HARDWOOD RECORD 



27 



TWENTY FIVE NON.MEJIBEBS REFORT. 



Stock Unfilled 



on hand. orders. 



Ash 688,000 337,000 



Basswood 2,554,000 1,453.000 



Beech 2,375,000 1,477,000 



Birch 4,584,000 2,054,000 



Sofl elm 1,443,000 466,000 



Rock elm 57,000 



Maple 10,503,000 4,985,000 



Oak 702.IKI0 lso.000 



Totals 22,906,000 10,952,000 



COMPARISON JULY. 1 AND OCTOBER 1, 1906, STOCKS. 



Following is a summary of the stock reports 

 of forty-four manufacturers who reported their 

 stocks both July 1 and October 1: 



Stocks on hand. 



July 1. October 1. 



Maple 83,398,000 65.335,000 



Beech 16.415.000 14,286,000 



Birch 13,927,000 10,922,000 



Elm 9,005,000 10,194,000 



Basswood 11,445,000 8,577,000 



Totals 134,190,000 109,314,000 



Unfilled orders. 



July 1. October 1. 



Maple 54,155,000 46,227. 



Beech 10,230,000 9,550,000 



Birch 8.544. I 4,814,000 



Elm 4. Ml. oiio 6,011.000 



Basswood 7,273,000 5,750.000 



Totals 85,013,000 72,352,000 



BALANCE UNSOLD. 



July 1. October 1. 



Maple 29,243.000 19.108,000 



Beech 6.185,000 4,736,000 



Birch 5.383.00(1 o.ios. 



Elm 4.104. I 4,183,000 



Basswood 4.172.000 2,827,000 



Totals 49.177.000 36,962,000 



The secretary after reading his . report 

 called attention to the fact that there had 

 been some difficulty in getting members to 

 report and urged on them the necessity of 

 promptly filling out the blanks sent them so 

 that the statistics could be prepared. 



Market Conditions Report. 



Tbe report of the committee on market 

 conditions was then heard, as follows: 



The market conditions committee respectfully 

 submits the following report : 



We tind from the secretary's report of the 

 stocks on hand and unfilled orders that availa- 

 ble stocks of all kinds of northern hardwoods 

 have materially decreased, the stock of October 

 1 being only about eighty per cent of tbe stock 

 of July 1. and the stock on hand unsold October 

 1 only about seventy-five per cent of that on 

 hand unsold July 1. 



These conditions to us would indicate a strong 

 market and we would recommend that maple 

 should bring $1 a thousand over the Michigan 

 Maple Company's list, or $12, $18 and $24 ; 

 tliat No. 3 common beech and maple should 

 bring $10 a thousand f. o. b. shipping point, and 

 log run beech $15 : also that material advances 

 should be obtained on many other items in 

 northern hardwoods. 



We, however, have not thought it best to rec- 

 ommend a hardwood price list on all items at 

 this time, but prefer to wait until a report of 

 the stocks on hand January 1, 1907, has been 

 received and compiled ; also a statement of total 

 amounts of the different kinds of hardwoods 

 manufactured during 1906 and tbe probable 

 amount to be manufactured during 1907. 



Bruce Odell. 



W. L. Martin. 



W. W. Mitchell. 



R. Hanson. 



Bert Cook. 



W. X. Kellet. 



A. W. Newark. 



R. H. Cook moved that the report on mar- 

 ket conditions be printed and a copy be fur- 

 nished all members and all other manufac- 

 turers of hardwood desiring it. Mr. Cook 

 was also called on for a view of market con- 

 ditions and talked as follows: 



