March 10. 191G 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



consequence. Assuming that a mill were to buy current at four cents 

 per liilowatt hour, the cost would not average over $200 per tractor 

 per year. 



The total cost per year of mule equipment, including the entire 

 investment, fixed charges and operating costs, is $24,358. while the total 

 cost of electric tractors is $11,115 per year. 



Another plant installing electric tractors in place of the mule haul is 

 the Bodcaw Lumber (Company at Stamps, Ark., where three tractors had 

 displaced fifteen nuile.s and drivers. It was later found, however, that 

 two tractors could do the work and the third tractor is used to haul the 

 finished lumber from the sheds to the cars which had previously required 

 six mules and six drivers. This makes a total of twenty-one mules anil 

 twenty-one drivers that are now being supplanted by the three electric 

 tractors and three drivers and a helper. 



It is estimated in this case that the expense for ownership, upkeep, 

 depreciation, insurance and operation of one of these tractors when 

 working a little less strenuously than the Bodcaw mills work theirs. 

 Is approximately $G per day or less, but crowded to its full capacity, by 

 performing the work of seven mules, the cost Increased to about $7.50 

 per day. 



Working on the basis of a daily mileage of fifteen miles per horse, 

 and that a good day's work is the moving of 15.000 feet of lumber one 

 mile or its equivalent, the avera.e of the electric tractor that will tow 

 1,500 feet of lumber threi- .an<l a half miles in an hour compares very 

 favorably. 



A further point is raised in the article that the electric tractor 

 minimizes fire hazard in places where shavings and sawdust could he 

 ea.sily ignited by sp.arks or hot giiscs cmittcil from gasoline machines. 



Sherfeesee in China 



W. F. Sherfeesee. director of forests in the Philippines, has returned 

 to China where an offer was made him .some time ago to head the Chinese 

 forestry bureau. He is on furlough and has not resigned his ofliice in 

 the Philippines ; but by reading between the Hues it may be assumed 

 that it is his Intention to do so. Persons who have returned from the 

 islands in recent months say that American officers there are not counting 

 on staying long, because the constant menace of abandoning the islands, 

 which American politicians at home are busil.v agitating, tjikes all ambi- 

 tion out of Americans there, and they have no heart to (engage in serious 

 work, which may soon be thrown away. 



Crandall & Brown Building Mill 



F. Ii. Brown of the Chicago firm of Crandall & Brown returned from 

 the South a couple of weeks ago after completing the arrangements 

 prior to the erection of a large sawmill plant at the village of Pearl 

 River, St. Tammany Parish. T.a. 



Crandall & Brown have for many years made a specialty of cypress 

 lumber, shipping it to all sections of the country. They have always 

 carried a large assortment of stock at the Chicago yards, which is dis- 

 posed of locally and used to supplement car shipments' in the Chicago 

 district. 



The mill proposition was decided upon to insure a constant and large 

 source of supply. To this end a considerable quantity of standing 

 red cypress timber of good quality, enough to secure a cut of at least 

 ten or twelve years has been secured on Pearl river. The mill will 

 probably be ready for operation some time in June. The output will 

 consist of rough lumber, lath and shingles. 



James N. Crandall of Chicago will be president : J. D. Stockstill. Pica- 

 .vune. Miss., vice-president : T. E. Murrhec, Pearl River, La., secretary ; 

 Frederick L. Brown. Chicago, treasurer. 



J. M. D. Heald 



J. M. D. Ileald, surviving member of the widely-known hardwood firm 

 of Price & Heald, Knickerbocker building, Baltimore, Md., died on February 

 25 after an iliness of nearly a year. lie was iiorn sixt\-five years ago in 

 Baltimore as the son of the late John H. Heald, founder of the firm of 

 John H. Heald & Co., manufacturers of tanning extract and other products 

 at Lynchburg and Radford. Va., and for many years engaged in the saw- 

 mill business in Baltimore. In 1S74 the son with the late Richard D. 

 Price who passed away about three years ago, formed the partnership 

 of Price & Heald, as the successor to the hardwood firm of Richard 

 Price & Sons, founded a generation before that by the father of Mr. 

 Price. The new house attained gratifying sucess, being especially promi- 

 nent in export trade, in which it was a pioneer. 



Mr. Price had married a sister of Jlr. Heald. Though Mr. Heald al- 

 ways kept more closely to the office than his partner, he made a large 

 number of friends, who held him in very high esteem. Mr. Heald also 

 became vice-president of John H. Heald & Co., Inc., when the extract 

 manufacturing concern was incorporated, and held a similiar oflice with 

 the Hughes Furniture Manufacturing Company. He was a member of 

 several local clubs and very fond of hunting. After the introduction of 

 the automobile he became an ardent motorist, touring Maryland and 

 many other states. He is survived by bis wife and two children, one of 

 the latter, a son, Edward Ernest Heald, being in charge of the extract 

 works. Mr. Heald left no will, and letters of administration on his 

 estate have been granted to the widow, who bonded in the sum of $100,000. 

 The value of the estate has been estimated at upwards of a quarter of a 

 million dollars. 



