20 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



Apr 



191S 



of 3,500 tons. The latter are said to be uneconomical of operation 

 in the European trade, as half their cargo space would be required 

 for coal for the round-trip voyage. 



It is the understanding that no more Ferris ships will be con- 

 tracted for, and it is possible that no more wooden ship contracts 

 wUl be let to be carried out on the north Atlantic coast, where 

 there is a great congestion of labor and freight, etc. However, 

 wooden ship construction will continue on the south and west 

 coasts. The latest information is that all waj's on which wooden 

 ships are being built for the government will be kept busy during 

 the war. The ways for Ferris type ships can be extended to allow 

 building of larger ships. If government construction in the north 

 IS stopped, it is said that the allied governments would like to have 

 wooden ships built here. 



Mr. Hurley recently told a delegation of Southern Commercial 

 Congress to develop southern ports and shipyards and build as 

 many ships in that section as possible. The congress will boom 

 this plan through a committee headed by Gen. Julian S. Carr of 

 North Carolina. The Ferris boats will be used in the coastwise 

 and Central American trade, where big bunker coal resources are 

 not necessary. 



Chairman Hurley and Director General MeAdoo have arranged 

 to rush 50,000,000 feet of Douglas fir timber in special trains from 

 the Pacific coast to shipyards on the south and east coasts iii order 

 to speed up the construction of wooden ships. Eighty-three thou- 

 band tons of wooden ships are due to be launched this month. 



Legislation of interest to the lumber trade that is reaching con- 

 summation includes the Webb bill authorizing combinations in the 

 export trade regardless of the antitrust law. This has been agreed 

 to in the form of a conference report and it has gone to the presi- 

 dent. 



There has also been an agreement on the sabotage bill, which 

 would fine and imprison aliens, spies, I. W. W. and others who 

 interfere with, destroy or damage war materials, including lumber 

 and its products, airplanes, etc.; war premises, including lumber 

 mills, box factories and other establishments making war equip- 

 ment for the government, also railroads, wharves, vessels, other 

 transportation means, etc. The bill, however, would not prevent 

 strikes. 



The general housing bill has been under debate in the senate 

 for several days. It previously passed the house. The discussion 

 has gone on chiefly over the question whether government housing 

 contracts should be awarded on a competitive or a cost plus basis, 

 and over the question of the kind of building construction. Some 

 senators favor temporary and others, permanent construction. 



The lighthouse inspector, Detroit, Mich., will receive bids for 

 the privilege of cutting girdled and other marked hardwood timber 

 on Charity Island lighthouse reservation. 



Shipping Restrictions Lessening 



There has been still further improvement during the past fort- 

 night in transportation conditions in Memphis and the valley ter- 

 ritory as affecting the movement of lumber. Practically all em- 

 bargoes have now been lifted and all roads in the South passing 

 through the Memphis gateway are accepting shipments of lumber to 

 destinations in Central Freight Association and Eastern Trunk 

 Line territory except insofar as they are affected by embargoes on 

 connecting lines. It is now possible to ship lumber into a greater 

 area than for a number of months and it is anticipated that there 

 will be a gradual change for the better even over present con- 

 ditions. 



There is a fairly full supply of box cars and other equipment at 

 Memphis and other larger centres in this territory for handling 

 outbound shipments of lumber but the Southern Hardwood TrafSc 

 Association is receiving many complaints from non-competitive 

 points regarding inability to secure cars. These complaints are 

 coming notably from points on the Southern Railway in Missis- 

 sippi, the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley line of the Illinois Central, 

 the Missouri Pacific system and the Frisco system. Some of the 

 letters and reports received by the association indicate that ship- 



pers are not securing more than 15 to 25 per cent of their require- 

 ments in the way of cars and that they are suffering seriously on 

 this account. All possible pressure is being exerted by the associa- 

 tion to bring about relief but it is not anticipated by officials of 

 this organization that the situation will show much improvement 

 in the immediate future. 



The movement of logs into Memphis and into other towns on 

 the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley line of the Illinois Central system 

 is increasing somewhat. It is announced that this road now has 

 approximately 600 cars in the logging service. The Valley Log 

 Loading Company says that it is able to operate its present log 

 loading equipment on a somewhat larger scale than recently but 

 there has not been enough increase in cars to justify it in putting 

 any more of its machines in operation. It stands ready to put other 

 machines to work and to further increase its loading with present 

 machines as soon as more cars are available. The road, however, 

 under handicaps which it claims are practically insuperable, is 

 making but slow progress in adding to the number of cars in the 

 logging service. 



No improvement is reported in log loading on the Frisco system. 

 The Missouri Pacific system is making fairly good progress in fur- 

 nishing flat cars and motive power and the situation on that road 

 is gradually getting better. 



In the meantime, owing to shortage of logs, due directly to 

 inability of the railroads to furnish cars for their transportation, 

 jjroduction of southern hardwood lumber is considerably below 

 normal. There is some tendency toward increase in output but this 

 is making itself evident by very slow stages. Fortunately, the 

 mills which secure their logs by water and those that bring in their 

 timber over their own railroads are producing lumber on pretty 

 full scale, thus bringing up the average for the valley territory as 

 a whole to pretty respectable proportions. 



Wood for Vehicles 



Although the total number of woods used in this country by vehicle 

 makers exceeds fifty, it is worth remembering that more than sixty 

 per cent of all is hickory and oak. These two are by all odds the 

 most important vehicle woods in America. Hickory leads oak by 

 several million feet a year, and oak leads the next wood below it 

 by 160,000,000 feet. The oak goes into heavy vehicles, the hickory 

 into light. Both woods are very strong, but hickory is twice as 

 strong as oak when both are well seasoned; but, because oak is 

 lighter, larger pieces can be used without increasing the weight of 

 the vehicle. Hickory excels nearly all other American woods in 

 strength and elasticity, and the possession of these qualities in 

 a high degree has placed hickory beyond all competitors as material 

 for light vehicles. Many woods are as strong and elastic as oak; 

 but nearly all of them lack some other desirable quality which 

 oak possesses, and this makes oak the favorite in the manufacture 

 of wagons. 



There are different kinds of oaks — fifty-two of them in the 

 United States — but practically every one is somewhere in use as 

 wagon material. There are a dozen kinds of hickory, and there are 

 no great differences distinguishing the wood of any one from the 

 others, e.-tcept that pecan, which is a hickory, is weak and brittle 

 in comparison with the others; still, a little pecan finds its way to 

 wagon shops. 



The wood most in use by wagon makers, next below oak, is yellow 

 poplar, but it fills places wholly different from those filled by 

 hickory and oak. It is remarkable for the high polish it takes and 

 is in most demand for wagon beds of all kinds. No wood receives 

 and displays paint to better advantage than yellow poplar, and 

 the best of it goes to shops which manufacture bodies for carriages. 



Among the minor woods going to wagon factories are Chinatree, 

 catalpa, applewood, cucumber, blue beech and magnolia, which are 

 natives of this country; while among the foreign woods are 

 mahogany, eucalyptus, Circassian walnut, rosewood, padouk, don- 

 cella, and Spanish cedar. The total consumption of wood in vehicle 

 making in this country before the beginning of the war was about 

 740,000,000 feet a year. 



