IO 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



In the matter of values, hardwood timber lands can be said to 

 have approximately quadrupled in value in the last four years. 

 This state of affairs will very shortly have a marked effect on 

 lumber prices, as the history of values that prevailed in white pine 



ars ago and in yellow pine a decade ago, will repeat itself. As 

 a matter of fact, the man who is best situated in the hardwood 

 lumber industry today is the one who has a good tract of hardwood 

 timber and is "sitting down on it." While the average hardwood 

 manufacturer is reasonably prosperous, his contingent prosperity 

 is not a marker to that of the man who will maintain the courage 

 of his conviction and stick to his hardwood stumpage for some 

 years t i i c '.. 



The Coloring of Wood. 



There is a fertile field for the inventive genius of this country 

 in impregnating many of our lighter colored woods like maple, 

 hickory, ash, basswood and poplar with various colored pigments 

 that shall not obscure the beauty of the grain, but will leave the 

 wood highly colored for the manufacture of finish, furniture and 

 a variety of other uses. 



United States Consul Berg, writing from Giiteborg, Sweden, to 

 the department of Commerce and Labor, says that the colored 

 wood industry began in Italy in the seventeenth century, and 

 wood-coloring works came to Sweden during the Thirty Years' 

 War. Until recently the work has been conducted on a very small 

 scali i finally only dry woods were colored. By a method 



nte, l la Joseph Phister, an Austrian, in 1901, the wood is 

 colored when green. The tree is felled while the sap is in action, 

 and in the coloring process the dye is forced under heavy pressure 

 into the wood, until it replaces the sap. Formerly aniline dyes 

 were employed, but these colors faded somewhat, and improve- 

 its in the coloring matter would be heartily welcomed. In 



Sweden bjrrch, beech, alder, maple, elm and bassw 1 are regarded 



as the besl kinds of w 1 for coloring purposes. Oak does not 



lend itself readily to coloring on account of the tannic acid it con- 

 tains, and in woods like spruce and pine there has been little sue- 

 cess, owing to thi Eacl thai the coloring cannot be made uniform. 

 Colored « Is look best when polished. 



The prices r i \ i-i| for colored wood abroad are comparatively 



high on account of the amount of waste, but it is anticipated thai 

 improvements will speedily follow, which will cheapen the prices 

 materially. During the last two or three years there has been a 

 marked development m the trade abroad. There should be no 

 mechanical difficulties arising from handling even trill sized logs 



in exactly the sane- manner that w I is treated which is about to 



be ereosoted, save that in place of injecting dead oil of coal tar 

 or similar materials, dyes of varying hues should be injected into 

 the wood. The coloring of wood presents a broad field for ezperi- 

 nien n. I one which promises handsome commercial results. 



Clean Bills of Lading. 



Am.iriv the justifiable comments made upon American bills of lad- 

 the English press, is the reference to them in the Shipping 

 World which says: "Such bastard documents as American ti 

 bills ii not be admitted into commerce. " On the clean 



bill of lading proposition the Timber Trades Journal of London 

 ates tie importance of then;, especially if thej are to be re 

 gai led as a gotiabli instruments a factoi which cannol be over 

 rated. This paper says: ''What prudent business man would ma! 

 an advance ■ i rican through bill oi la. line which is subject. 



ally for lumbi r, to be -'•!, tracked as iperishable during 



i wess of weather, for three or four months; oi 

 for lumber to be stuck on a quay, exposed to all tin rieissitude i 

 American v hipped because there is more .1 



available, or hecausi il comes under thi heading ol 'perish- 

 ables ' for which 1 1 1 1 ' ■.■ "iii'i bi Iocs I id .' ' ' 



if a bill of lading is to be a ' able in- 



ane business man could be 

 n i 1. 1-.. ■ 1 1 a upon for : 



re an ocean one, showing that on 

 Is ere shipped on a specific vessel of a 



given line, and that, subject to a risk covered by marine insurance, 

 delivery may then reasonably be expected at a certain date. 



