensitive markets that prices decline 

 to an unprofitable basis. There are a few American exporters 

 who have built up an established tradi abroad which shows them 

 a very decent profit, if amateurs and plungers would stay out of 

 the field. As a matter of fact, if American hardwood producers 

 would stay at home and attend strictly to the needs of the home 

 market, within a very short time they would find foreign buyers on 

 their own thresholds, willing to pay more money for their goods f. o. 

 b. dock New Orleans, Norfolk, Baltimore and New York than they 

 can secure c. i. f. London, Liverpool and Hamburg. When Amer- 

 ican shippers will cease chasing after the "pot of gold at the foot 

 of the rainbow," as evidenced to the previous history of the 

 export trade, so much sooner will they get down to a method of 

 business that will show them increasing profit. 



