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HARDWOOD RECORD 



varieties of northern woods are encountered. A third school should 

 be maintained in Memphis, for like reasons. 



It may be said that the essential, professed value of inspection is 

 to estaljlish the \Yorth of lumber. Up to this time an inspection cer- 

 tificate simply recites the sizes and grades. While this is absolutely 

 essential, it fails iu a marked degree to set forth all the facts in 

 the case that go to make up the value of lumber. These students 

 should be taught Ijeyond actual measurement and the nomination of 

 a grade, to be able to analyze the physics of the wood which they 

 inspect. On the certificate of inspection should be stated the quality 

 of the wood itself; in the case of oak, whether it is soft and work- 

 able, or tough and stringy. Students should be taught to take into 

 consideration the sawing of the lumber as well as the seasoning. 

 These two features tend to determine value, iu a marked degree. In 

 fact, if young men are to be scientifically trained in the inspection 

 of lumber, they should be started at the tree and have a course 

 through the woods, sawmill and lumber yard, previous to undertak- 

 ing actual grading per sc. It is to be hoped that the committee 

 having this matter in charge will carry out this scheme of education 

 in inspection to its logical conclusion, and that there may be per- 

 manent schools maintained under competent tutelage, until the neces- 

 sary thousands of lumber inspectors become fully competent to carry 

 on this work scientifically and intelligently. 



Atlantic City Meeting. 



The recent meeting of the iSIational Hardwood Lumber Association 

 held at Atlantic City, the full proceedings of which appear in this 

 issue of the H-uidwood Record, was marked by very important legis- 

 lation. The so-called Buffalo agreement, a resolution providing that 

 no change be made iu inspection rules until December, 1908, was 

 suspended, and many modifications were made in the grading rules, 

 to take effect December next. These rules were the result of the 

 most exhaustive and careful deliberation on the part of the Inspection 

 Rules Committee in conference with delegates from the hardwood 

 associations of Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana, and while the stand- 

 ard of quality is lowered in many instances, it was deemed wise to 

 thus amend the rules to conform with current trade practices cover- 

 ing the inspection of hardwood lumber. The grade of firsts and 

 seconds remains practically unchanged, save that the minimum widths 

 admitted are narrower. New grades of selects and finish lumber are 

 incorporated between firsts and seconds and No. 1 common. These 

 changes were not made without long and patient consideration by the 

 delegates and serious debate on the subject. The majority in favor 

 of the amendments was more than two to one. The new rules corre- 

 spond closely to those of the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association 

 in that resultant grade products from the application of either set 

 will be practically the same. 



In spite of jiast fiascos in reaching a joint agreement with the 

 Manufacturers' Association on the subject of grades, it is now cer- 

 tainly up to this association to again make overtures toward having 

 the wording of the various rules for hardwood grades of both asso- 

 ciations synonymous and for the eventual establishment of a joint 

 bureau of insjiection which shall be competent, impartial, intelligent 

 and unhampered by any political influence from either body. 



This is the insistent and crying demand of the hardwood trade 

 at large in all its divisions — manufacturers, jobbers and consumers 

 alike. Tlie slight breaches today can easily be bridged over. Let 

 conciliation and compromise go on until the desideratum is obtained. 



Annual Statistics of Forest Products. 



The great value of accurate statistics as a factor in assisting to 

 regulate production to the best advantage and to estimate prospective 

 values should be more carefully considered by progressive lumber 

 manufacturers. Information of this character, when accurate and 

 complete, reflects tlie true situation unerringly. It is therefore 

 highly essential that these statistics be made public at the earliest 

 possible moment, otherwise much of their value is lost. The United 

 States government has for years made itself responsible for crop 

 statistics, and last year with the cooperation of the National Lum- 



ber Manufacturers ' Association undertook the work of collating 

 statistics covering forest products. The average lumber manufac- 

 turer supported the movement heartily, but still the work did not 

 possess the value it should have done, owing to the indifference of 

 the few who failed to supply individual reports, thus rendering the 

 figures incomplete. The Forest Service has now entered into 

 cooperation with the Bureau of the Census, which has a large force 

 of trained statisticians, and if it can secure the cooperation to 

 which it is entitled, the lumber-manufacturing public will be doing 

 itself a great service in assisting to this end. The bureau announces 

 that state totals will be published as soon as any individual state 

 report is complete. It is to be hoped that every hardwood manu- 

 facturer will take the little time necessary to supply the information 

 asked for. 



The Veneer Meeting. 



Agreeable to the announcement at the liead of the editorial 

 columns of this issue of the Record, the National Veneer & Panel 

 Manufacturers' Association will hold its semi-annual meeting at the 

 Auditorium Annex in Chicago on June 120 and 21. Tlie first session 

 will be called at 10 a. m. The meeting promises to be very interest- 

 ing, as a carefully prepared report by the grading committee on the 

 proposed amendment of rules on all kinds of woods will be pre- 

 sented. A series of papers will be read by experienced operators on 

 topics of particular interest to the trade. 



It is designed to make this a good old-fashioned ' ' experience 

 meeting," in which every problem pertaining to the trade will be 

 thoroughly threshed out. In view of the present rather unsatis- 

 factory condition of the veneer industry it is anticipated that the 

 meeting will call out a larger number of veneer manufacturers than 

 has ever before been present. 



Government's Forest Reserve Policy. 



A meeting to be known as the Public Lands Convention has been 

 called at Denver June 18, 19 and 20. This meeting is the result of 

 crystallized effort that is being made to discourage the forest re- 

 serve policy of President Roosevelt and the United States govern- 

 ment. This policy is keeping many lumber, mining an-d coal com- 

 ])anies from appropriating as much of the timber and mineral lands 

 of the public domain as they would like. There has been a steady 

 attempt for months past to array cattlemen and lumbermen against 

 the forest reserve plan, on the plea that it cuts them out of timber 

 and grazing rights and locks up the public land from "legitimate" 

 use. 



The fallacy of this reasoning is specious and apparent. This 

 country has wasted billions of dollars iu its senseless depredation 

 of the forest, and the time has arrived for scientific conservation. 

 There is nothing in the law governing forest reserves that prevents 

 any land suitable for agricultural purposes from being taken over 

 by legitimate settlers, and it is hoped that hereafter lumbermen, 

 mining men and cattlemen alike will be obliged to pay for the lands, 

 timber and minerals which they utilize for their own profit. 



Tlie government 's theory of forest reserves is a simple one. It 

 proposes to do merely what the Gernmn and other European nations 

 have done for generations. The forestry plan provides for cutting 

 a reasonable quantity of mature or hyper-mature timber, under such 

 systems as will preserve the young and immature trees. The system 

 will promote and assist in the redevelopment of forest area and 

 provide against the future needs of the nation. Lumbering methods, 

 especially in the mountainous districts, have been extravagant to 

 the verge of criminality; but a small portion of the timber has 

 been converted into lumber and the remainder has been wantonly 

 burned. Lumbermen, by their careless methods, have not only 

 burned the unfelled timber, but also the humus or top stratum of 

 decomposed vegetation, which is not only indispensable to the re- 

 growth of a forest, but also has resulted in the washing away of 

 every mountain side thus depredated, so that no vegetation of any 

 sort can be reproduced. By a wise system of lumbering on con- 

 servative lines, it is possible to have both lumber and forests, and in 

 a nutshell this is what the forestry policy is meant to accomplish. 



