14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



It was shown that a good many improvenients are being made in 

 machinery to produce veneers with a minimum of waste, and espe- 

 cially in drying apparatus for seasoning them witliout discoloration 

 or splits. The meeting, while not large in numbers, was attended 

 by representative men cutting all varieties of American woods, and 

 there was lots of enthusiasm manifested over the present and pros- 

 pective success of the work of the organization. 



To the student of commercial affairs the salient point lirought out 

 in the various discussions during the meeting was the fact that the 

 veneer business is passing through a state of evolution. From a 

 small industry it has suddenly jumped to a great one, and com- 

 paratively few pfeople are as yet able to estimate cost with accuracy. 

 Again, thus far since the making of veneers has become a great 

 commercial pursuit, there has been no great amount of money made 

 out of the business. People have entered it without an authentic 

 cost basis, with the result that there have been a great many com- 

 mercial failures, and that the rank and file of veneer producers 

 are now doing business at cost; it is only the exceptional man that is 

 making any considerable profit. 



It goes without saying that with the immense demand for veneers 

 throughout this country and abroad, association effort along these 

 lines is going to mutually educate every one connected with it, and 

 that very soon the business will stand on the same good lines that the 

 lumber business does. This result is already in sight. 



Use Birch. 



"Use birch" is the slogan by which one of the best known 

 northern operators addresses his 'trade on envelopes, slips, circu- 

 lars, blotters, and in letters. He says it is the logical successor of 

 oak, which is becoming so scarce and expensive. He alleges that 

 birch does not warp, split, shrink or swell; that it will finish in 

 any color or take any stain in competition with the finest mahog- 

 any. Above all things else, it is cheap, and is easy to work; it is 

 eminently desirable for all-around work and can be had at a reas- 

 onable price. 



The Hardwood Record is fully in accord with the opinions of- 

 this manufacturer of birch. It is a great wood and its merits 

 are not appreciated as they should be save in a small portion of 

 the eastern eountiy. The wood has character in every foot of it; 

 it has density; it has strength; its working qualities are splendid; 

 no wood takes a finer stain and 'finish When properly handled; it 

 is the jieer of any hardwood that ever grew. 



The Hardwood Flooring Business. 



Of all the materials that enter into the production of flooring 

 there never has been such a marvelous development as there has 

 been in the last ten years in the making of floors from hardwood 

 lumber. The great increase in output of hardwood flooring ma- 

 terials has been from Michigan and Wisconsin hard or sugar majile, 

 but during this time there has also been a remarkable increase in 

 the production of oak flooring, and during the last few years birch 

 and beech are cutting a considerable figure in production. 



Maple for years was one of the little-thought-of forest trees of 

 the northern range of hardwood growth. It was simply the basis 

 of the maple sugar industry of the farmer and for the firewood of 

 the villages and cities. Such has been the increased estimate of 

 the value of the wood that high class hardwood stumpage in Michi- 

 gan that will show even 40 per cent maple will sell as high as $40 

 an acre, and that with a total average stand of less than 7,000 

 feet per acre. This has been lirought about by the growing ap- 

 preciation of maple flooring. For this purpose maple is really a 

 marvelous wood. It lays little claim to beauty, but it has a 

 density that will withstand the severest kind of wear and abuse, 

 and stands up under such treatment for many years after nearly 

 any other kind of flooring would require replacing. People who 

 have experimented with beech and birch flooring in many instances 

 seem to think it is of almost as high a type as maple. Clear heart 

 red beech flooring commands a relatively high price in the market 

 and birch flooring is fast coming into general use. 



When you get to oak flooring, of course this will always be the 

 aristocrat of the flooring woods, and when the architect specifies 

 a fancy floor, oak always has first call. Up to within a few years 

 it has been impossible to secure oak flooring manufactured in a 

 workmanlike manner at a reasonable cost above the value of oak 

 lumber, but during the last few years several first class and highly 

 efficient oak flooring plants have been put in commission, and today 

 flooring of excellent quality can be secured at a price within the 

 reach of a builder of even ordinary houses. 



Hardwood floors of these various kinds of woods are constantly 

 replacing the worn out white pine, j-ellow pine and other soft 

 wood floors laid from five to fifteen years ago. In fact it would 

 not be surprising if a large percentage of the output of the floor- 

 ing factories was being used for relaying purposes rather than for 

 new structures. This is a source of flooring demand that is tre- 

 mendous in its entiretv^ and will keep many flooring plants busy 

 even if general building should be very mucli less in the future 

 than it promises to be. 



Canadian Timber Values. 



The Department of Commerce and Labor has received informa- 

 tion from Canadian sources wliicli indicates that lumber prices in 

 the Dominion are surely moving upward. The government has 

 used all possible means to protect her great lumber industry, even 

 including the imposition of an export duty on logs, and is now 

 seeking a market for her finished lumber product in the United 

 States. At the present time logs cut upon provincial lands in 

 British Columbia must be manufactured within the province and 

 arc not allowed to be exported. Manufacturers feel that the 

 present cost of logs will compel them to make another advance in 

 the price of lumber. Loggers say that the cost of getting logs 

 out of the woods has increased their value immensely on account 

 of the greatly augmented price of labor and equipment. Millmen 

 contend that the cost of manufacture has also become much 

 greater during the last twelve months, and that with logs where 

 they now stand profits are not anything like what they were or 

 what they should be. Facing a positive deficit of logs the coming 

 winter, loggers state that they are subject to still another ad- 

 vance, so that under these combined circumstances it is generally 

 conceded that the prices of lumber will go much higher. The 

 shortage of logs will, it is estimated, amount to about 25,000,000 

 feet by next year. 



The Furniture Buying Season. 



The sales situation surrounding the furniture buying seasons 

 of January and .July is always of interest to the hardwood trade. 

 Nominally the furniture expositions at Grand Rapids, Mich., 

 opened a week ago Monday, and the great Chicago show-rooms 

 of sample furniture are supposed to open their doors July 1, which 

 probably means July 5. It is said that buj'ers not to exceed fifty. 

 and they from the East, have put in an appearance at the Grand 

 Rapids show. The number of exhibitors at the furniture city is 

 from 225 to 250 — about the usual number; according to the 

 reservation of space at the Chicago show there will be from 400 

 to 425 lines of goods in evidence. 



Manufacturers of furniture are a good deal encouraged over the 

 prospects of a good fall trade, although a month ago they were 

 fearful that there was to be a marked suspension of buying. This 

 feature obtains, however — that it is now known orders are 

 going to be placed pretty late, and that trade will drag a good 

 deal further into the season than it did at the first of the year. 

 The knowledge that a good fall furniture trade is likely to pre- 

 vail is further emphasized by the fact that furniture manufac- 

 turers during the last two weeks have again become quite heavy 

 buyers of lumber, while a month ago they had practically sus- 

 pended purchases owing to the uncertainty of the situation and 

 to the possible hope of buying their lumber supplies later at 

 lower prices. 



