HARDWOOD RECORD 



Xurman James of this city, who is largely 

 Interested In the Pigeon River Lumber Company, 

 on the Pigeon river, North Carolina, recently 

 visited the scene of the company's operations 

 <in one of his tours of inspection. 



\l S. Baer of the hardwood arm of E. P. Baer 

 ,v Co., with offices in tie Keyser building, this 

 city, is on one of his periodical trips to Mobile, 

 Ala., where the firm is interested in milling oper- 

 atiuns. While in that section he is also giving 

 attention to the taking up of stocks turned out 

 by nther mills. 



Mr. Withnell of Duncan, Ewing & Co., London. 

 was in Baltimore two weeks ago. stopping here 

 In i lie course of an extended trip through the 

 lumbering regions of the United States. He 

 called on a number of local firms. 



Among other recent visitors was Gustave A. 

 I arber, formerly a member of the firm of Price 

 & ileald, this city, and for a time represented 

 that firm at Memphis, but who afterward went 

 Into business on bis own account. 



Pittsburg. 



ii. W. Stone and James Wetmore of Warren, 

 Pa., and Thomas McCabe of Kinzua, Pa., have 



ight from John J. Carter of Titusville 3,000 



acres of oak and hickory timber near Titusville. 

 Pa . for about $100,000. The tract will be 

 developed at once. 



An experiment of considerable significance to 

 tin' lumber industry was tried on the Penn- 

 sylvania lines west last week under the direc- 

 tion of Superintendent of Telegraph Cellar. Ce- 

 ment, poles of various size and strength were 

 tested and were found to be satisfactory for 

 telegraph purposes. As soon as the proper sizes 

 can be agreed upon the Pennsylvania lines will 

 place a large order. Some of the poles tested 

 were designed for only one string of wires, while 

 ■■others held fifty or more wires. Owing to the 

 very high cost of timber pules, this experiment 

 1$ likely to lead to a quite general adoption of 

 concrete p°'es in Pennsylvania. 



According to the C. B. Caughey Lumber Com- 

 pany, oak bill stuff is selling for $5 a thousand 

 more than a year ago and car stuff also. Oak 

 .staves, hand worked, are bringing $110 per 

 thousand pieces in New York and a few Pitts- 

 burg firms are profiting by the high prices to 

 dispose of small stocks which they had worked 

 up. 



The Isle of Pines Company has been formed 

 to develop extensive resources on the Isle of 

 Tines, which is situated forty-five miles from 

 Cuba. The company lias been chartered in New 

 Jersey and is being brought into active work 

 t in "ugh the American Newspaper Association. 

 with offices in the Wabash building in this city. 

 Thomas J. Keenan of this city is one of the 

 must interested stockholders. There are 130,000 

 acres of land on the island and the timber re- 

 sources are estimated as follows: 20,000,000 

 le.i of mahogany, 40,000,000 feet of Spanish ce- 

 dar, 10,000,000 feet of sablcu, o,000,000 feet of 

 n.liie. .-,,000.0110 feet of satinwood and 20,000,000 

 feet of other hardwoods. 



.Manager .1. X. Woollen of tin' American Lum- 

 ber ,\; Manufacturing Company has just booked 

 an order for 25,000 street railway ties, 0x8x8, 

 to be delivered in the Pittsburg district. Charles 

 Cruikshank, assistant hardwood manager, is tak- 

 ing a "furniture trip" among the Grand Rapids 

 concerns. The American lias just enrolled in 

 its services 1'. C. Clark, formerly manager of 

 the W. M. ltitter Lumber Company at Columbus, 

 O.. who will help push its hardwood business. 

 The company has two barges of cottonwood on 

 the way up the Mississippi to !»• unloaded at 

 Joppa, 111., for distribution throughout the mid- 

 dle west. President W. 1). Johnston of the 

 American has tired of the continued cold 

 weather ::nd has gone to Cuba for a few weeks" 

 recreation. 



