HARDWOOD RECORD 



Monday afternoon, the committee assembling at 

 the rooms of the exchange and the larger body 

 in t In- Merchants' Club. Among the business 

 discussed was a recommendation of the inspec- 

 tion committee Involving a radical change in the 

 system of Inspecting lumber; Heretofore the ex- 

 change has licensed a number of inspectors, 

 who would be called by members as needed. 

 Tims, the larger dealers commanded the services 

 nf Inspectors nearly all the time and smaller 

 dialers were unable to have their work dune 

 promptly. The Inspectors depended mi ids. and 

 there was hesitancy about increasing the force 

 because ibis would have resulted in cutting down 

 i be earnings nf tic men. The inspection com- 

 mittee recommended that the by-laws be amended 

 sn as to permit the appointment of a chief in- 

 spector with a corps of men under him, he to 

 have charge nf all the work, t" name his subor- 

 dinates and in detail inspectors whenever they 

 are needed. The plan was worked out by Ridgaway 

 Merryman, chairman of the committee, who has 

 given the matter serious thought and lias also 

 Studied the systems in effect elsewhere. It was 

 decided to lake up the proposed amendment for 

 final action at a special meeting to be held March 

 IS. It is proposed to increase Hie inspection lee 



fj 1 i'.~> to :'.n cents per 1,000 feet, the extra 5 



cents to be used in creating a fund which will 

 enable the chief inspector to pay inspectors with- 

 out compelling them to waste time in collecting 

 small amounts. The adoption of means to pre- 

 vent the selling by wholesalers and mill men 

 direct to builders, who are classed as consumers, 

 was also discussed, but no action was taken. 

 Winn the business in band bad been disposed of 

 the members of the exchange sat down to an 

 elaborate dinner. 



A systematic agitation has been inaugurated 

 by the National Lumber Exporters' Asso- 

 ciation, through Secretary E. M. Terry, against 

 the shipping of lumber to foreign countries on 



consignment. The move lit is designed to 



check a practice which cannot lie otherwise than 

 harmful to the trade. Another matter which 

 engaged the attention of Mr. Terry was the 

 influencing of congress in favor of the re- 

 ciprocal demurrage bill, but the adjournment 

 of the national lawmaking body lias made fur- 

 ther efforts in tliis direction useless for the 

 present. Mr. Terry has all bis books and pa- 

 pers in shape now and is as hard at work as 

 ever in bis office in the Equitable building. 



John A. Murphy of the Liverpool firm of 

 Vincent, .Murphy & Co. was in Baltimore recently 

 and called on several firms here with a view 

 to interesting them in the purchase of African 

 mahogany logs, Mr. Murphy's firm is a large 

 importer of such logs and he has come to the 

 United States to establish a number of connec- 

 tions through which a part of these receipts 

 can be distributed in the American market. 



The Felippe A. Broadbent Mantel Company of 

 this city, which operates what is said to be the 

 largest factory of its kind in the world, has 

 increased Its capital stock t.. $200,000. The 

 increase will be used to Improve the plant, which 

 is to be operated by electricitj throughout. 



Among the visiting lumbermen here during the 

 past ten days was R. W. Wistar of Wistar, H'n- 

 derhill .v Co., the well known Philadelphia bard 

 wood firm. 



Pittsburg. 

 Better weather lias helped the hardwood manu- 

 facturers greatly the past two weeks. The mills 

 of Western Pennsylvania and Ohio which were 

 tied up the early part of the winter by the bad 

 roads have been able to do much of their skid- 

 ding on snow and with the frozen roads have 

 got a large amount of lumber at the track ready 

 for ears. The river mills have repaired the 

 damage done by the January floods and are once 

 more running full time — many of them double 

 time. In the hardwood districts" that contribute 

 most to the Pittsburg market it is probable thai 

 the cut of logs will be larger than last year, to 

 judge from present estimates by wholesalers. 



