HARDWOOD RECORD 



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Riel Lumber Company Expands 



The Riel Lumber Company of Memphis, Tenn., has l)een succeeded 

 by the Riel-Kadel Lumber Company. The capital stock of the latter 

 Is $100,000, one-halt of which has been paid in. The firm is composed 

 of Geo. F. Riel, former head of the Riel Lumber Company, Charles G. 

 Kadel, president of the Lumbermen's Club of Memphis and representative 

 here for a number of years of P. F. Stone ; W. L. Crenshaw of the Cren- 

 Shaw-Gary Lumber Company ; F. E. Gary of the Bellgrade Lumber Com- 

 pany, and C. L. Wheeler and William Pritchard of J. W. Wheeler & Co. 

 The new firm will make a specialty of ash, although it will handle 

 other southern hardwoods. For the present no mills will be operated 

 and it will confine its attentions to the wholesale handling of lumber. 

 Yards and offices are located In South Memphis. 



Kansas City Firm Enters Memphis 



The Penrod-Jurden-McCowen Lumber Company has filed application 

 for a charter under the laws of Tennessee with a capital stock of 

 $350,000. This firm proposes to establish large yards at Memphis for 

 the handling of all of its southern hardwood business. Mr. Penrod and 

 his associates recently took over the mill and holdings of the Bennett 

 Hardwood Lumber Company in North Memphis and this plant will be 

 operated under the new management. This firm will also have the 

 output of a mill at Brasfield, .\rk., and one at Helena, Ark. It will 

 thus have control of three hardwood plants, the output of which will 

 be concentrated at Memphis for distribution. The Penrod Walnut & 

 Veneer Company has operated at Kansas City for a number of years 

 and practically all of its business in both walnut and southern hard- 

 woods has been handled from that point. The walnut business at Kansas 

 City will be continued from that place but the southern hardwood end 

 of the business will be looked after entirely from Memphis. Mr. Penrod 

 will be in charge at Kansas City while R. L. Jurden will be in general 

 charge of operations here. He will be assisted by Mr. McCowen of 

 Louisville. Mr. Penrod has been prominently identified with a number 

 of the more important hardwood lumber companies operating in this 

 city and is quite well known to the entire hardwood trade. R. L. Jurden 

 made his initial appearance here as receiver for the J. W. Thompson 

 Lumber Company and has more recently been at Sheflield, Ala., and 

 Helena, Ark. 



Philadelphia Lumberman to Wed 

 Olive May Wilson, known as the "Santa Claus Girl of Jenkintown" 

 alias the "Happy Princess of Jenkintown" from her having taken up 

 the beautiful work of bringing a bountiful and happy Christmas to 

 the little unfortunates in the slums and the children of impecunious 

 parents in the rural districts generally, announces her engagement to 

 Birchall Hammer, son of Thomas B. Hammer, head of the Hammer Lum- 

 ber Company, Philadelphia, Pa. Miss Wilson's name is blessed by 

 thousands of poor little destitute and warped lives who bubble over with 

 happiness at least one day in the year. Her marriage will not interfere 

 with her work in the least — instead she ^"iii have some one to help her 

 who is equally interested. Mr. Hammer is interested with his father 

 in the lumber business in this city and North Carolina. He was grad- 

 uated from the Chestnut Hill Academy, in class of 1909. He came 

 from a distinguished family, tracing back to Peter Birk Keyser, one of 

 the earliest and most conspicuous settlers of Germantown, Pa. 



Philadelphian Found Dead 

 William F. Robinson, who has been carrying on a wholesale lumber 

 business in the Crozer building for a number of years and who was one 

 of the best liked of the young lumbermen in this section, was found 

 dead in a bedroom of their home by his wife on the afternoon of Feb- 

 ruary 4. Death was due to asphy.xiation by gas. Besides the widow 

 he leaves a son aged five years. No details concerning the matter 

 could be learned. 



Car Company Report Not Encouraging 



The recent report of the J. G. Brill Company, Pliiladclphia, one of 

 the most extensive car building concerns in the country, in its 1914 

 showing, is of special interest to the lumber trade as it indicates more 

 or less the effect of the foreign disturbance of the export market of 

 this country. The Brill cars have a world wide reputation. Total sales 

 for year 1914 were $4,903,510, compared with $9,154,433 in 1913, a 

 drop of nearly one-half. Profits for the year 1914 were $313,105, com- 

 pared with the previous year which was $1,004,377. Deducting $154,221 

 for depreciation reserve, a balance of $158,883 was left for dividend, 

 equal to 3.47 per cent on the $4,580,000 preferred stock, on which divi- 

 dends aggregating 6>4 per cent were paid last year, the regular quarterly 

 dividend of 1% per cent, having been reduced to 1 per cent last November. 

 In 1913 profits were equal to 11.77 per cent on the $5,000,000 of common 

 stock after the 7 per cent had been paid on tlie preferred. 



Treatise on Forest Valuation 



A number of books dealing with various phases of forestry and wood- 

 utilization have been published within recent months In this country. 

