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Importance of Proper Piling 



Never has importance of proper piling of liardwoods been more 

 thoroughly or more widely demonstrated than during the past year. 

 Those who have their lumber stock well piled find that it has benefited 

 by waiting for orders because it has dried out more thoroughly, thus 

 reducing the freight item enough to pay interest on the capital 

 involved in carrying the stock over. On the other hand where lumber 

 has been improperly piled the result of delay, and standing in piles, 

 has meant depreciation in value. It has led to crooked stock and 

 to stain and decay, and where too close to the ground on poor foun- 

 dations it has been an invitation to worms and insects. One of the 

 important lessons the trade has learned the past season is that proper 

 piling is worth while, and if this lesson is taken home more care 

 will be taken, both in the equipping of foundations and in piling 

 the lumber. 



Different Angles of the Selling Game 



During the period of the slow movement of stock there was in evi- 

 dence several radically different ideas as to what should be done 

 about the selling end of the business. Some, realizing that it is not 

 a time to push business but to go slowly and wait for the demand 

 to revive, take life lazily and pass considerably more time 

 playing golf than they would have done had the lumber trade made 

 heavier demands upon them. Others feel that the way to stir things 

 up is to get out and hustle, and the harder it seems to sell stock 

 the more industriously they circulate over the territory so as to get 

 what orders are to be had. There is no question of the good logic 

 of letting the trade rest at times and letting up on the effort to 

 force sales. This is logic founded upon sound reasoning. On the 

 other hand, there is no question but that the fellows who industriously 

 cover their territory while others are taking their ease get some of 

 the trade that might otherwis-e have gone to their competitors. So 

 there you are, and you can take your own choice as to which is the 

 wiser course. The interesting point is seen in the different angles 

 from which different people view the matter. Some of those who 

 keep quiet and hold their lumber may eventually be more benefited 

 than had they pushed sales more energetically. On the other hand, 

 some of the industrious fellows have gained a foothold that will make 

 them more important factors in the trade in the future. 



The Advertising Side 

 One of the inferestiug and imjiortant phases of every business is 

 the advertising side. Sometimes, too, some queer contradictions are 

 presented. When business is good there is some disposition to treat 

 the question of advertising lightly. On the other hand when a busi- 

 ness depression comes along many people seem to think the place 

 to cut down expenses is in the advertising. The fact of the matter is, 

 there is seldom a time when it pays to let up on advertising, except 

 when one is preparing to retire from business, and then there is 

 some special advertising called for to clean up the business and sell 

 out the assets. If there were ever a time when it is a mistake to 

 curtail, that time seems to be right now, especially in the lumber 

 trade, and the logic may apply to many other lines. There is a 

 shifting about, an opening of new channels and a general reorganiza- 

 tion in trade lines, and the man who would keep in touch with these 

 and get what is coming to him is losing an important line of con- 

 nection when he cuts down his advertising. The new customer looks 

 over advertising in the trade papers to find what he wants and it is 

 through trade paper advertising that most of the new connections 

 for fresh channels of trade will be built up. That is why it would 

 seem false economy to trim down on advertising at a time like the 

 present. Instead of doing that, those who want business should be 

 makmg their wants known and should be exploiting their business 

 conspicuously through advertising. 



The Item of Bosewood 

 Rosewood is an item in the cabinet and some other branches of 

 the lumber trade that many people have mistaken ideas about Rose- 

 wood IS considered by some as being a relative of mahogany, though 



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somewhat redder. In reality it is more closely related to ebony. It 

 is dark and heavier than mahogany and it is difficult to get it in 

 wide boards or big logs. The logs are usually small and rough and, 

 in size and shape, suggestive of Circassian walnut, but much heavier. 

 Rosewood is often sold by the pound at prices varying from about 

 three cents for the logs to fifteen cents a pound for bits of rosewood 

 lumber. Sinie it is a decidedly heavy wood it doesn't take much 

 of it to weigh a pound and it really is entitled to be classed as one of 

 the most expensive of the imported woods used in this country. 

 Odd Effect of Price Slashing 



"It is a peculiar fact," said a hardwood man who had just come 

 in from a selling trip on the road, "that a man can overreach him- 

 self even in price cutting to sell hardwood lumber. I have met in 

 m}' rounds some remarkable offers in the way of low prices on stock, 

 evidently made by men who were desperate to get business and 

 thought that was the way to do it. Their jirices were so much lower 

 than those generally quoted by reputable concerns that the prospective 

 customers are afraid of them. I have sold to men who had prices 

 so much lower than mine that it would make a big difference in a 

 carload of stock. They were, too, men who were looking for bargains 

 and driving prices down to the lowest notch. Yet when some fellow 

 came along with too much of a cut in prices they were afraid the ex- 

 cessive reductions could be made up only by a shading in the quality 

 of stock, inferior service or some other item. It is likely that an 

 occasional cut of a dollar or two does land an order here and there, but 

 those who have thought they could surely land business by making 

 deep cuts have simply overreached themselves and scared their custo- 

 mers out of buying." 



This incident strongly supports an idea that has been advocated 

 heretofore, that invariable price cutting creates an impression of 

 inferior quality, whereas to ask a higher price than usual, while it 

 may not land a sale at the time, does leave an impression of quality 

 of a superior product, and that is worth something. It is worth 

 more, perhaps, than many a lumberman gives it credit with being. 



Walnut Is Still Coming 



Manufacturers of American black walnut are jubilant over pros- 

 pects for the January furniture shows. Though the wood was 

 prominent at the July exhibitions, something like two score factories 

 showing walnut goods, a much larger number of furniture houses 

 will include walnut in their lines in January, it is predicted, while 

 those which have been using the wood during the past year will be 

 able to make a more elaborate and inclusive exhibition. Since July, 

 too, a number of manufacturers have begun to try out walnut, and 

 have had suQiciently good results to warrant the development of this 

 feature, and their displays will, of course, include something in 

 walnut. 



Walnut men are also noting with much interest that retail furniture 

 dealers in a good many cities are featuring walnut furniture in their 

 newspaper advertising. This is especially pleasing in view of the 

 fact that it is disseminating information about the situation among 

 ultimate consumers, whose verdict, in the last analysis, must be heard 

 before reaching a conclusion on the subject. This publicity is not 

 only stimulating interest on the part of the public, but it is also 

 resulting in calls for walnut goods from dealers who have not been 

 carrying them to factories which have not been making them, and 

 is thus helping to get other manufacturers started along this line. 



Altogether, prospects in the furniture trade are declared to be 

 unusually good. 



Outside of its use for fence posts, black locust finds its principal 

 utilization in insulator pins and brackets for telegraph and telephone 

 lines. 



One hundred shade trees will be planted by the Massachusetts 

 Forestry Association in cities or towns of four population classes 

 which win prize contests for excellence in street tree planting. 