In carefully going over and reviewing the sit- 

 uation in connection with the various woods 

 we realize the present worth and the great ad- 



vance in the value of stumpage. We who are 

 running camps also realize what labor conditions 

 are. To arrive at the exact price woods should 

 bring to keep barely even with the situation 

 last year would be a hard thing to cover by a 

 simple advance of $1 a thousand. The commit- 

 tee agreed, however, that its report should be a 

 conservative one and not one that would bring 

 "in an increase in the cut. I believe the advance 

 r.!. .[amended to this association is a very i :on- 

 servative one and in conversation with large 

 consumers, particularly of maple, I have found 

 they anticipate an advance. An advance of $1 

 a thousand will surprise them, for they are 

 . -\pecting that it will be larger. One consumer 

 admitted an advance of $2 a thousand should be 

 i ]c upon maple and with the consumers an- 

 ticipating an advance, the elements of labor and 

 the increased price of stumpage it would seem 

 that we would lie going away and doing nothing 

 it we did not ;it least attempt to maintain pres- 

 i in [irices. I believe we shall have no trouble 

 whatever in getting this nominal advance and 

 I know of several sales made recently at prices 

 higher than these. I know personally of one 

 oak sale last week at an advance of $2.50 over 

 last year and the buyers are in the market ai- 

 re adv. With conditions as they are it would 

 seem suicidal to ask or take less than the prices 

 here recommended. The committee thought best 

 in recommend a price that would be merely 

 normal and I want to say to you that this price 

 question is a serious one. I would like to see 

 everyone who feels that he can make up his 

 mind that he will get these prices. 



On the invitation of the chair D. S. Mc- 

 Mullen presented some samples of flooring 

 which were kiln dried by his new method. 

 Ho claimed that green lumber can be per- 

 fectly cured in about eleven days to the inch; 

 that when it is so treated it will not shrink 

 or expand under any atmospheric conditions 

 to which flooring i> submitted. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



At the beginning of the afternoon session 

 the chair appointed D. H. Day, A. F. An- 

 derson, G. Von Platen, H. A. Batchelor and 

 E. J. Clark a committee to prepare grading 

 rules on hardwoods not included in the rules 

 already adopted. 



President White called on George H. Chap- 

 man of the Northwestern Lumber Company. 

 Eau Claire, Wis., for a talk on the work of 

 the association as seen by the Wisconsin 

 manufacturers. In replying Mr. Chapman 

 said : 



We want to thank you manufacturers of 

 Michigan for inviting us here to meet with you 

 hi. I lor giving us a chance to air our views. 

 Ah hough we may not coincide with you in all 

 respects we are working along the same lines 

 mill we can all get together as far as our inter- 

 ests mi' identical, which they are to a certain 

 extent. One of the difficulties in Wisconsin is 

 to get our members out to the meetings and 1 

 want to congratulate you on your attendance. 

 The position Mr. Eoster and myself are occupy- 

 ing at present may be illustrated by a short 

 history of the Wisconsin association. It was 

 formed ten or twelve years ago. At that time 

 association work was in its infancy. Several 

 associations were in existence, it is true, but 

 none of them was perfected to a point where it 

 was possible to tell just what was to be accom- 

 plished and how it should be done. We ac 

 knowledge we made some mistakes. 



At the last meeting of the Wisconsin associa- 

 tion the question of official grading was brought 

 up and a committee was appointed by Mr. Arpin 

 to consider the question and formulate a plan of 

 official grading similar to the plans adopted Dy 

 the Yellow Pine association, the Wisconsin Hem- 

 lock Association and the Hardwood Manufac- 

 turers' Association of the United States. They 

 nil work along the same general lines. The first 

 principle is to do your grading at the mill and 

 not after the lumber goes to Chicago or Boston 

 or any other place. Because of our association 

 being made up of jobbers, etc., it was not worth 

 while to try this scheme with our present mem- 

 bership. The only result of our action was that 

 we made up our minds that there was nothing 

 to be accomplished in the present Wisconsin 

 association and the only thing for us to do was 

 to resign and form a new association of Wis 

 consin hardwood manufacturers. We therefore 

 are not here as representatives from "the Wis- 

 consin association but come as individuals to 

 see what you are going to do. 



