MMwoM Rotor! 



- Published In the Interest of Hardwood Lumber, American Hardwood Forests, Wood Veneer Industry, Hardwood Flooring, ^g\V Y 

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



Vol. XXIII. 



CHICAGO. DECEMBER 10. 1906. 



No. 4. 



Published on the 10th ann* 25th of each month by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Henry H. Gibson, President 



FRANK W. TUTTLE, Sec-Treas. 



OFFICES 

 Sixin Floor Ellsworth Bldg., 355 Dearborn St Chicago, 



Telephones: Harrison 4960 Automatic 5659 



I., U.S.A. 



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scramble for maple, birch, elm and beech before there is any new 

 stock on the maiker. Generally speaking the entire hardwood 

 lumber situation is strong. 



The mahogany market has taken on a reversal of form during 

 the last few months. The high price of oak has tended to an 

 increased use of mahogany for interior finish and furniture and 

 what were supposed to be ample mahogany stocks six months 

 ago are now depleted. The same situation has materialized in 

 Great Britain, which is an important center of the mahogany log 

 industry, with the result that the British market is bare of ma- 

 hogany. The big eastern mahogany producers are generally over- 

 sold. The same is true of Cincinnati, Louisville and New Orleans 

 manufacturers. There is probably more mahogany on hand in 

 Chicago than in any other mahogany grouping section of the 

 country and this city can properly be called the center of that 

 industry at the present time. 



Makers of hardwood flooring in oak, maple, birch and beech 

 are busy, and the current demand is fully up to the capacity of 

 the plants. Prices, of course, remain firm. 



HARDWOOD ASSOCIATION MEETINGS. 

 Michigan Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. 



This association will hold an important meeting at the 

 Hotel Pantlind, Grand Rapids, on Wednesday, Dec. 19. 



Indiana Hardwood Lumbermen's Association. 



The eighth annual meeting of this association will be held 

 at the Grand Hotel, Indianapolis, on Friday, Jan. 11, 1907. 

 Matters of much importance to the trade will be brought 

 up for discussion and a large attendance is desired. 



General Market Conditions. 



There is no new feature in the general market conditions pre- 

 vailing throughout the country. The demand is remarkably strong 



for all varieties of hardwoods in the middle west, fairly g 1 



on the Pacific coast, and considerably above normal throughout 

 the entire east. In the eastern sections of the country the call 

 for poplar, especially for the good end, is much in excess of the 

 supply. Owing to the recent tides which have prevailed in the 

 streams of the poplar producing sections this demand will be fair- 

 ly will covered, but not before midsummer. 



Oak of all varieties is sought in excess of the supply. In the 

 most important oak producing sections there has been practically 

 a cessation of production for some weeks, owing to the bad 

 weather conditions. The average daily sawing of that district 

 has fallen off more than fifty per cent. Considering that oak has 

 been in very short supply for months it goes without saying that 

 "oak will be oak" before there is any more dry stock offered. 

 Optimists profess to believe that good oak will show an advance 

 of fully $5 a thousand between now and spring. Both gum and 

 Cottonwood are in good demand at slightly increased values. 



There is every prospect of a diminution of the output of Michi- 

 gan and Wisconsin hardwoods during the coming winter and, as 

 is well known, dry stock on hand being short, there will be a 



American Methods of Sawing Lumber. 



The Timber Trades Journal of London scolds American lumber 

 producers on their crude method of manufacturing lumber. Its 

 contention is said to be based on observation of shipments of 

 American lumber to Great Britain, which show that the methods 

 must needs be crude and that there is an absence of parallel 

 thickness and width. It says in the main that there is not the 

 least improvement in point of economy over methods of twenty 

 years ago. There is the same careless "butting" or absence of 

 "butting." Boards are carelessly sawn with gullet-toothed circu- 

 lars. In many cases the fiber is simply torn out so that it takes 

 nearly one-fourth of an inch off the thickness to get a surface. 

 The editor believes that it is a most serious reflection on Ameri- 

 can sawmill manufacturers, and alleges that if the world had 

 been toured to find lumber manufactured as crudely as possible 

 the Americans would certainly be entitled to gold medals for their 

 primitive methods. It argues that the importance of the question 

 is so vast and far-reaching in the face of advancing prices that 

 the time has come when American manufacturers by improved 

 means and by the exercise of greater care in producing lumber 

 should obtain a very much larger percentage of stock from their 

 stumpage. 



A writer in the same paper, who claims to be well acquainted 

 with the saw mill business in Canada and the United States, 

 alleges that most of the machinery in use is old and obsolete; 

 that the old circular saw is still the chief means of converting 

 the rough log into serviceable timber; that most of the modern 

 machinery, such as the band saw, is either too costly or too dan- 

 gerous to trust to unskilled hands and manufacturers will not use 

 it; he alleges that the roughest unskilled labor is used and that 

 the men have no training at all and are sawyers in name only. 



There is still more of such "rot" published in the Timber 

 Trades Journal, which bears on the same subject and which is in 

 the same vein. It seems unbelievable that a well-informed lum- 

 ber trade newspaper should give space to such childish assertions 

 concerning American sawmilling machinery or the product of 

 American mills. 



