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Copyright, The Hardwood Company, 1916 



Published in the Interest of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and Logging, Saw 

 Mill and Woodworking Machinery, on the lOlh and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Edgar H. Defebaugh, President 

 Edwin W. Meeker, Managing Editor 

 Hu Maxwell, Technical Editor 



Entire Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 

 Telephones: Harrison 8086-8087-8088 





Vol. XLI CHICAGO, APRIL 10, 1916 No. 12 



General Market Conditions 



THE TONE OP OPINIONS on market conditions in the hardwood 

 business at present is distinctly colored by the locality from 

 which the speaker might come and on whether or not he is in contact 

 with any other part of the producing or consuming sections. If he 

 comes from the East lie will dwell primarily on the sustained em- 

 bargoes against the shipments of lumber on the eastern roads. He 

 will say he never has seen such a call for stock nor so much diffi- 

 culty in furnishing it both because it is hard to get it from the 

 mill, and because it is hard to get into the buyers' hands. Occa- 

 sionally someone is found who is wise enough to appreciate that under 

 the conditions existing in the East there are probably three or four 

 inquiries or even three or four actual orders placed for any line of 

 hardwood stocks to one delivery of that stock. In other words, 

 nobody knows whether or not lumber is going through. This applies 

 both to the buyer and the seller. Therefore as the buyer knows it 

 is an easy thing to cancel an order, and as he wants to take advan- 

 tage of every opportuniity for getting his stock when he needs it, he 

 orders from three or four people at the same time, and the man 

 who get^ the lumber in first gets the check in payment. The others 

 receive requests for cancellation of the order. So the demand from 

 the East, as far as the use of hardwood lumber is concerned, while 

 basicly really excellent, is not inflated as it would appear to be 

 on the surface. 



If the speaker came from the middle western section, he possibly 

 would say that he wasn't quite satisfied with the way the factories 

 are buying, but that he can get orders for all the stuff that he can 

 handle, at fair prices. 



In the Mississippi producing section everyone is concerned chiefly 

 with the problem of getting his logs in and the lumber out. They 

 never know when additional high water or excessive rains will put 

 their woods in such shape as to make logging impossible. In fact, 

 there has been a recurrence of the condition immediately following 

 the liigh water, and there wiU be continued uncertainty until the rainy 

 season is well over. In the meantime there hasn't been an excessive 

 production. The operators back further east in the mountains have 

 been forced to fill in where their Mississippi brethren could not 

 handle the orders, and as a consequence they are absolutely cleaned 

 up on dry hardwood stocks. This is an actual fact in a majority 

 of eases. 



Eegardless, however, of how the individuals' views may be ex- 

 pressed, there is one underlying opinion that is decidedly optimistic 

 in its tone, both as to what is happening now and what may happen 

 in the ne:it three to six months. It is quite possible that, with com- 

 pany after company announcing that this or that month in the last 



two or three was the best in the history of its business, there has 

 not been quite so much genuine optimism or optimism so universally 

 pronounced before in the history of the hardwood trade. 



(Jetting right down to the state of affairs, the factory trade in 

 some sections isn 't buying so much as had been expected. In other 

 sections it is taking more than was anticipated, and it is quite likely 

 that the two conditions rather even up. By the "factory trade" is 

 meant that section which makes various articles from hardwood lum- 

 ber exclusive of materials actually used in building construction, 

 such as interior finish, planing mill products, etc. The latter class 

 of institutions has been sailing along under flying flags, and is 

 coming into the home stretch with on? of the best building seasons 

 on record immediately before it. 



Eailroads are shown to be in really prosperous condition again, 

 and it is difficult to see any possibility of their getting beyond the 

 buying point at any time in the discernible future. 



It should be borne in mind, for the benefit of the pessimists, that 

 regardless of the specific proofs pro or con on the question of good 

 business, the hardwood trade in its personnel is in an exceedingly 

 pleasant frame of mind now, and that there is no demoralization 

 whatever, but a real tendency toward upward prices, and further it 

 must be remembered that this upward tendency comes in the face 

 of an almost total elimination of foreign consumption, which means 

 that domestic conditions must have been decidedly healthy in the 

 last few months to have absorbed the excess which normally would 

 have gone abroad. 



It must also be remembered that up to a certain time in 1915 

 stocks were pretty heavy, at least at all of the mill points, and that 

 these excess stocks have not only been taken care of by the home mar- 

 ket in the absence of any real possibility of shipping abroad, but 

 the balance between supply and demand has been consistently main- 

 tained to the advantage of the producers, and there is promised an 

 even stronger sellers ' market. 



The Cover Picture 



WATEE IS THE CHEAPEST CAEEIEE where it is available. 

 Artificial waterways have been constructed in all parts of the 

 civilized world to carry heavy freight. Canals may be dug in the 

 ground and boats and rafts may pass through them; or water may 

 flow through aqueducts above ground or on its surface. 



The cover picture shows an aqueduct, and in this instance it is called 

 a log chute, because it was built as a carrier of logs. It is situated 

 on Madawaska river, a branch of the Ottawa, in northeastern Ontario. 

 The chute is 900 feet long and makes a short cut across a bend of the 

 river. Between the points where the chute leaves the river and reaches 



