HARDWOOD RECORD 



June 10, 1918 



The machinery is all purchased and the planing mill equipment is now 

 being moved to the new site. This is an excellent location as it is served 

 by five rail lines. 



The company has a stand of from 50,000,000 to 90,000,000 feet of tim- 

 ber which will be worked up on the new plant. 



R. L. Gilbert will move south from Cincinnati ami will carry on the 

 worl! of the mill and at the same time attend to the e.'itensive buying which 

 has always featured this company's operations. 



A Large White Oak Tree 



The William H. Coleman Company, Jackson, Tenn., recently cut a white 

 oak tree in Mississippi that was three inches less than eight feet in 

 diameter at the stump, and ninety feet to the first limb. The tree was 

 made into cooperage stock and measured seven and a half cords of bolts. 

 The contents amounted to about 8,000 feet, board measure. That may not 

 be the largest white oak tree on record, but if any one knows of a larger, 

 the information would be interesting. The tree was 550 years old, accord- 

 ing to the count of the annual rings. 



A Sawmill's Capacity Increased 



Some of the American sawmill men who are operating mills in France 

 are establishing new records there. One incident will give a hint of the 

 possibilities. Americans were placed in charge of the operation of a 

 certain mill that was credited with a capacity of 10,000 feet a day. In 

 a short time they were cutting 30,000 feet a day on the mill. Rather 

 crude appliances are found in some instances. For instance, some of the 

 sawmills have no feed machinery, but the log is pushed forward by hand 

 while the board is being cut. Such primitive methods were apparently 

 satisfactory to the operators of the mills before the arrival of the Amer- 

 icans, but a progressive sawmill man would not be satisfied until he had 

 something better. 



Building Hardwood Mill on Pine Lands 



An agreement has been entered into between Richard P. Baer & Co., 

 hardwood men of Baltimore, Md., and the Great Southern Lumber Com- 

 pany of Bogalusa, La., under which the former will manufacture all of 

 the hardwoods on the lands of the Great Southern Company, the latter 

 to deliver the logs at the mill of Messrs. Baer & Co., at Bogalusa. In 

 accordance with the agreement, which has been duly signed, the Baltimore 

 firm will erect and equip a sawmill at Bogalusa as quickly as possible, 

 and it is thought that actual lumber manufacturing operations can be 

 started in a month or six weeks. The mill building will be of the usual 

 frame construction, with sheet iron roof, and equipment consisting of a 

 right side Clark band and resaw, so placed that the other side can be 

 added whenever it becomes desirable. Allowance will also be made in 

 the erection of the mill building for possible future extensions. The 

 capacity of the plant for the present will be about 50,000 feet per day, 

 and the plans will be drawn by the mill superintendent of the Magazine 

 Hardwood Company, the manufacturing end of the Baltimore firm, at 

 Mobile, Ala., where a new plant was put in operation early in the year. 

 The bulk of the timber on the lands of the Great Southern Company is 

 poplar and gum, and arrangements have also been made to secure the 

 timber on tracts which the Great Southern Company did not previously 

 control. Altogether, it is calculated that the timber supply will last 

 twenty years. The operation is said to be one of the largest under- 

 taken in the South, and Involves a big sum. Richard P. Baer, senior 

 member of the firm, looked over the property the latter part of 1917, and 

 was there several months ago. Negotiations with the Great Southern 

 Company were carried on largely through Charles I. James of Baltimore, 

 one of the nflicprs of the corporation. 



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Pertinent Information 



Woods Used for Airplanes 



There arc so many rumors and general statements as to what kinds of 

 woods are used in airplanes and what purposes they serve that specific 

 and authoritative information is desirable. 



According to the best advices obtainable, tbn followin!; ;iro the woods 

 commonly used and the purposes to which thiy :ii.' put : 



Ash for struts and longerons; spruce for tin^s.s. wiiiLi licams, etc.; 

 fir for wing beams: black walnut, cherry. iiu;iii.-r.'<l .mli. iii;ib<igany and 

 birch in propeller blades with poplar being expcrimculca with for this 

 purpose also. 



Veneer and plywood are used in fuselage. It is stated that propellers 

 may also contain Spanish cedar, birch, gum, etc. 



Lumber Situation In New Brunswick 



Consul Richardson reports from Moncton, N. B., that the outlook tor 

 the sawmill industry on the Miramichi this year is one of the most unfavor- 

 able that the community has faced for many years. Not only is the 

 amount of lumber cut far below the average, but the great scarcity of men 

 makes It doubtful if the mills can be fully operated even on a short-time 

 schedule. In any case, the mills will be later in starting than usual and 

 will end their season much earlier than formerly. For instance, the big 

 Snowball mill, which cuts from 160,000 to isn.onn f.-ri per day, must wait 

 until the rafting operations are so w.ll :ni\:niir.i iIkiI a continuous and 

 adequate weekly supply of lumber is :i -nn.i imi. in inct, all other mills 

 la proportion to their cut are affected in tli.. ,~,iinr u.iy. 



