MMwolRocoM 



Published In the Interest of Hardwood Lumber, American Hardwood Forests, Wood Veneer Industry, Hardwood Flooring, 

 Hardwood Interior Finish, Wood Chemicals, Saw Mill and Woodworking Machinery. 



_ : New Y 



Vol. XXIII. 



CHICAGO. OCTOBER 25. 1906. 



No. I. 



BOTAN 



OaIU 



Published on the 10th and 25th of each month o 



y 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Henry H. Gibson, President 



Frank W. Tuttle, Sec-Treas. 



OFFICES 

 Sixtn Floor Ellsworth Bldg., 355 Dearborn St Chicago, III., U.S.A. 



Telephones: Harrison 4960 Automatic 5659 



TERMS OF ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION 



In the United States, Canada, Philippine Islands and Mexico . . $2.00 



In all other countries in Universal Postal Union ..... 3.00 

 Subscriptions are payable in advance, and in default of written orders to the 

 contrary are continued at our option. 



The entire contents of this publication are covered by the general copy- 

 right, and articles must not be reprinted without special permission. 

 Entered at Chicago Postoffice as Second Class Matter. 



ty Advertising copy must be received five days in advance of 

 publication date. Advertising rates on application. 



Meeting Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' 

 Association 



An important meeting of this association will be held at the Park 

 Place Hotel, Traverse City, Mich., commencing at 10 a. m. on 

 Wednesday, October 31, to which all Michigan hardwood manu- 

 facturers and stumpage owners are invited. 



General Market Conditions. 



Hardwood market conditions remain strong in every part of the 

 country. There is no diminution in demand or prices for the entire 

 range of American hardwoods with the exception of quartered oak. 

 (Quartered white oak is commanding a fair price and is in fair call, 

 lint that is the best that can be said of it. Quartered red oak 

 is slow of sale at $5 less than the price list. There is an open con- 

 viction that the production of quarter-sawed oak lumber can be still 

 further restricted and then add to the prices obtainable for the full 

 run of the plain sawed log. Veneers have made such inroads into the 

 quarter-sawed oak trade, by reason of the lesser resultant prices in 

 manufactured articles, that the average manufacturer would be better 

 off in sweetening his oak output with a larger proportion of wide and 

 good stock in plain-sawed that he has heretofore quartered. Again, 

 quartered oak flitches are in good call at fancy prices by all the 

 veneer mills. This line of product will consume all the quarter- 

 sawed stock that the average run of oak logs should I"' required to 

 stand. 



Weather conditions prevailing in the South during the last fort- 

 night have been very bad and few mills in those producing sections 

 have been running. The time of year is at hand when the output 

 will be greatly restricted for months to come. 



Stocks on hand owned by the jobbing trade are ordinarily fair to 

 good, and there seems to be no surplus in any of the standard kinds 

 of lumber. The exception to this is poplar, of which there is a great 

 scarcity at both the manufacturing and consuming ends. Prices on 

 poplar have materially stiffened during the last month. 



The foreign trade is finding a lot of fault with the repeated rises 

 in the price of American ash, oak and hickory. In a good many cases 



English merchants are declining to buy ash and are putting up the 

 bluff that they can get all the native ash they want for their require- 

 ments. Quartered oak planks are more of a drug abroad than they are 

 on this side of the water. 



The English market is buying birch very freely. Manufacturers in 

 this country are apparently slow as compared with their foreign com- 

 petitors in appreciating the intrinsic merit and high value of birch. 

 This country had to wait for England to discover that gum, which 

 abroad is known as satin walnut, was a great wood and, unfortunately, 

 Pennsylvania, New York and New England have not yet awakened 

 to this fact. The same history will be repeated with birch, which 

 ranks at. least second in physics to any American hardwood. The 

 price of this splendid cabinet and finishing wood is fully twenty-five 

 per cent lower in relative value than it should be. 



Mahogany is doing fairly well and while it does not show any accre- 

 tion in price, the consumption is increasing in all quarters. Mahog- 

 any will eventually have its inning. 



The hardwood flooring people, both in maple and oak, are still 

 very busy, and must remain so for months to come as present build- 

 ing operations, especially in large and high-class structures, are 

 unparalleled in the history of the country. 



Trade is good and will surely remain so for the rest of the year. 



Lest There Be Misunderstanding. 



Recent developments in my lumber newspaper experience have 

 added certainty to the belief that it is impossible to conduct a news- 

 paper that will bo pleasing to everyone. If one could run a news- 

 paper that would be acceptable to every element of the hardwood 

 trade it wouldn't amount to much. I don't want to run that kind 



of a paper, 



* # * 



My "Heart to Heart Talk" in the last issue of the Hardwood 

 Record has borne fruit. One St. Louis jobber advises me that if 

 1 am going to preach a doctrine that means ' ' putting him out of 

 business and taking the bread out of his mouth," he must decline 

 to advertise in my publication. 



This man tacitly admits that he "salts" his grades, and if such 



is the case, I am sure that I don't want his advertisement. 



* ' * * 



A Philadelphia man cancels his advertising arrangement on the 

 ground that I "so openly and strongly work for the other associa- 

 tion." As this man is a member of the National Hardwood Lumber 

 Association, he implies that I am antagonistic to his favorite or- 

 ganization. 



I wish to respectfully deny the allegation. The National Hard 

 wood Lumber Association has not a better friend on earth than I 

 am. It is an association that has as many opportunities for good 

 work as any lumber organization in the country, and I hope to .- 

 continue and prosper. Furthermore, I hope to see it improve; hope 

 to see it do at all times what it professes it is trying to do; I hope 

 to see it eventually expel members when they are caught red handed 

 in crooked commercial transactions. The National Hardwood Lum- 

 ber Association has nothing but my best wishes and, insofar as it 

 works on clean commercial lines, it. will have the unqualified support 



of the II ujdwood Record. 



* * # 



There are some bright spots. Sis members of the National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association have sent me advertising contracts during 