The Kendall Lumber Company will increase 

 i be output of its mill at Crellin, Mil., from 70,- 

 iioii to 125,000 feet per day in a short time. Sec- 

 retary J. II. Henderson last week booked an 

 older for 15,000 ties and says the market for 

 tics is mie of Hi,, brightest features of the local 

 market. 



YV. E, Terbune of the W. E. Terhune Lumber 



C puny Is back from a long I rip through the 



Northwest. 



The J. M. Hastings Lumber Company is one 

 of the largest producers of oak in Hie city this 

 winter, its plant at Jacksonburg, W. Va., has 

 I n very busy for six months and E. B. Ham- 

 ilton is now liter,, keeping things on the rush. 

 Mr. Hastings is taking quite a trip through the 

 South this month. 



The Buckeye Lumber Company is doing a rush- 

 ing business at its Pennsylvania and West Vir- 

 ginia mills. Hie larger part of Hie cut being 

 hardwood lumber. A big proportion of its logs 

 are cut into wagon stock, but it is also getting 

 out considerable heavy dimension stock. Man- 

 ager c. L. Wicket-sham reports more buying 

 among the out-of-town yards and looks for a 

 very busy summer in hardwoods. 



Ties and railroad stock are keeping J. E. Me- 

 II vain & Co. busy this winter. J. J. Penney is 

 now in West Virginia looking up new stocks of 

 ties, the company's present demand being much 

 in excess of its available supply. 



W. W. Dickey of the West Virginia Lumber 

 Company has gone to California for his health 

 and will not return until late in the spring. 

 The company is getting out a good winter's cut 

 of lumber at its mills at Johnson City, Tenn. 



J. X. Wollett, general manager of the American 

 Ln tuber & Manufacturing Company, says that 

 during I be months of January and February the 

 American booked more hardwood business than 

 during the entire year 1906. This was due in 

 large part to the fact that it bad planned a 

 strenuous campaign months before and had 

 stocks of hardwood at its Tennessee and West 

 Virginia plants that were dry and ready for 

 shipment. Then, too. its trade in southwestern 

 hardwoods contributed largely to the total, gum 

 and cottonwood being sold through the middle 

 west in Large quantities. Mr. Woollett is an en- 

 tbusiast on southwestern woods, and will start 

 next week on an extended trip through Louis- 

 iana, Arkansas, Indian Territory, Florida, Ten- 

 nessee and Kentucky. 



William M. Pownall, manager of the Colonial 

 Lumber Company, will shortly open a New York 

 office. 



r. E. Kimball of Cleveland, manager of the 

 Southern Lumber Company, was in the city a 

 few- days ago to complete arrangements with 

 Robert E. Gannon for representing the new com- 

 pany here. Mr. Gannon litis looked after the 

 interests of the Saginaw Bay Company bore for 

 years ami the Southern is Identified with it to 

 quite an extent in general interests. 



Fred R. Babcock, .1. I.. Lytic and K. D. Baker 

 will represent the Pittsburg Wholesale Lumber 

 Dealers' Association at the Washington conven 

 tion this week. J. G. Criste of Hie Interior 



Lumber Company, E. II. Si r of tin' Flint. 



Erving & Stoner Company and Air. Lytle will be 

 a committee from the Pittsburg association to 

 confer with the representatives of the associa- 

 tions from Cleveland. Saginaw. Toledo and Cin 

 cinnati, which work along much the same lines 

 as He- Pittsburg organization. 



The .lames I. M. Wilson Lumber Company, 

 which makes a specialty of poles, is up to its 

 cars in orders just now. Orders for more than 



5, more poles than it has in stock are now 



on its books and the market seems to be tight- 

 ening among the producers. Chestnut poles are 

 going up in price and are scarce, Mr. Wilson 

 says, because so many owners of chestnut timber 

 an- cutting it into lumber. 



