35a 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



May 25, 1918 



Lumber Company, New Tork ; John B. Montgomery, American Lumber 

 & Manufacturing Company, Pittsburgh, Pa. ; Ttiomas E. Coale, Thomas E. 

 Coale Lumber Company, Philadelphia, Pa. ; L. P. Driver, L. F. Driver 

 Lumber Company, Thomasville, Ga. ; George T. Miclsle, George T. Mickle 

 Lumber Company, Chicago, 111. 



It is stated that many applications are being received for mem- 

 bership in the bureau. The bureau was organized for the purpose 

 of fighting the plan for the government to fix lumber prices to the 

 public, to assist the government, and to obtain such business as can 

 be obtained in the line of car material and other lumber needed by 

 the government. 



There are wide differences of opinion among lumbermen over this 

 project. Some think that the object of it, which is to prevent inter- 

 ference with government requirements by commercial orders, can 

 be prevented by a hard and fast railroad embargo order excluding 

 commercial orders from shipment, such an order as has been issued 

 applying to the North and East not long ago. Others regard such a 

 plan as impracticable. 



Manufacturers, some of them, favor the Edgar plan as a stabil- 

 izer of prices. Along with it would go, it is expected; an increase 

 in the price paid by the government for lumber. Wholesalers bit- 

 terly oppose the plan as a measure that vrill kill their business. 



Retail lumber dealers have been conferring with a special com- 

 mittee representing the army, navy, shipping board and trade com- 

 mission, sitting with Director Edgar, regarding an application for 

 higher government prices to retailers for material taken from the 

 latter 's yards for emergency war work. 



Of interest to the hardwood trade, it is believed, is the action of 

 the president recently in taking over control of the farm vehicle, 

 implement, machinery, tool and equipment industry. Importers, 

 dealers, manufacturers and distributors of these articles in which 

 hardwood is used very largel5', must obtain license from the food 

 administration, the idea being to control prices and pi'event 

 monopoly and discrimination in the trade. 



The war industries board is reorganizing and expanding and will 



soon be separated from the council of national defense. The first 

 of the commodity sections of the board is the section of agricul- 

 tural implements, animal and hand drawn vehicles, and wood 

 products, of which the following are members: E. E. Parsonage, 

 chief; P. B. Schravesande, assistant and manager of the war service 

 committee of the furniture and fixtures and allied woodworking 

 industries; Col. W. S. Wood, representing the army, and Major 

 Seth Williams, representing the marine corps. 



It is also announced that Mr. Philbrick of John M. Woods & Co., 

 Boston, has succeeded Walter E. Chamberlin and C. H. Worcester 

 as hardwood members of the staff of Charles Edgar, chief of the 

 lumber section of the war industries board; that C. J. Winton of 

 Minneapolis, representing white pine interests, has joined the staff; 

 that A. Mason Cooke, formerly manager of the North Carolina Pine 

 Emergency Bureau, has done likewise and obtained a commission 

 as major in the army, and that others attached to the lumber sec- 

 tion are Major F. W. Leadbetter, representing the army; C. M. 

 Morford, representing the navy; F. K. Paxton, representing the 

 shipping board, and Maj. Seth Williams, representing the marine 

 corps. The board has a wood chemicals section, including C. H. 

 Conner, chief; ^. H. Smith, R. D. Walker, G. E. de Nike,Maj. Seth 

 Williams, Dr. W. Bean, representing the signal corps. 



The proposed twenty-five per cent general increase in freight 

 rates is the subject of protests received at the Railroad Adminis- 

 tration from lumber and other shipping interests. The shippers 

 want an opportunity to be heard and for the interstate commerce 

 commission to review the proposition, which it will not necessarily 

 have under the railroad war law. Shippers are not so much antago- 

 nistic to the rate increase, which is said to be necessary to meet 

 increased cost of operation, as they are fearful that without expert 

 review by the commission it may radically alter existing rate rela- 

 tionships. As matters stand now it appears altogether probable 

 that the rate increase will be granted by Director General of Rail- 

 roads McAdoo. 