The weather has been ideal for bringing out the lumber and all the drives 

 are out or so nearly out that their safe arrival within the rafting areas 

 is assured. The lumbermen did not go into cutting operations last winter 

 on anything more than 50 per cent of the usual cut, owing to the uncer- 

 tainty of the market, the high rates of wages, and the large stocks which 

 the mills were already carrying. Now that the price has increased con- 

 siderably, the mills would be glad to have their usual amount on hand. 



Lumber and Timber Exports for Market 

 Below is given a summary of the official figures of exports of logs and 

 lumber for March, 1918 : 



Round logs $ 36,968 



Firewood 24,792 



Square logs 174,655 



Railroad ties 232,654 



Lumber 3,643,202 



Boats and oars 15,779 



Doors, sash, and blinds 67,525 



Handles 60.184 



Furniture 235,417 



Empty barrels 112,801 



Barrel shooks 380.582 



Box shooks 190,009 



Staves 296,528 



Total value of all forest products exported in March was $6,630,810. 



Issue Booklet on Timber Bridges 



In connection with the policy of the trade extension department to 

 assemble accurate information for the proper and scientific use of wood 

 in all types of construction, C. E. Paul, construction engineer for the 

 engineering bureau of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, 

 has issued an exhaustive pamphlet covering the subject of proper use of 

 timbers in highway bridges. 



The subjects covered are : Use of wood in bridge construction ; loca- 

 tion and substructure ; types of framing ; fioors and wearing surfaces ; 

 joints and metal details ; quality and kind of timber used ; preservation 

 of bridge timbers ; plans of timber highway bridges ; valuable reference 

 books. 



The book is profusely illustrated with suitable photographs bringing 

 out points touched on in the text. 



Change in English Sawmilling 



Sawmilling never was the same in England as in the United States, 

 nor is it the same now, but changes, due to the war, are swinging the busi- 

 ness in our direction. The London Timber News notes the change in 

 methods and speaks of it as follows : 



The timber merchant of today is a totally different man from a business 

 point of view from what he was in pre-war times. Speaking with one of 

 our largest importers of timber last week, but who, owing to the exigencies 

 of the case, is now "dabbling" in both native and foreign wood, the former 

 quite eighty per cent of the whole, we were told that the uncertainties 

 and general difficulties that are connected with the home trade, coupled 

 with the want of knowledge of that particular branch, render the whole 

 both irksome and comparatively unprofitable. Dealing ^ith seasoned 

 converted foreign logs is quite a different matter to the handling of trees 

 in the round, and requires a totally different education in order that the 

 best results may be obtained. The merchant referred to told us the diffi- 

 culties he had in procuring men conversant with felling, then the haulage 

 was beset with troubles, for horses were almost non-procurable. But that 

 was not all. for his sawing machinery was found to be ill-fitted for con- 

 verting timber in the round, and required much and expensive alterations, 

 in fact, so much so, that he was compelled to open a sawmill in quite a 

 new district from that in which his former business had been successfully 

 carried on for fully three-quarters of a century. Aail the worst of all is 

 that profits are not commensurate with the outlay, this, to a great extept, 

 owing to want of knowledge of the new undertaking. 



Furniture Prices in Germany 



.\ newspaper in Amsterdam published a short time ago a letter from a 

 Berlin correspondent quoting prices on new and second-hand furniture. 

 New furniture averages about four times as ox|i.iisi\ .> as 1., f..i-o the war, 



but the demand calls principally for articles iliiii \t:i\<- i n used. .\u 



old l>edstead with a mattress, which in peace tim. s wmiM s.ll for about 

 .^4.75. now brings ,$45 or more. A plain old kitchen chair wliub formerly 

 was worth forty cents, now brings from three to four dollars. 



The buyers are generally dealers who resell the old furniture to the 

 public at a high profit. If a person still have some old lumber in the 

 attic and advertises in the press that he would like to get rid of it, so 

 many would-be purchasers will call on him that it looks as it he were 

 giving away butter as presents. Trade in old furniture is booming. The 

 buyers are scouring the country, paying good prices, and selling often with 



'I'lii' Ih iHn r,.i icspondent concludes the article with the following look 

 ah. 'a. I an.l . ..ninn'nt on the situation: 



"Tlir fmniiurc question is certainly of unusual importance even now. 

 but it will be still more urgent after the war, when the men have returned 

 from the battlefield. What is the good of providing dwellings ou which 

 so much emphasis is being laid just now if the family has to live in bare 

 rooms? Those who, for economic reasons, would make housekeeping easy 

 after the war. must provide the furniture. What are the hundreds of 

 thousands of men and women to do "who married during the war and did 

 not establish a household of their own because the man had to remain 

 in the army so long and his wife went to live with relatives or rented a 

 furntslied room? It is just these men who have been unable to save any 

 nnmi.y. They will be compelled to patronize a dealer in old furniture and 

 buy it on the instalment plan in most cases." 



