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Published in the Interest of the American Hardwood Forests, the Products thereof, and Logging, Saw 

 Mill and Wood- working Machinery, on the lOlh and 25th of each Month, by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Henry H. Gibson, President 



Burdis Anderson, Sec'y and Treas. 



Entire Seventh Floor Ellsworth Building 

 537 So. Dearborn Street, CHICAGO 



LIBRAR1 



NEW YOt 

 BOTANIC/ 



aAROB^ 



Vol. XXXIV 



CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER 10, 1912 



No. 10 



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Editorial Comment 



General Market Conditions 



Reflections in market reports from all the leading hardwood 

 centers of the country, in this issue, indicate an unusually strong 

 demand for hardwoods of nearly every variety. Plain oak still 

 remains especially short in supply, and values are ranging higher 

 than ever before in the history of the wood. The stocks of desir- 

 able quarter-sawed oak are also being reduced very materially, 

 and prices are stiffening. 



High-grade, wide poplar is about the only item in the entire 

 list that is not in active demand, and even it is selling in fair 

 volume at reasonably satisfactory prices. There is a veritable 

 boom in the price of high-grade, tough white ash, and holders of 

 this stock are able to get about any reasonable price they care to 

 ask for it. 



All the northern woods are in short supply and are eagerly 

 sought. 



The mahogany people are having a genuine boom in veneer and 

 solid wood, some dealers reporting they are from ninety days to 

 six months behind their orders. The fancy veneer business in all 

 branches of wood is in good shape, and trade is remarkably active. 

 There is a good call for quarter-sawed oak veneers, but prices are 

 still ranging very low. In fact, but few manufacturers of sawed 

 veneer are able to make much profit at log values now prevailing. 



Generally the panel business is excellent. There seems to be an 

 increased call from the furniture and interior finish trade for 

 lumber, veneers and panels, and a good many buyers are trying 

 to crowd their orders to get stock into their plants previous to the 

 absolutely certain car shortage that will obtain within the next 

 few weeks. 



The jobbing element the country over is generally not in very 

 good shape to take care of business offered. There seems to be 

 more demand for lumber than there is supply, and many buyers 

 are making purchases direct from manufacturers, in the belief there 

 is more certainty of their orders being executed. 



This is certainly a hardwood manufacturers' year. The general 

 tendency of the market apparently discloses a growing disposition on 

 the part of the manufacturers to take advantage of sales direct to the 

 consumer without calling upon the middlemen to assist in handling 

 the products. 



The Railroads and the Tie Business 



The handling of tie business by the average railroad traversing 

 sections of the country where tie timber grows is certainly open 

 to criticism. Primarily there seems to be a manifest fear on the 

 part of such railroad authorities that their sources of supply for 

 ties are speedily going to be exhausted. With this idea in view, 

 they refuse to make a rate for the shipment of ties under which 

 any producer of them can exist, and they permit but few ties to 

 be sold and shipped off the line of their own roads. Again, they 

 usually "farm out" their tie contracts to some metropolitan tie 

 man who "works" the native tie producer to the limit. 



It is the policy of this gentry to know to a nicety the exact price 

 at which a tie-hewer can produce ties, and at the same time get 

 three meals a day and enough ragged clothes with which to cover 

 himself. No stumpage' value for the material is ever dreamed of 

 in the tie-buyers ' calculations. Once this minimum price is fig- 

 ured to a nicety, it is the price that is paid the tie man for pro- 

 ducing and delivering ties to the right-of-way of the railroad on 

 which he operates. Naturally this condition, while manifestly 

 profitable to the wholesale tie man, holds down the output very 

 closely to the actual requirements of the railroad. 



That this system is a very silly one is manifest, because not 

 one stick of timber in a hundred that is suitable for the making 

 of ties goes into tie production. On the contrary, the small timber 

 left after the saw timber is taken out of the holdings is girdled, 

 felled and destroyed by fire. 



There is a great deal of talk about the immediate tie shortage 

 that confronts the railroads of this country. As a matter of fact, 

 there is more available tie material in existence at the present 

 time, and for future generations, than the railroads can possibly 

 use, if they will use common sense in the handling of their tie 

 purchases and shipments, and arrange to conserve the tie material 

 along their lines, rather than farm out the business in the way they 

 do, and not permit tie makers to receive a decent price for their 

 labor and raw material. 



As a specific example: If a reasonably just tie tariff were put 

 into effect on the Illinois Central railroad, there would be ties 

 piled at shipping points for hundreds of miles along this line, which 

 would not only supply the total wants of this company, but render 



SUBSCRIPTION TERMS: In the United States ami its possessions, 

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Telephones;— Harrison S0S6-S0S7-8O8S. . 



Henry H. Gibson, Editor; Hu Maxwell and Edwm W. Meeker, Asso- 



*^'Entered as'second-class matter May 26, 1902, at the postotBce at Chi- 

 cago. 111., under act of March 3, 1S79. 