The Parsons-Cross Lumber, Company wound up 

 tin- months of February in a way to make the 



33 



managers very well pleased. Through its good 

 connections at Cleveland and other points the 

 new company is enabled to gel right into the 

 center of Hie market in Pittsburg at the start. 



The Pittsburg Lumbermen's Mutual Fire In- 

 surance Company has elected Car] Vandervort 

 secretary and general manager of its Pittsburg 

 office. This office will cover Pennsylvania, West 

 Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. About twenty-live 

 firms have already joined. 



<i. II. Rectanus of the a. M. Turner Lumber 

 Company and G. W. Cantrell of the Herman H. 

 Ilettler Lumber Company attended the recent 

 concatenation of Hoo-Hoo at Philadelphia. They 

 are now working up an event for the Pittsburg 

 Hoo-Hoo which is likely to surpass anything of 

 lb'- sort that lias ever been seen west of the 

 Alleghanies. 



Detroit. 

 William W. Kelly of Hie Bjrownlee-Kelly 

 C pany, large hardwood manufacturing con- 

 cern, has been on a live weeks' trip through 

 Cuba and Mexico. He is now at Hie company's 

 plant at Cisco, Georgia. 



Albert T. Allan, a city alderman who was 

 general manager of the Manufacturers' Lumber 

 Company, controlled by the Vintons, has re- 

 signed and gone into the wholesale lumber busi- 

 ness with his brother, A. E. D. Allan. They 

 have offices at 610-61] Majestic building, and 

 will handle yellow pine and hardwoods. 



Itussell A. Alger, Jr., lias been elected bead of 

 the large Michigan lumber interests controlled 

 by bis father, the late Senator Alger, who died 

 iti February. 



Notice of the dissolution of the partnership 

 of Chesbrough Brothers, large lumber operators 

 in upper Michigan with main offices in the 

 Penobscot building, Detroit, and articles of 

 incorporation of the Chesbrough Lumber Com- 

 pany have been filed. This is the result of 

 Fremont B. Chesbrough's having bought out the 

 interest of A. W. Chesbrough of Toledo and 

 Frank I". Chesbrough of Detroit. The Ches- 

 brough mills are in Emerson, Chippewa county. 

 Tlie linn, is one of the largest holders of stand- 

 ing hardwood and pine timber in the state. 



Mayor Thompson of Detroit has been trying to 

 stir up a rumpus with the Board of Works, 

 alleging many things which he has had dif- 

 ficulty in proving. He says the city is in the 

 grip of a lumber trust and declares that the 

 Board of Works has been purposely playing 

 into the hands of this alleged "combine." Most 

 of the trouble was over the tiling of specifica- 

 tions for Norway pine and for hemlock. Local 

 wholesalers say the bids were drawn up at a 

 time when lumber was low and Hie city has 

 really profited by Hie recent: boost in prices. 

 They laugh at the idea of a ••combine." 



That the great railroad car manufacturers are 

 gradually establishing big branches in the south- 

 ern states, nearer to the inexhaustible supplies 

 of hardwood ami pine, is the story told by 

 George McClure of McClure Brothers, which 

 concern owns large mills at Eutau, Ala. Mr. 

 McClure says the South is greater now, as a 

 lumber market, than ever before 



Clayton Gibson, who recently sold out his 

 Wolverine Box Company to the Manufacturers' 

 Lumber Company, has started on tin extensive 

 hardwood buying trip through the southern 

 states. Mr. Gibson is now in the wholesale 

 lumber trade. He is thinking of settling in the 

 South. 



The Brownlee Kelly Company has sent out to 

 its patrons a very neat advertising souvenir ln 

 the shape of a celluloid paper cutter. 



Saginaw Valley. 

 The weather has been especially favorable for 

 logging operations this winter There has not 

 been enough snow to call out the snow plows 

 on railroads hauling logs, and not enough to 

 bother operations in the woods at all. The 

 wen t her has been generally snug. Some est! 