What we want particularly is to see the grad- 

 ing done at the mills. If we are making our 

 grades too low we can rely on the other fellow 

 to tell us, but if our grades are too high we 

 never hear about it. The system carried on by 

 the National association is such that you never 

 know if your men are grading too high. Of 

 course, there are occasions now and then when 

 it is necessary to regrade at destination. Even 

 the pine association admits that. The tendency 

 to have this sort of thing done is lessening all 

 the time. The complaints received are growing 

 less every day. The last report from the 

 Northern Pine Manufacturers' Association 

 shows that grading outside of the mill is con- 

 stantly growing less in proportion to the ship- 

 ments. 



We would like to combine with the Michigan 

 Manufacturers' Association at least as far as 

 the office of secretary is concerned. It i^ qi 

 sary to have a paid secretary who gives his 

 entire time to the association work. The work 

 of the secretary is so heavy that no one with 

 other interests can spare the time to do it prop- 

 erly. The expense of a paid secretary is one of 

 the things we are up against. We do not care 

 whether the National association adopts our 

 grading rules or not. If we want national ap- 

 proval for our rules we want to go to the Hard- 

 wood Manufacturers' Association of the United 

 States. I do not think it makes a particle of 

 difference to some middlemen as to what the 

 grades are so long as they are elastic and can 

 be juggled as they can now under our present 

 grading system. I can go into my yards and 

 get out lumber for which I can get $5 a thou- 

 sand more than other lumber which I can turn 

 out of the same official grade. This simply Is 

 because of the elasticity of the rules and the 

 Hardwood Manufacturers' Association tells us 

 it will not adopt rules until we have adopted 

 grades that we are satisfied with. That is the 

 spirit which appeals to me. 



As far as grading rules are concerned the 

 wording of your rules is the most important 

 thing about them. The men who are interested 

 in your grades are the consumers and the manu- 

 facturers. The consumers will pay what lumber 

 is worth on the market — no more, no less. It 

 is simply a question of supply and demand and 

 i i a question of the individual opinion of the 

 manufacturers or jobbers. I do not doubt that 

 the Michigan and Wisconsin people can get to- 

 gether on grades. So long as the grades are 

 definite anil reasonable it should be possible to 

 get together. We are not interested in beech 

 at all and w. have but little maple. W T e are 

 very .much interested in birch and basswood and 

 we have some oak, rock elm and a little ash. 



The low grades of birch today are the best 

 value of any lumber on the market. I am 

 speaking from the point of view of the manu- 

 facturer, considering the proportion ot different 

 grades which we get. In a log run of birch we 

 get fifteen per cent of firsts and seconds as 

 against forty per cent of No. 3 common. I 

 would like to see the price of the common grade 

 go up. I want to get a price on the stock I 

 have. The higher grades are in such small sup- 

 ply that they don't matter much. It is true, 

 as a general proposition, that Wisconsin birch 

 is being held at a ridiculously low price. 



I might illustrate in this way what you are 

 likely to run against in trying to get the Na- 

 tional Hardwood Lumber Association to affirm 

 your grades before you adopt them or even 

 afterward. The Wisconsin association wrote 

 the first rules on grading hardwoods. When 

 the National association came into existence it 

 adopted our rules in the first place and then 

 went ahead and changed them and the National 

 association has done this three times since our 

 first rules were written and is likely to do it 

 again. 



A rising vote of thanks was tendered 

 President White for his services to the as- 

 sociation. 



There was then some discussion looking to 

 a conference with Wisconsin hardwood manu- 

 facturers on grading rules for woods which 

 predominate in that state. 



A communication was read from C. I 

 Millard of the Transportation Committee of 

 the National Lumber Manufacturers' Asso- 

 ciation of St. Louis asking for the influence 

 of members to have lumber rates applied to 

 casing, base and molding. The matter was 

 referred to Secretary Odell with instructions 

 that he take proper action. 



It was agreed to hold the next meeting of 

 the association at the Hotel Pantlind, Grand 

 Rapids, December 19. 



