42 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



After a sumptuous dinner tbe meeting' was 

 called to order by President Frank Bucli. Only 

 routine business was transacted. Ben C. Currip, 

 secretary and treasurer, in reading the minutes 

 of the previous meeting, alluded to the short 

 addresses made by the officers, also to a notable 

 one by Eli B. Ilallowell. Mr. Currio then pro- 

 ceeded to read an absurdly concocted humorous 

 address purporting to have been delivered by 

 the said Hallowell, which brought forth roars 

 of laughter, as his hearers all knew Mr. Hallo- 

 well never uttered a word when called upon by 

 the president. After a vote of thanks had 

 been extended to W. H. Fritz and the St. 

 Davids Golf Club for the use of the cour.se. 

 President Buck wound up the meeting with an 

 impromptu address, in which he dwelt en- 

 thusiastisally upon the brilliant outlook for the 

 club. 



Plans are being arranged for another tourna- 

 ment to be played at the Huntingdon Valley Golf 

 grounds some time between the first and tenth 

 of October. On this occasion the players will be 

 the guests of E. F. Henson. 



Freight Expert Addresses Mississippi 

 Association 



The recent meeting of the Mississippi Pine 

 Association was favored with an address by 

 W. D. Owen of the American Freight Audit & 

 Storage Company of Chicago. This concern has 

 opened up a new thought in auditing freighL 

 accounts with a view to saving its clients a 

 great many dollars in overcharges. 



The gist of Mr. Owen's talk rs an outline 

 of the work of his concern, in which he not only 

 showed the possibilities and benefits to lumber 

 shippers, but cited concrete instances in which 

 considerable money has been saved to shippers 

 themselves. According to Mr. Owen the sav- 

 ings have averaged from one hundred dollars as 

 the minimum up to six hundred or seven hun- 

 dred dollars. It was conceded by the members 

 of the association that according to the terms 

 of concern's contracts, it had to make recoveries 

 in order to live. 



The reason for the existence of such a con- 

 cern is from the fact that while the average 

 shipper is fairly familiar with transportatiou 

 problems, he may not have the detailed knowl- 

 edee of frei<Tht rates and en routing, which the 

 expert possesses who has made it his business. 

 This company is located at 39 West Adams 

 street. 



Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Cut Sta- 

 tistics 



Secretary R. S. Kellogg of the Northern Hem- 

 lock and Hardwood Manufacturers' Association 

 has just Issued from his Wausau office a state- 

 ment of cut and shipments of the association 

 members for August, llill and 1012, and for 

 the eight months from January to September 

 of the two years. E'ach statement is compiled 

 from the reports of fifty-nine firms, and the sum- 

 mary shows that there was a decrease in hard- 

 wood cut in August, 1912, as compared with 

 that of August, 1911, of eighteen per cent, and 

 an increase in hardwood shipments for the same 

 period of twenty-nine per qent ; a decrease in 

 hemlock cut of thirty-three per cent, and an 

 increase in hemlock shipments of seventeen per 

 cent. The total decrease therefore in cut was 

 twenty-two per cent, wtiile there was an increase 

 in total shipments of twenty-one per cent. 



The report shows that in August, 1011. there 

 were 60.3.TC.0OI) feet of hemlock cut as against 

 46,4.52.000 feet in August, 1912. On the other 

 hand the shipments in August, 1911, amounted 

 to only 30.925.000 feet, slightly more than one- 

 half the cut, while in 1012 they aggregated 

 46,GS7,000 feet, slightly in excess of the total 

 cut. 



There was more maple cut In both years than 

 any other hardwood, the total being 4,372.000 

 feet for August, 1911, and 4.289,000 feet for 

 August, 1912. Figures for shipments, however. 



.show that there was an increase for that period 

 of almost 3.000,000 feet. 



Next to maple, birch showed the largest cut 

 and shipments. There were 3,529.000 feet of 

 the birch cut in August, 1911, and 3.410.000 

 feet in August, 1912. Shipments during August 

 of last year were .5,897,000 feet against 9,233,- 

 OCO for August, 1912. 



Basswood and cak were the only hardwoods 

 which showed any falling off in shipments, the 

 decrease in both cases being slight. 



Figures for the first eight months of the year 

 show that there is a decrease in hemlock cut 

 of one per cent, and an increase in hemlock 

 shipments of thirt.v-six per cent. The decrease 

 in hardwood cut during this period was four- 

 tten per cent, while hardwood shipments in- 

 creased twenty-nine per cent. Thus the total 

 decrease in cut up to Sept. 1 was seven per 

 cent, and the total increased shipments thirty- 

 four per cent. 



Milwaukee Loses an Old Lumberman 



The deatli of George J. Forster. secretary of 

 the Forster Lumber Company of Milwaukee. 

 Wis., was announced on Sept. IS. Mr. Forster 

 has been in poor health for a couple of years 

 and recently returned from a tour of European 

 health resorts where he made an effort to re- 

 gain his lost health. On coming back to Mil- 

 v.'aukee in Jul.y, however, he continued to grow 

 worse and was constantly failing until his 

 death. 



Mr. Forster was a native of Milwaukee, hav- 

 ing been born there .Tan. 3, 1861. Aside from 

 a stay of eleven years in Mnnising. Mich., he 

 has spent his entire life in that city. 



J. W. Thompson Returns to Memphis 



Not many months ago it was announced that 

 .T. W. Thompson of the J. W. Thompson Hard- 

 wood Company had moved from Memphis. Tenn., 

 to offices in Chicago. Mr. Thompson recently 

 concluded to transport his operations from here 

 back to Memphis, and is now occupying new 

 offices in the Porter building. Before his re- 

 moval to Chicago Air. Thompson had been for a 

 long time a resident of Memphis, where he has a 

 host of friends both in the lumber business in 

 that city and in its general society. The busi- 

 ness will be carried on along the same lines as 

 have characterized his operations in Chicago. 



