3° 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



necessary to call in some of the men sent out 

 to take up lumber because there are no cars on 

 which to load the lumber thus taken up. Cotton 

 is given preference over lumber, and the lum- 

 bermen realize that there is not much prospect 

 for help for themselves so long as the cotton 

 men are having so much trouble. The shortage 

 of cars in the interior has greatly curtailed re- 

 ceipts of lumber at Memphis, and this condi- 

 tion will probably continue for some time. 



Heavy rains have fallen throughout the Mem- 

 phis territory during the past few days, the 

 precipitation being between 10 and 11 inches, 

 which is about as heavy as ever fell during the 

 same length of time. .The result is that the 

 smaller mills, which were poorly supplied with 

 timber, have been practically put out of busi- 

 ness, while the larger mills are able to operate 

 only partially. There is not a mill in the south 

 which has anything like a normal supply of 

 timber available because of the unfavorable 

 weather, labor and car situation during the pre- 

 vious two or three months, while most of the 

 smaller mills have been able to accomplish very 

 little. 



In addition to the interference with produc- 

 tion, the rainfall and accompanying windstorm 

 have occasioned considerable loss of timber to 

 firms operating their plants on Wolf river, in 

 North Memphis. The rafts which held the logs 

 together were broken and the timber floated out 

 into the Mississippi to a rather large extent, 

 thus handicapping these plants. There is no 

 definite estimate of the amount of timber so 

 lost, but any loss at this time could scarcely be 

 regarded as anything less than very serious be- 

 cause of the decided shortage. 



The Standard Box Company was sold at 

 bankrupt sale a few days ago and was pur- 

 chased by Jere Toohey and others, who have 

 since applied for a charter for the Memphis 

 Standard Box Company, which will operate the 

 plant which was equipped by the old 'concern, 

 chartered about a year ago. No definite arrange- 

 ments, however, for beginning operations have 

 been made. The purchasers were some of the 

 original stockholders in the old company. 



The Baker Lumber Company, whose plant at 

 Tlurrell, Ark., was burned a short time ago, is 

 rebuilding as rapidly as possible and will be 

 ready for operation within the next two or 

 three months if there is no interruption to the 

 work of construction. The order for the new 

 machinery was given in a surprisingly short 

 time from the date of the burning of the old 

 plant. The estimated cost of the ne.w plant is 

 $50,000. The general offices of the company are 

 in the Randolph building at Memphis. 



The demand for sawmill machinery in the' 

 lower part of the Mississippi valley is reported 

 to be the largest ever e/.perienced the lumber- 

 men purchasing large quantities of portable 

 saw-mill machinery for the purpose of develop- 

 ing the timber which was blown down in the 

 recent tropical storm. There is a pronounced 

 shortage of labor and there is moreover a short- 

 age of car facilities, with the result that the 

 manufacturers prefer to carry the mills to the 

 timber which is scattered over very large areas 

 rather than try to carry the timber to station- 

 ary mills. The lumbermen realize that they 

 must save this timber without loss of time to 

 prevent the worms from getting into it and ruin- 

 ing it for commercial purposes. 



Harold Petri of Quinet & Petri of Antwerp, 

 Belgium, who has been in Memphis for some 

 time making purchases of lumber, has returned 

 to Antwerp. Mr. Petri reported that he encoun- 

 tered very little difficulty in securing lumber 

 and that he bought considerable quantities, 

 mostly oak. He declared, however, that had he 

 put off his trip to America a few weeks longer 

 he would have been abte to secure practically 

 nothing at a price that would have proven satis- 

 factory to him. His brother, H. Petri, who was 

 with him in Memphis for a few days, has gone 

 t<> Mexico. 



George L. Smith, formerly surveyor general of 



the National Hardwood Lumber Association and 

 now in business for himself at Indianapolis, 

 was in Memphis the past week visiting his 

 friends in the trade here. 



Allen Yinnedge of A. R. Vinnedge & Co. of 

 Chicago was in Memphis the past week. 



Among the foreign visitors here lately were 

 R. L. Withnell of Duncan, Ewing & Co. of 

 London and Mr. Percy and Mr. Cobbett, Jr., of 

 Cobbett & Co., London. 



The Fullerton-rowell Hardwood Lumber Com- 

 pany of South Bend, Ind.. has established an 

 office in Memphis, room 305, Tennessee Trust 

 building, in charge of J. D. Bodman. 



New Orleans. 



The Murphy Lumber Company, manufacturers 

 and exporters of New Orleans are laying plans 

 to build a large box factory and private wharf 

 at Algiers, the fifth district of New Orleans, 

 which is directly across the river from the city 

 proper. The company will spend something over 

 $100,000 in carrying out its plans and in this 

 same connection w T ilI reorganize so as to take in 

 the interests of the Bates-McAvoy Company. 

 At present the Murphy Lumber Company is op- 

 erating the old Bates-McAvoy factory at Canal 

 and Marais streets. Property in that neighbor- 

 hood, however, is considered too valuable to be 

 occupied by a box factory and for that reason 

 it has been decided to move the factory, and an 

 entirely new plant will be built. The factory 

 will occupy a site 100x200 feet, while the wharf 

 will be 384 feet long and 225 feet in width. 

 Tin' plant will manufacture about five carloads 

 of stuff a day, while the company will have fa- 

 cilities for and expects to ship anywhere from 

 five to fifteen cars per day. 



Sidney II. Hasam, proprietor of the Hasam 

 Box factory & Planing Mill in Julia street, this 

 city, has just closed a deal for a site at Clio 

 and Claiborne streets, where he will build a 

 factory that will work about 400,000 feet of 

 stuff a month and give employment to about 

 fifty men. 



