MMWoM RocoM 



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, JULY 25, 1905. 



No. 7. 



fliMwoM MM 



Published on the 10th and 25th of each month 



By The HARDWOOD COMPANY 



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. 



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 contrary are continued at our option. 



Entered at Chicago Postoffice as Second Class Matter. 



Advertising copy must be received five days In advance 

 of publication date. Advertising rates on application. 



General Market Conditions. 



Contrary to anticipation, the general hardwood lumber demand 

 from one end of the country to the other has exhibited a marked 

 improvement during the last two weeks — an improved condition in 

 inquiry and actual ordering forward of stock that comes fully a 

 month earlier than was expected even by the optimistic. 



The furniture selling season, notably at the great Chicago and 

 Grand Eapids exhibits, is just closing, ami the volume of busi- 

 ness booked at these two furniture shows is extremely gratifying 

 to the manufacturer. The consensus of opinion among the leading 

 furniture salesmen places an estimate of the July sales compared 

 with those of last January at an excess of fully twenty percent. 

 It is only the exceptional furniture manufacturer who reports a 

 tailing off in sales, and in these cases it is apparent that the speci- 

 men line of production placed before buyers did not satisfy th< ir 

 critical taste in design, workmanship or finish. The result of the 

 midsummer furniture sales should be very encouraging to the hard- 

 wood producing and jobbing trade, inasmuch as it means an exeep- 

 1 ionally strong demand for the remainder of the season, for all 

 the varieties of lumber that euter into furniture construction. The 

 sales will strengthen notably the price of both red and white oak, 

 maple, birch, ash. elm and even gum. 



The collapse of the teamsters' strike in Chicago will also permit 

 the forwarding of the lumber business again, and undeniably the 

 trade will assume normal proportions within the next two weeks, 

 which will increase to a very heavy fall demand. 



In the South weather conditions si ill remain unfavorable for 

 the getting out of oak and many other varieties of hardwoo 

 and it is practically certain that oak values, especially in plain 

 wood, will outstrip the highest prices paid earlj in the spring. 



In Michigan and Wisconsin black ash has become so scarce as 

 to be almost our of 1 1n- market. 



Maple, while in less aggregate supply than a yeai ig -. is mov- 



ing rather slowly. The flooring makers have consumed the big end 

 • i the inch, but there seems to be a little overstock of thick lumber. 



The good end of basswood is moving i try well indeed, and there 

 is a special call for winter sawed, end piled, strictly white. The 

 c iarse end of the wood is dragging. 



Bock elm is very scarce and ranging high in value, and in many 

 instances completely out of stock. 



Good birch, especially that showing a fair proportion of red, is 

 in strong demand generally in Michigan, while some of the Wis- 

 consin dealers report it dragging. 



Gray elm, an exceptionally goo. I w 1. for some strange reason 



is not meeting the expectation of producers in volume of demand. 



Some dealers claim that the price was I sted too high early in tLe 



year and that many consumers have substituted gum and other 

 u nods in its place. 



In the South, while the price lias not materially increase. 1, there 

 seems to be a steady and growing demand for gum. The prieo 

 . ommends it, and many consumers have learned to utilize the wood 

 in place of higher priced 'hardwood commodities, 



The good end of poplar is still doing liist rate, while the com- 

 mon and coarse end is dragging more or less. 



There seems to be au increased demand for quarter sawed oak, 

 and apparently there has been less of this sawing produced than 

 last year, which would augur a prospect for increased values. Plain 

 oak, however, still has call in the market, and buyers generally aro 

 recognizing that buying plain wood at any reasonable price con- 

 stitutes a good purchase. 



The big end of the cottonwood output is going into boxes as 

 usual, but tl\ere is a fair demand for first and second as a substi- 

 tute for poplar. 



The minor southern hardwoods are generally in good demand at 

 satisfactory prices. 



The veneer people are all busy and in iiianx cases are sixty to 

 ninety days behind orders. 



The demand for railroad ties, piling and telegraph and telephone 

 poles, is very active, with prices ruling high. 



The hardwood flooring people are still deluged with business, and 

 few of them can take care of the orders offered. Two and one- 

 quarter inch clear maple flooring is verj scarce, and it will take 

 the factories several months to catch up with their orders. The 

 call for oak flooring is far in excess of the output of the mills. 



Taken altogether the prospei I for a very strong fall trade in 

 rj line • t hardwoods is excellent, and without doubt will out- 

 strip the strong deman. -vailed throughout the East dur- 

 ing the year. The eastern trade generally has been better than 

 that of the middle West and West so far this year, but it seems 

 more than probable that the western demand will be almost equal 



High Prices Do Not Mean Large Profits. 



High I'ri.e- Do Not Mean 1 . ts. 10 I't Bancroft C &Lc 



There is .. falls mers of lumber generally, 



i ii.it -Alien pri ' high, lumbi n ' realizing large profits. 



Lumber was never sold on 

 a narrower margin of profit than s -■ at time, and as prices 



advance the '. ndcm v is ti 