The report of building operations in Pittsburg 

 for the fiscal year ended January ?,l shows 

 2,245 new buildings constructed, costing $13,- 

 792,000. This is a considerable falling off from 



the year 1905, when the total was $14,652,700. 

 The slump is attributed largely to the two 

 months' carpenters' strike last spring. 



The W. M. Gillespie Lumber Company has 

 lately bought 6,000,000 feet of high grade hard 

 wood in West Virginia and will be ready to start 

 shipments by March 1. 



The Parsons-Cross Lumber Company had its 

 Cleveland representative, Max Myers, in the city 

 last week noting conditions. 



An indication of how busy tie 1 Western Re- 

 serve hardwood plants are in Ohio is furnished 

 by the report of the Warren Handle Company. 

 which is now 3,000 dozen handles behind its 

 orders. The handles this company make go 

 mostly to Tennessee and Kentucky. 



The L. L. Satler Lumber Company reports that 

 a very destructive sleet and hail storm put their 

 big plant at Blackstone, Va., on the idle list tor 

 a tew days this month. Work is being pushed 

 hard on the Satler box shook factory, which 

 will employ eighty men, and is already assured 

 of an enormous trade throughout the Pennsyl- 

 vania factories. 



President J. R. Edgett of the Interior Lumber 

 i ompany was in the city for a few days and 

 reports a good measure of activity at the com- 

 pany's plant at Oneida, Tenn. 



About 1,900 acres of timber land near Pied- 

 mont, W. Va., have been sold to R. R. Daton of 

 Westernport, Md. A sawmill will be erected at 

 once and the entire tract will be developed. 



The Cheat River Lumber Company will hence- 

 forth do its own logging, skidding and hauling 

 at its big plant at Burkeville, Va. M. L. and 

 R. K. Herbertson are now at the plant and will 

 spon have quite an addition to the present line 

 of tram. The company's inquiry for chestnut 

 is one of the brightest spots in its market out- 

 look just now. 



Secretary J. H. Henderson of the Kendall 

 Lumber Company is now in Oregon arranging 

 for the enormous operation which the Kendalls 

 will shortly undertake on the Pacific coast. 



Manager W. P. Craig of William Whitmer & 

 Sons, Inc., is back from a long trip through the 

 South, where he found conditions in hardwoods 

 very favorable. 



The marked increase in the consumption of 

 hardwood flooring during the past two years is 

 significant in the Pittsburg district. It estab- 

 lishes firmly the fact that the competition of 

 tlie more progressive builders is having its ef- 

 fect upon the building business generally. In 

 former years the relative values of the harder 

 oak, maple and beech flooring and the softer 

 woods have been such as to induce the builder 

 to make his choice where his money would go 

 farthest. In the last two years, however, the 

 alliance in the price of both yellow and North 

 Carolina pine has been so marked that there is 

 but a slight difference between the hard ami 

 soft woods in cost. Previously when the values 

 oi oak, maple and beech were so much higher 

 than pine the only buildings that consumed the 

 former were private dwellings and the better 

 class of apartment houses. Today hardwood is 

 used extensively in the cheaper class of houses. 



The American Woods Corporation of West Vir- 

 ginia lias Increased its capital stock from sin. 



to $5,000,000. It was Incorporated last fall 

 and since then has been acquiring options on 

 West Virginia timber lands until it now has 

 under control over 100,000 aires. Options have 

 lately been taken on some large plants and it is 

 proposed to ,arry on operations on a scale siml 

 lar to that in the Adirondacks. The storage 

 yards, mills and dry kilns of the company will 

 be at l'.elington, W. Va. Following are the di 

 rectors of the corporation: Creed Collins, a 

 prominent lumber manufacturer and president 

 of the First National bank of Pennsboro. \Y. 