William C. Gellibrand, a prominent English 

 lumber exporter, was in New Orleans recently 

 looking into the export situation. He has re- 

 turned to London, but will return here in about 

 two months to complete a number of deals for 

 which he has laid the fcundation. Mr. Gelli- 

 brand has inquired particularly into hardwoods, 

 and he has gone back to England to take orders 

 for various hardwoods suitable to the English 

 and continental markets. He has made a par- 

 ticular feature of dimension stock in hickory, 

 ash and persimmon, in his investigations. The 

 former two woods are for handle-makers and 

 textile mill specialties, while the latter is in- 

 tended for shuttle making. Mr. Gellibrand is 

 connected with one of the largest mills in Louis- 

 iana, which was recently erected at great cost 

 for the manufacture of these articles. In dis- 

 cussing hardwood conditions in the south Mr. 

 Gellibrand said that the great drawback was the 

 haphazard method of manufacture. This busi- 

 ness, he said, was operated by a number of lit- 

 tle mills without proper equipment and often 

 by persons without requisite knowledge to pro- 

 duce proper material. "With intelligent meth- 

 ods," continued Mr. Gellibrand. "there is a 

 source of wealth in the southern hardwoods that 

 will only be appreciated perhaps when it is too 

 late." 



The Monroe Lumber Company of Monroe, La., 

 one of the largest institutions of its kind in the 

 state, has been placed in the hands of a re- 

 celver on application of a number of its cred- 

 itors. The plant has been temporarily closed 

 down and it is probable that all the holdings 

 of the big concern, which is capitalized at 

 $1,000,000, will be sold to satisfy the claims 

 against it: These holdings are in the hard- 

 wood territory of this state. On application of 

 tin- Monroe Shingle Company, the Pargoud Land 

 & Improvement Company and other creditors. 

 Hon. W. M. Winters of Shreveport has been 

 named receiver. Since the big fire which de- 

 stroyed the company's planing mill some time 



ago. resulting in a heavy loss, its affairs are 

 said to have been in a bad way. 



The Meridian Furniture Factory, referred to 

 some time ago, has been launched at Meridian, 

 Miss, with a capital of $100,000. The new 

 company has absorbed the Meridian Coffin Fac- 

 tory and is temporarily using the plant of the 

 coffin factory. Later this will be enlarged. 

 A .1. Rickel of High Point, N. C, will be the 

 active manager in charge. 



Announcement, was made recently that the 

 lumber shipments from Gulfport, Miss., for the 

 month of October amounted to 20,704,000 feet, 

 valued at $503,364. 



The Schaefer-Elms Lumber Company has been 

 organized with $25,000 capital stock to engage 

 in an export and domestic business in pitch 

 pine, hardwood lumber and logs and staves. 

 Charles S. Elms, one of the organizers, has been 

 engaged in business in New Orleans under his 

 own name for some time and is weil known to 

 the trade. Offices will be maintained at 1021 

 Ilennen building. 



Louisville. 



Kirwan Bros., whose plant has been shut 

 down several weeks because of insufficient log 

 supply, are getting out enough logs on the 

 present tide in the Big Sandy to keep the mill 

 running during the winter. They will start up 

 their mill again in a' few days. The other river 

 mills here were already well fixed for logs, so 

 they are all in good shape now till the severe 

 winter weather compels them to shut down. 

 They are hoping that w T ill not be until after the 

 first of the year, for they need all the stock 

 they can possibly cur. 



F. M. Overstreet of the Southern Lumber 

 Company says the rains are making them some 

 trouble down in the woods. He finds the mar- 

 ket in good shape, the only difficulty being to 

 get out enough stock to take care of trade. 



Albert R. Kamp reports business excellent. 

 He recently sold some log run gum at better 

 prices than ever before. 



Among the recent Louisville visitors were : 

 Harold R. Stone, Chicago : J. B. Ettinger of the 

 S. A. Woods Machine Company, Chicago ; Jack 

 Harwood of the Robert II. Jenks Lumber Com- 

 pany, Cincinnati. 



The main plant of the Bell & Coggeshall Com- 

 pany was destroyed by fire November 8, but the 

 office and shook factory just across the street 

 was saved. To the shook factory has been added 

 more machinery, the crew has been doubled so 

 as to work night and day, and with some help 

 from the other box factories the company is 

 making strenuous efforts to take care of its 

 trade till the main plant can be rebuilt. 



Ed Rhubesky says that the stave business is 

 usurping so much of his time these days that he 

 has not given as much attention to the lumber 

 business as he should. There is a good market 

 for hardwoods, however, and it is generally 

 more trouble to get stock than it is to sell it. 



The W. P. Brown & Son's Company is getting 

 in more lumber than it can take care of prop- 

 erly, while it keeps raining. They are shipping 

 out lots, too. In fact, the hardwood business is 

 moving pretty well with the company, despite 

 the handicap of rain and car shortage. 



Minneapolis. 



E. Payson Smith of the Payson Smith Lumber 

 Company left this week for an extended southern 

 trip. He was prevented by illness during the 

 summer from looking over some propositions in 

 that section in which he is interested. C. E. 

 Le Crone of Memphis, Tenn., for some years 

 sales representative for the Advance Lumber 

 Company, has joined the staff of the Payson 

 Smith Lumber Company and will have charge of 

 southern territory, buying stocks and looking 

 after shipments. Mr. Smith will join him at 

 Memphis, and expects to be gone three weeks or 

 more. 



The Pacific Timber Company has branched out 

 and will handle a line of hardwood lumber, 

 white pine and hemlock, in addition to Washing- 