 The latest is from the pen of Herman H. Chapman, professor of forest 

 management at Yale University. It is published by John Wiley & Sons, 

 New York and London. The treatise deals particularly with forest 

 valuation, and Is a technical work prepared specially for advanced 

 students in forestry ; but the general reader, if Interested along that 



line, will find the book of great value. The title describes the treatise 

 exactly. The present and future value of a tract of growing timber 

 are worked out by rule and formula. The careless and inattentive 

 reader has no business with this book, but the man who approaches the 

 subject seriously will find the answer to almost every conceivable question 

 belonging in the indicated field. Professor Chapman is among the 

 leading foresters of this country and his book Elmpllfies the subject as 

 far as a naturally difficult subject can be made easy. The prcsswork 

 and binding which the publishers have given the book leave notblog to 

 be desired. 



Pertinent Information 



Wisconsin Lavir Unconstitutional 

 A recent decision of tlie Wisconsin supreme court holds that the con- 

 stitutional amendment under which the reforestry laws of the state 

 were passed is illegal, consequently the laws based on the amendment 

 are void. The chief statute affected is that under which land was pur- 

 chased for timber reserves. The substance of the court's decision Is that 

 the present scheme of reforestation is unlawful and that about $3,000,000 

 belonging to trust funds, which are the school and drainage land funds, 

 have been unlawfully diverted. The referee, working with the state 

 land commissioners, will determine how much money has been unlawfully 

 diverted from the state trust funds and in what manner It shall be 

 returned to such fund. The supreme court will hear the report of the 

 referee within the coming year and confirm or modify. The legislature 

 now has it in its power to sell most of the lands in the reserve and 

 place the proceed in the trust fund. Or it could adopt the policy of 

 maintaining the forest reserve as the property of the school trust funds, 

 and for the benefit of those funds. 



Practically the only holding not affected by the decision Is the 20,000 

 acres donated by the government, the GOO small islands ceded to the 

 state by the government and the 5,000-acre Weyerhaueser tract on the 

 Brule river. The exact status of the other state holdings will he dis- 

 closed by an investigation to be made by Judge Samuel D. Hastings, of 

 Green Bay. 



Discouraging Large Holdings 

 A bill before the West Virginia legislature with a chance of becoming 

 a law, as it is backed by the governor, proposes a graduated increasing 

 tax on large timber holdings. The effect will not begin to strike until 

 the aggregate exceeds 5,000 acres. On tracts from 5,000 to 10,000 acres 

 an extra tax of five cents an acre will be laid yearly. If the holding 

 exceeds 10,000 and does not exceed 50,000, the special tax above 10,000 

 acres will be ten cents an acre. If the timber holdings exceed 00,000 

 acres, the tax on all above that amount will he fifteen cents an acre. 

 If the bill becomes a law at the present session of the legislature, the 

 tax will become payable June 1, 1915. The purpose evidently is to 

 discourage very large holdings of timber lands in the state. 



National Forests Much Used 



Selling some billion and a half board feet of timber and supervising 

 the cutting on several thou.sand different areas, overseeing the grazing 

 of more than 1,500,000 cattle and 7,500,000 sheep, and building more than 

 600 miles of road, 2,000 miles of trail, 3,000 miles of telephone line. 

 and 700 miles of fire line arc some of the things which the government 

 Forest Service did last year, as disclosed in the report of the chief 

 forester for 1914. All these activities were on the national forests 

 which at present total about 185,000,000 acres. 



There is need, says the chief forester, to increase the cut of timber 

 from the national forests wherever a fair price can be obtained for 

 the stumpage, because a great deal of it is mature and ought to be 

 taken out to make room for young growth. Unfavorable conditions in 

 the lumber trade caused new sales of national forest timber to fall off 

 somewhat during the past year, though the operations on outstanding 

 sales contracts brought the total cut above that of the previous year 

 by 130,000,000 board feet. There was, however, a big increase in small 

 timber sales, these numbering S,'29S in 1914 against 6,182 the previous 

 year. Desirable blocks of national forest timber have been appraised and 

 put on the market, and It is expected that these will find purchasers when 

 conditions in the lumber Industry improve. All told, the government 

 received $1,304,053.00 from the sale of timber on the forests in 1914. 

 The receipts from all sources totaled $2,437,710.21. 



After eight years of experience stockmen are well satisfied, says the 

 chief forester, with the way the grazing of livestock on the forests is 

 regulated, and even have urged upon Congress the application of the 

 same method of control to the unreserved public range. Almost 29,000 

 permittees graze stock on the national forests, and these paid to the 

 government in the fiscal .year 1914 fees amounting to over a million 

 dollars. The present tendency to raise fewer sheep and goats and more 

 cattle and horses Is shown in the fact that tlic numl>cr of cattle and 

 horse permittees on the western forests Increased last year l)y 1,579, 

 while the number of sheep and goat permittees fell off by a total of 268. 

 The western stock business, the forester points out, is becoming attached 

 to the soil, and the Itinerant sheep grower and the speculator In cattle 