 Va. : It. E. Jackson, president of the Citizens' 

 National hank of Belington ; Frederick Moore, 

 president .of the Mountain State Investment 

 Company of Belington: S. G. Boyce, a promi- 

 nent lumber manufacturer of Owls Head, N. Y. ; 



29 



A- J- St •, .New York; J. W. Selvey, president 



of Grafton Banking & Trust Company, Grafton, 

 W. Va. ; N. M. Marshall, president of People's 

 National bank of Malone, N. Y'. ; F. C. Emerlek. 

 Buffalo, N. Y. Charles E. Cochran is president 

 of the corporation, Creed Collins is vice presl 

 dent, Frederick G. Moore is secretary and Scott 

 G. Boyce is treasurer. 



Buffalo. 



Of particular interest here is the retirement 

 of F. W. Vetter from the Empire Lumber Com 

 pauy of this city. II. S. Janes, who has looked 

 after i be Arkansas mills of the company lately, 

 lias assumed management of the Buffalo busi- 

 ness, with office in the White building. Mr. Vet- 

 ter will retain the Buffalo yard. 



Beyer. Knox & Co. are looking South again 

 for more oak and chestnut, but will not go there 

 in person until the high water reports stop. 



O. E. Yeager and J. B. Wall have been at 

 Mount Clemens for some time. Their yards are 

 very busy shipping out oak and other hard- 

 woods. 



H. A. Stewart will go South after oak and 

 cherry again as soon as he can do business on 

 dry land and get some cars to handle stock. 



Manager Hopkins is a Cuban planter in per- 

 son just now, instead of looking after the Buf- 

 falo business of Scatcherd & Son. Mr. Scatcherd 

 attends to the office. 



The Hugh McLean Lumber Company's south- 

 ern oak mills are running steadily in spite of 

 the rains, but oak is scarce, nevertheless, as the 

 demand is so good. 



The yard of A. Miller has been headquarters 

 for basswood for some time, but there is also a 

 good assortment of all the hardwoods. 



The mill and box factory of G. Elias & Bro. 

 are busy and they are prepared to take care of 

 more city house building next year than ever. 



Oak has been crowding into the yard of the 

 Standard Hardwood Lumber Company of late, 

 as it managed to get hold of a lot of cars in 

 Alabama and make the most of them. 



T. Sullivan & Co. will receive more ash and 

 birch by lake again next season before the 

 present supply is out, though trade is fine. 



Bay City. 



"All kinds of hardwood, especially ash, elm 

 and basswood and hardwood culls of all kinds. 

 are particularly firm with an upward tendency 

 in price. The prospect is the output of hard- 

 wood lumber this year will be no larger than 

 it was last, and the stocks of lumber in the 

 bands of dealers and manufacturers is much 

 smaller than they were a year ago at this date." 

 This is the statement made by Charles A. Bige- 

 low, one of the largest manufacturers of hard- 

 wood in the state, and a gentleman well in- 

 formed as to conditions and stocks. 



The logging conditions are fairly favorable. 

 The weather in the main has been satisfactory, 

 with not enough snow to interfere with active 

 operations in the woods. But during the fall 

 men were very scarce and there are many camps 

 yet running a little short handed. Teams are 

 about as scarce as ears for shipping purposes. 

 Loggers have ransacked the entire lower penin- 

 sula for teams for hauling purposes and the 

 supply is still inadequate. 



S. I.. Eastman of the S. L. Eastman Flooring 

 Company says factory grades of maple flooring 

 will be advanced owing to the advance in price 

 of the raw material. lie is carrying about 

 in, nun, nun feet in stock all of the time. Com- 

 plaints tire still filed as to ear shortage. 



The Strable Manufacturing Company's plant 

 at Saginaw has started operations. It manufac- 

 tures maple flooring and has unlimited capital 

 and lumber resources behind it. It is expected 

 io handle 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 feet annu- 

 ally. 



The Mershon p.aeon Company's plant, which 

 heretofore has been employed mostly in pine, 

 will go over largely into hardwood products. 

 Mr. Mershon Is interested in a vast quantity of 