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Lumber Production in 1916 



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The Forest Service has published Bulletin 673 which gives the 

 production of lumber, lath and shingles in the United States in 

 1916. The compilation was made by Franklin H. Smith and Albert 

 H. Pierson, assisted by the National Lumber Manufacturers' As- 

 sociation and by the New York Conservation Commission. 



Two sets of totals are used in the general tables, one giving the 

 actual figures collected, the other showing the estimated totals. 

 That course is followed because returns were received from only 

 a portion of the mills, which were usually the larger ones in each 

 state, and the output of the others was estimated. The number 

 of mills reporting was 17,269; while the total number of all saw- 

 mills in thS country is believed to be about 46,000. Reports were, 

 therefore, received from 40 per cent of the country's sawmills; and 

 the actual cut of lumber by this forty per cent of the mills was 

 34,791,385,000 feet. The estimated total output was 40,000,000,000 

 feet. That was 2,000,000,000 feet more than the total estimated 

 cut in 1915, and 500,000,000 feet less than the estimated output of 

 1914. The country's largest estimated cuts of lumber were in the 

 years 1906 and 1907 when a total of 46,000,000,000 feet was placed 

 on record for each year. The largest output ever recorded from 

 reports actually made by mills was in 1909 when 46,584 mills cut 

 44,509,761,000 feet. 



The enormous amount of work and time required to obtain re- 

 ports from all the mills in the country was responsible for the gov- 

 ernment's policy of omitting several thousand of the smallest mills 

 and confining the statistics to mills of considerable size. 

 Production by States 



According to the statistics presented in the report, lumber is 

 sawed in all the states except three, North Dakota, Nebraska, and 

 Nevada. Doubtless some sawing is done in these states, but by 



very small mills. The largest reported cut is in Washington, sec- 

 ond largest in Louisiana, third in Mississippi, fourth Oregon, fifth 

 Norfh Carolina. The smallest output is credited to Kansas, where 

 the annual lumber production was 534,000 feet, and Delaware was 

 next to the smallest with 9,356,000 feet, and Utah' next with very 

 little more. The regions of largest production were the Pacific 

 coast states where fir, pine, and redwood prevail, and the southern 

 states which produce yellow pine, cypress, and hardwoods. 



Production by Kinds of Wood 



The table which follows gives the estimated output of lumber 

 for 1916 bv kinds of wood: 



Kind of Wood 



yellow pine 



Douglas fir 



Oak 



White pine 



Hemlock 



Feet 

 .15,055,000,000 

 . 5,416,000,000 

 . 3.300,000,000 

 . 2,700,000.000 

 . 2,350,000,000 



Western yellow pine. 1.699.000.000 



Spruce .. 



Cypress 



Maple . . 



Ked gum 



Yellow 



Chestn 



Redwoi 



Larch 



Birch 



Cedar 



1,250,000,000 



1,000,000,000 



975,000,000 



800.000,000 



poplar 560,000,000 



ut 533,000.000 



od 490,830,000 



455,000,000 



450,000,000 



410,000,000 



Kind of Wood 



Beech 



Tupelo 



Basswood 



Elm 



Ash 



Cottonwood 



White fir 



Sugar pine 



Hickory 



Balsam 



Walnut 



Sycamore 



Lodgepole pine , . 

 All other kinds. . . 



Feet 

 360,000,000 

 275,000,000 

 275,000,000 

 240,000,000 

 210,000,000 

 200,000,000 

 190,000,000 

 169,250,000 

 125,000,000 

 125,000,000 

 90,000,000 

 40.000,000 

 30,800,000 

 40,351,000 



Total 



The Leading Hardwoods 



Judged by the quantity of production, the leading hardwoods are 

 oak, maple, red gum, yellow poplar, chestnut, birch, beech, tupelo, 

 basswood, elm, ash, cottonwood, hickory, walnut, and sycamore. 



