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HARDWOOD RECORD 



poses of, under an old established name, stock wliioh under its own 

 would be long in finding a market. 



There are excellent timber trees in the West which have suf- 

 fered severely in popularity because of poor relatives in the East. 

 The western hemlock produces good lumber, but for a long time 

 the lumberman let it rot in the woods because everyone had a 

 prejudice against hemlock. Even now it does not find the favor it 

 deserves. Another example is the western form of the tamarack. 

 This splendid tree, full brother to the eastern tamarack, was 

 hardly worth cutting as tamarack but under the name western 

 larch (which is correct) it has met with success. Many of the 

 early settlers of the West were easterners to whom the name 

 "tamarack" called up visions of a small, twisted grained tree, 

 difficult to work and prone to warp. The new name, as was in- 

 tended, aroused no such prejudice. 



White pine, which for a long time was so abundant in the 

 north woods and lake states, was without superior as an all-round 

 timber tree. It is not surprising that producers avail themselves 

 of every opportunity to trade upon the reputation of that name. 

 In consequence one finds a number of woods sold as white pine 

 which are not white pine at all. Sugar pine of the Pacific coast has 

 tried hard to fill the bill but though of the white pine group and an 

 excellent timber, it is not a perfect substitute. Instances are not 

 lacking where it is shipped to the lake states and there mixed 

 with true white pine and re-shipped as the genuine article. The 

 sap-wood of old, slow-growing we.stern yellow pine is oceasionall\" 

 being marketed as white pine. 



If to the millman 's transmutations are added those of the manu- 

 facturer and artisan, the list would be a long one indeed. For 

 instance, there is the transformation of red gum into "Circassian 

 walnut ' ' furniture seen in the finest show windows. There is 

 much truth in the statement regarding many furniture factories 

 that "only red gum lumber goes in and nothing but white oak 



furniture comes out." Red gum lumber does not bear even 

 superficial resemblance to oak, but this is overcome by running 

 the material through a printing press and printing the pattern of 

 oak grain upon it. In England furniture makers use considerable 

 of our red gum and call it "satin walnut," though it is no moru 

 related to walnut than to oak, a very remote kinship. 



It is when working with mahogany that the wood alchemist i» 

 at his best, for mahogany is to woods what gold is to metals. 

 The world's output of genuine mahogany is less than eighteen 

 million feet per year, while the consumption exceeds forty mil- 

 lions. Truly, as a lumber journal remarks, ' ' Manufacturers of 

 mahogany certainly have their consciences under superb control." 

 All sorts of cheap woods are put on the market as mahogany and 

 when properly stained even the expert must be on his guard to de- 

 tect them. Over twenty mahogany-like woods are now offered as 

 true mahogany, not to mention a considerable number cunningly 

 stained to imitate that wood. Much of the imitation mahogany 

 furniture manufactured in this country is of black or cherry birch 

 which readily takes the proper stain. Often a table top is of 

 real mahogany and the rest of the table of birch. In fairness 

 to the dealers it should be said that as a rule such evident imi- 

 tations are sold as such. 



The result of such trade customs is confusing and the buyer 

 finds it more and more Jifficult to know if he gets what he pays 

 for. So long as he does not know the difference he may derive 

 as much satisfaction from an imitation or substitute article as 

 from the genuine, but the discovery that he has been deceived is 

 ground for just complaint. It has been suggested that as tho 

 pure food law forbids the adulteration of foods and the misnam- 

 ing of same, a similar law should be enacted to forbid the misnam- 

 ing of lumber products in order to sell them to people who are 

 deceived. But for the present at least the principle of caveat 

 emptor (let tlie buyer beware) seems to apply. S. J. R. 



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Merchandising Ideas 



"A satisfied customer .is the best possible advertisement." 



This remark originated in the dry goods business, and inas- 

 much as most aphorisms of the sort are attributed to the late 

 Marshall Field, it may be just as well to assign it to him. At 

 all events, it is a merchandising idea which has gained strength 

 with the years, and the people who are dealing with the general 

 public instead of with selected classes of consumers have found 

 that it pays to do a lot of things in order to get their patrons 

 into the frame of mind described by the term "satisfied." 



Lumbermen are wont to remark that their business is ' ' dif- 

 ferent, " and in a great many respects it is unique and unlike 

 other trades. At the same time, however, human nature is at 

 the basis of most of their transactions, and since human nature 

 is a universal condition upon which selling is predicated, it would 

 seem likely that lumbermen, like dry goods merchants, could 

 consider that factor to advantage in deciding upon a plan of 

 action. Satisfying one 's customer takes human nature into con- 

 sideration, since it looks not merely to the delivery of the com- 

 modity, but to surrounding the business with as much that is 

 pleasant and as little that is disagreeable as possible. 



One reason why satisfaction of the customer is a good asset 

 is that the customer is very likely to return for more goods of 

 that and other kinds, if his experience has been of that descrip- 

 tion. Not only does the pleased patron communicate his views 

 to other possible patrons, but he himself is a permanent asset 

 of the house contributing to the factor known as good will, which 

 is valuable only to the degree that customers have made it, by 

 indicating that they are permanently connected with the house 

 in the capacity of buyers. 



Looking at the lumber business from this standpoint, how 

 much of the business of the average lumberman consists of 



"repeat orders?" How much more effort is required to get an 

 order from an entirely new customer than from an old one? How 

 many buyers of lumber place their orders with you as a matter 

 of course, knowing that they will get their stock at the current 

 market price, and get full value, instead of getting as many 

 quotations as possible and scrutinizing all possible information, 

 in order to avoid being "stung?" 



If it takes relatively a large amount of effort to secure second, 

 third and succeeding orders, so that the selling expense attached 

 to them is just as great, for all practicable purposes, as connected 

 with the initial sale, would it not be worth while to spend some 

 of the money which now goes to get the orders, for the purpose 

 of satisfying the customer with his purchases? If such a plan 

 were used, and satisfaction secured, it stands to reason that it 

 would be less difficult to sell a particular customer again and 

 again, and to make him a regular purchaser, so that the selling 

 expense incurred in handling the business would be constantly 

 decreased. 



It may sound absurd to suggest that the lumberman go out of 

 his way to create a service that will reduce the profit on any 

 given shipment, yet it seems reasonable to believe that such a 

 course would result in building up permanent patronage, the kind 

 that makes for substantial profits which can be realized nest 

 year as well as this. 



"The lumber business is too much of a single order propo- 

 sition," asserted an oflJicer of a well-known hardwood concern, 

 who goes out on the road himself occasionally, and therefore knows 

 what the troubles of the salesman are. "We spend a lot of 

 money getting an order, and then we see how much of it we can 

 get back right away by giving the customer as little as the law 

 allows. In other words, instead of trying to make that lumber 



