HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



About seventy per cent of the bond elections this year throughout 

 Missouri and Kansas resulted favorably to the issue of bonds, and 

 this is interpreted as a good sign of a prosperous business year. 

 Eastern Situation 



Eeports from numerous cities in the eastern states look at the 

 bright side of the situation. Booms are not looked for, but healthy 

 revival of building operations is contemplated. 



Some localities report the money markets practically back to normal 

 conditions; others indicate only progress in that direction. All, 

 however, show marked improvement as compared with a month or 

 two ago. Buffalo gives the tip as coming from inside banking sources 

 that money will loosen up. And the significant statement comes from 

 some cities that bankers are now tending to favor building operations 

 more than they did a month or two ago, because new buildings add 

 to the material welfare of the country. 



Many municipalities which have had public works in contemplation 

 for some time are taking steps to begin operations in the near 

 future. This will stimulate building and increase the employment 

 of labor. 



Though in New York there is no more actual planning going on 



than heretofore, a great many sketches and preliminary drawings 

 are being made which foreshadows an unusual amount of spring work. 

 The opening of the New York Stock Exchange has undoubtedly 

 helped a great deal toward restoring confidence. Many clients having 

 large investments iu stocks who had held off on going ahead with 

 their building plans during the interim of the closing of the exchange 

 have ordered work to begin immediately. Speculative buUding 

 especially has taken a big brace as many large operations have 

 already been undertaken, and the outlook for residential and com- 

 mercial work is very bright to say the least. The rate of money 

 stands about the same, but the prevailing opinion is that money will 

 shortly loosen up considerably. Taken altogether the architects do 

 not see any reason why 1915 should not start with a rush and continue 

 80 throughout the year. 



Eeports are similar from other eastern cities where large sums of 

 money are accumulated and which naturally seeks investment in the 

 most profitable way. The recent railroad rate decision figures to a 

 considerable extent in all eastern predictions of building revivals. 

 The general opinion is that business will be helped by increased 

 revenues earned by the railroads. 



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The inch board is the most important single item in the lumber 

 industry, and the general prevalence of the inch board together with 

 the ease with which it may be obtained has led to its adoption for 

 many uses that primarily called for other thicknesses. For example 

 there is nothing unusual today about seeing church pew ends, barber 

 chairs, frames and other thick work made up from inch boards glued 

 together into whatever thickness is desired. This is especially true 

 in oak. In birch one may find thick stock used for arms and frames 

 more commonly than in oak, and now and then one finds the thick 

 stock in oak, but there is enough use of inch boards built up into 

 thick stock to cause some wonder as to just why it is. 



During the winter there have been calls for thick oak, which have 

 brought out the fact that as a rule there is a very limited quantity 

 of thick oak made, the greatest percentage being inch boards. Buyers 

 seeking wagon and implement stock have cleared up in some of the 

 hardwood lumber centers such items as 2%, 3, 3% inch oak plank, 

 and while this created a little flurry in the lumber situation, it is 

 found after a thorough investigation that a demand that would clean 

 up all of such thick oak would really take up only a small percentage 

 of the oak lumber stock on hand. 



The inch board is a much more important item in the lumber trade 

 today than it was ten or twenty-five years ago. In the days gone 

 by there were periods when inch oak was made only in limited 

 quantities and most of the accumulation came from siding and from 

 reducing logs to specific dimensions. In the earlier days many of 

 the boards were made two inches thick and three inches and a fair 

 percentage 2%, 3% and 4. Today when one compares the total of 

 thick planks with the lumber cut, the item is rather insignificant. 



There are several explanations for this change in lumber stock 

 dimensions and for the general prevalence of the inch board. There 

 is not so much call for thick oak as formerly. Thick oak was used 

 for all kind of tanks, tubs, hogsheads and vat work much more 

 extensively than it is today. When this call was general nearly every 

 oak mill cut much of its best stock into thick oak planks, and a 

 fair percentage of the common stock into two inch oak and even a 

 fair share of three inch oak for bridges and railroad crossing planks. 



Today the best demand for high-grade thick oak is for flitches 

 to be made into quartered veneer. Naturally the man who has good 

 stock for thick oak is inclined to reduce it to quartered flitches and 

 market it green to some veneer mill, or put in a veneer saw and work 

 it up himself. This demand consumes much oak that originally went 

 into thick planks. Meantime the market for thick oak has been so 

 erratic and uncertain from year to year that some millmen have 



become afraid of it. At certain periods in the past those who have 

 had a stock of thick oak at the right time have made a sort of 

 killing with it, but this happens only once in a while and between 

 times it is often found expensive to carry. The result is that people 

 turn more to inch oak and today the inch board is easily the biggest 

 thing in the oak lumber market. 



Whether the inch board should continue in this prominence or 

 whether other thicknesses should be used is a question that needs 

 serious attention on the part of the lumber fraternity. This question 

 may take in many other hardwoods than oak. The inch board has 

 become such a habit in all lines of hardwood that when there is a 

 slow period and an accumulation of stock it is always found that 

 the biggest part of this burden is in inch boards. 



It is time for the lumber manufacturing fraternity to make a 

 careful study of the consumption of lumber in the various lines of 

 importance to the end that there may be obtained some guiding light 

 as to the comparative quantity which should be made in inch boards 

 and in other thicknesses. Now and then we see evidence of a need 

 for various other thicknesses which give a hint that profit might 

 accrue from a more careful study of the needs of the country. 



The inch board is an easy thing to make and it is so standardized 

 that it is sure of a market at some price some time or other. This 

 is easily the explanation of why we have so many inch boards, but 

 it is not a good enough reason in this age of analytical study and 

 specializing. The first advance scored in the lumber market the 

 past fall was in 5/4 and 6/4 gum boards, not inch boards. The 

 box factory trade needed boards for resawing that were a little 

 thicker than the regular inch stock, and those who had been thoughtful 

 and forehanded and had cut a fair percentage of 5/4 and 6/4 

 boards found the first and best market, and even today where there 

 is a demand for this thickness it generally carries with it a better 

 price comparatively than is offered for inch boards. 



Only one modern sawmill is operated in the territory of Hawaii. 



In district 4 of the Forest Service, with headquarters at Ogden, 

 Utah, lightning caused thirty-six per cent of this year's fires and 

 campers twenty-seven per cent. 



As showing the possibilities for tree growth in regions where 

 irrigation has to be depended upon, it is pointed out that Boise, 

 Idaho, has as many as ninety-four different kinds of ornamental and 

 shade trees. 