Handle Company Busy 



The Sperry Manufacturing Company of New 

 Haven, Conn., one of the largest manufacturers 

 of hardwood handles in the country, reports that 

 it can not get enough extra help to keep up with 

 its orders, and that it is now nearly three 

 months beliind. Tliis condition is due both to a 

 scarcity of labor and to the unusually brisk 

 condition of the handle industry. 



Foreign orders are taking up a large portion of 

 the factory's facilities. Australia. South Africji 

 and South America are the destinations of many 

 of the large orders of hardwood handles shipped 

 ttom the Sperry plant. 



Large Concsrn Liquidates 



The United States courts of Abingdon, Va., 

 and Greeneville, Tenn.. were last week in recei])t 

 of voluntary and involuntary petitions in bank- 

 ruptcy against the J. A. Wilkinson Lumber Co., 

 Inc. of Bristol, Va.-Tenn. 



The involuntary petition was against Mr. Wil- 

 kinson individually, he having done a large 

 business both under the style J. A. Wilkinson 

 Lumber Co., Inc., and under his own name. 

 Ihe failure was not altogether unexpected on 

 the part of the local lumbermen inasmuch as 

 numerous rumors of pending insolvency had been 

 connected with Mr. Wilkinson for some time. 

 At a meeting of the creditors which will lie held 

 at an early date, trustees will be appointed to 

 look after their interests. It is estimated that 

 the net liability will approximate .$150,000. The 

 aggregate assets of both the Wilkinson corpora- 



tion and Mr. Wilkinson personally are in the 

 neighborhood of $213,000, which sum, of course, 

 v,ill be greatly reduced by having the assets 

 disposed of through auction. 



Mr. Wilkinson went to Bristol originally from 

 Meadow View, Va., and started business with 

 considerable actual cash assets. The loss of tbe 

 Bristol plant by fire about five years ago 

 occasioned a cash loss of $75,000. Price & 

 Pierce, Ltd., of London, England, then backed 

 him in rebuilding his present plant along the 

 right-of-way of the Southern Railroad. The in- 

 vestment in the factory site was $10,000 but 

 construction had scarcely b'-?gun on the plant 

 when he was offered $20,000 by that railroad. 



A loss of over $50,000 sustained last year on 

 account of shrinkage of export stock in stor- 

 age, coupled with a loss of $20,000 resulting 

 from the failure of a Trenton concern, are direct 

 causes of the financial difficulties of Mr. Wil- 

 kinson. 



The statement of the affairs of the Wilkinson 

 corporation showed the liabilities as $73,494.56 

 ii. which are included secured claims to the ex- 

 tent of $42,245.87 and unsecured claims for 

 .f;;0,990.S0. About $20,000 of the latter is due 

 holders of the Chas. R. Partridge Company's 

 paper, tlie failure of which concern contributed 

 til the Wilkinson bankruptcy and on which Mr. 

 Wilkinson's endorsement w'as put. The assets 

 aggregate $49,007.70 including $15,000 in stock. 

 $15,000 in machinery and tools, $3,000 bills and 

 notes, $4,728.57 wholesale accounts and $5,401.77 

 retail accounts. 



A New Book on Forestry 



Those who own woodlands or who are in any 

 way cfincerned with timber or tree planting, 

 will read with interest a new book from the pen 

 of Herman II. Clapman of the Yale Forest 

 School. It is a book for the busy man, (or it is 

 short and to the point. It may be read in two 

 hours, and it would be difficult to find another 

 publication which will give so much practical 

 information on the siib,ject of forestry in so 

 sliort a time. It touches and disposes of the 

 principal points only : elaborate discussions and 

 demonstrations are not undertaken. It deals 

 no further with botany than is necessary to show 

 conditions under which trees will reproduce, 

 grow, and produce timber. Plain directions are 

 given for taking care of the forest, both while 

 it is growing and during the process of cutting. 

 The injury done liy fires is pointed out, and 

 methods of preventing and extinguishing them 

 are outlined. Soils are briefly discussed and 

 ways of caring for them are suggested. A de- 

 cided stand is taken that forests exercise n 

 controlling influence upon stream flow, as well 

 as in protecting the soil from washing, but the 

 author does not believe that trees have much 

 to do with a country's climate. Questions like 

 that, however, are not discussed at length, pref- 

 erence being given to topics of more immediate 

 interest to the man who is concerned with mak- 

 ing money out of his limber. The book is from 

 the press of the American Lumberman, 431 S. 

 Dearborn street, Chicago. 



Philadelphian Talks on Conditions 



J. Gibson Mcllvain, ,lr., of .T. Gibson Mc- 

 Ilvain & Co., extensive hardwood house of Phila- 

 delphia, lias just rc-turned from a visit to their 

 lumber yard in Nashville, Tenn.. the WoodclilT 

 Lumber Company operation at Monterey, Tenn., 

 Ihe Lovelady Lumber Company operation at 

 .lasper, Va., and other operations. He says stocks 

 are very scarce, particularly in oak, and be 

 looks for an advance of five dollars a thousand 

 on No. 1 common quartered oak, and one to ten 

 dollars a thousand on one and two iiuartered 

 oak within a very sliort time. Quartered oak has 

 become so scarce within the past few weeks 

 that he says it is bound to adviince in price. 



Business conditions, as he sees them, he says 

 were never in a better shape than today. The 

 only thing he can see that is likely to mar a 