The Hardwood Record thoroughly agrees with the Timber Trades 

 Journal in its idea of the paramount necessity and justice of clean 

 bills of lading as applying to lumber from this side of the Atlantic. 



A Logical Candidate. 



In this issue of the Hardwood Record as supplement is a duotone- 

 gravure portrait of John J. Rumbarger of the Rumbarger Lumber 

 Company, Philadelphia, Pa., and in the body of the paper will be 

 found a brief biographical sketch of this gentleman. 



At Portland, Ore., on Sept. 9 will occur the annual convention 

 of the Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo, and this portrait and sketch 

 of Mr. Rumbarger are printed at this time to call the attention of 

 the members of this order to the distinguished work in Hoo-Hoo 

 that has been performed by him. If Hoo-Hoo desires to supplement 

 its previous history of foolishness with a future history of useful- 

 ness, there is no man in the order who comes nearer being the logical 

 candidate for snark of the universe than John J. Rumbarger. He 

 has lifted lloo-Hoo in the East to a plane of character and distinction, 

 and it is within his power to accomplish the same result for the en- 

 tire order. The II urnunOD RECORD is making this suggestion to the 

 order entirely without the knowledge of Mr. Rumbarger, but with 

 the full know le. lee that it is doing a service to the order in sug- 

 ing bis riame for the chief 1 Imstowed by it. 



Grazing in Forests. 



It is only a little at a time that the correct methods of handling 

 forest and reforest ry propositions arc learned. Even a full grown 

 tree is a tender plant, and must needs be treated with care to 

 avoid evil coming to it. Still more care should be exercised with 

 the younger forest growth. The Biblical adage that wheat and 

 tares cannot be raised upon the same ground is most forcefully 

 illustrated in the growing of timber. You cannot successfully 

 grow grass and feed stock where you want to succeed in growing 

 a forest. Grazing in forests is absolutely inimical to successful 

 tree growing. Cattle browse off the young tree growth, trample 

 the tender roots, damage the bark of the more mature growth, 

 i nd on the whole contribute to the ruin of the forest in a very 

 marked degree. The spongy soil found in the forest is necessary 

 to the well being of many kinds of trees. A bruise on the bark 

 of even a fully developed tree results in letting in borers and 

 often ruining the entire forest. 



A forest tree is like an Indian, and no more than the Indian 

 will it stand civilization. Nature does wonderful things for her- 

 self if only unmolested, but the paramount menace to successful 

 reforestry lies less with timber thieves or even fires than it does 

 with the stockman. 



Timber in Panama. 



The ubiquitous American timber eruiser has even penetrated the 

 Isthmus el I'ariaina and comes hack with reports of the marvelous 

 regions of rich forest growth in that section of the world. It 

 is alleged that the country is prolific in many valuable woods, in- 

 cluding mahogany. One tract of 5:2,000 acres, lying on the Pacific 

 side of the bsthmus. about twenty five miles below the city of Pan- 

 ama, has been exploited in the Unil id Stales for I lie past two years 

 as being a bonanza, but the 1 1 uiDWoOD Record has not heard of 

 any American lumb rman as yet who has been willing to risk his 

 life with yellow fever in Darien swamps for the sake of the possible 

 dollars thai may be acquired from the lumber business in thai set 

 tion. ., 



Paper Floors. 



It is said that the hardwood flooring men have for the firsl time 

 a rival in papei floors which are being manufactured in Germany. 

 This flooring is spread in the form of a paste, rolled, and when dry 

 is painted to imitate wood. They have no joints to harbor dust, 

 fungi or vermin, and fee] of1 to the foot. Still, the maple, oak 

 and beech flooring men need not lie awake of nights for a while 



i. thinking that, their business has gone to the demnition bovi wowp, 

 iii.-e wonderful inventions of tins sort, prophesied to absorb the 

 trade of the world, have I a heard of before. 