The Desoto Hardwood Flooring Company 



The Desoto Hardwoo<l Flooring Comriany has been organized in Mem- 

 phis, Tenn., to succeed the Poplar Products Company. The capital stock 

 was increased from $20,000 to $50,000 and the plant operated by 

 Geo. O. Friedel & Co. has been taken over. The machinery is now being 

 installed and operations will begin as soon as the necessary equipment 

 has been put in. J. W. McClure of the Bellgrade Lumber Company is 

 president, T. A. Taylor is vice-president and Geo. O. Friedel secretary- 

 treasurer. The company will manufacture oak fiooring. This makes the 

 second large flooring plant for Memphis. 



Appeal Lumber Rate Case 



The Southern Pacific Company and other railroads involved in the suit 

 instituted several years ago in the Tennessee federal court by the Darnell- 

 Taenzer Lumber Company and others, to recover from the railroads 

 reparation awarded them by the Interstate Commerce Commission when 

 it held that a rate of 85 cents on lumber shipments was unreasonable 

 and fixed the rate at 75 cenls, will c-arry the case to the United States 

 Supreme Court. The preliminary step was taken last week when the 

 United States circuit court of appeals handed down its opinion aflirming 

 the decree of the Tennessee court awarding judgment to the lumber 

 companies for the difference between the alleged unreasonable rate paid 

 and the rate fixed by the Interstate Commerce Commission. This makes 

 the second time the appellate court has passed on this judgment. The 

 case has been watched with great interest by lumbermen for several years. 



New Rate on Hardwoods to Pacific Coast 



The h.ardwood mill operators at I'ine Bluff have been notified that the 

 new rate on Imrdwood lumber to the Pacific coast became effective 

 on March 5^fUnder the new rate this class of lumber will take a rate of 

 si.xty cents ^cr hundred instead of eighty cents, as has heretofore been 

 the case. This big reduction will enable the Arkansas mills to compete 

 with importers of oak lumber from Japan. Heretofore this was impossible, 

 as the Japan logs are received in this country with no import duty. The 

 Japanese oak is now used extensively along the western coast, and many 

 mills there are engaged in sawing the foreign timbers into finished lum- 

 ber. 



When the Panama canal was first opened a rate of fifty-five cents was 

 [put in effect, but as this route Is practically closed to lumber shipments, 

 the rate proved very ineffective to Arkansas hardwood manufacturers. 

 There are three large hardwood mills in Pine Bluff and a number of others 

 throughout the state that will be benefited by the new rate. During the 

 month of February last one of the Pine Bluff mills shipped twenty-nine 

 cars of oak lumber to the Pacific coast in spite of the high rates. 



Prospective Lumber Rate Hearings 



Hearings of importance to the hardwood industry are scheduled as 

 follows : 

 Memphis, March 14. Examiner Mackley : 



I. & S. 745. Southeastern Lumber. 



I. & S. 77.5. Lumber to the Northwest. 

 Memphis. March 17. Examiner Mackley: 



No. 8528. Kraetzer-Cured Lumber Company vs. Yazoo & Mississippi 

 Valley Railroad Company. 



No. 8529. Lamb-Fish Lumber Company vs. Yazoo & Mississippi Valley 

 Railroad Company. 

 Dul>uque, la., March 20. Examiner Money : 



I. & S. 7G4. Lumber to Montana points. 

 Washington. D. C, March 20 : 



I. & S. 490. Lumber transit privileges at Buffalo, N. Y. 



No. 750C,. Buffalo Lumber Exchange vs. Alabama Central Railway. 

 Chicago. March 27. Examiner Money : 



No. 8587. Marsh & Truman Lumber Company vs. Louisville & Nashville. 



No. 8591. Bagdad Land & Lumber Company vs. Grand Rapids & 

 Indiana. 

 New Orleans, March 27. Examiner Fleming : 



No. 8482. Phil I. Adams vs. Illinois Central. 

 Jackson. Miss.. March 29. Examiner Fleming : 



No. 8553. Warren Goodwin Lumber Company vs. Alabama & Vicksburg. 

 Green Bay. Wis.. April 1. Examiner Wood : 



No. S360. Diamond Lumber Cfimpanv vs. Chicago. Milwaukee & St. 

 Paul. 

 Escauaba, Mich.. April 3. Examiuer Wood : 



No. 8280. Northwestern Cooperage & Lumber Company vs. Minneapolis, 

 St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie. 

 Nashville. Tenn.. April 10. Examiner Fleming: 



No. 8508. Southern Lumber & Manufacturing Company vs. Tennessee 

 Railway Company. 

 Memphis. April 11. Examiner Fleming: 



I. & S. 778. Lumber from Mississippi. 

 Duluth. .Minn.. April 12. Examiner Wo.^d : 



No. .8450. Duluth Log Company vs. Northern Pacific. 



No. 8473. Duluth Log Company vs. Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. 

 Marie. 



No. 8541. Duluth Log Company vs. Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. 

 Marie. 



I. & S. 778 — The commis.sion has suspended from January 12 until 

 ^lay 11 the pi'oposed withdrawal of joint commodit.v rates on lumber, 

 in carloads from points of origin on the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley to 

 Spokane, Wash., and other points in the states of Washington and Oregon. 

 The present rate is seventy-five cents per 100 pounds. The proposed 

 combination rate is ninety-two cents. 



