HARDWOOD RECORD 



29 



the McClui-e Lumber Company at $160,000, but a 

 representative of that concern appeared before 

 the board and declared that nearly all the prop- 

 L'l'ty enumerated in the valuation was located 

 in the South, and so the matter was referred 

 to the corporation counsel for investigation. 

 The assessment of the C. W. Restrick Lumber 

 Company was apportioned at $100,000, although 

 the company kicks on this figure, saying that 

 is about $.30,000 too high. 



Arthur N. Perry, a well-known wholesale 

 and retail lumber dealer of Detroit, has filed 

 a petitio!! of bankruptcy in the United States 

 district court. He gave his assets as $1,814.85 

 and his liabilities as $12,259.18. 



The Austin Automobile Company of Grand 

 Rapids will remove to Detroit at an early 

 date. They employ about 200 men. Detroit 

 hardwood dealers like to see these companies 

 coming, as that means larger demand for 

 hardwood in the manufacture of auto bodies. 



Tliomas Merrill of Saginaw, w'ho has just 

 completed his ninety-second year, has been 

 connected with the lumber industry over fifty 

 years. He was fonnerly associated with ex- 

 Senator Thomas Palmer of Detroit for many 

 years. 



Saginaw Valley. 



Il.trdwood lumbermen in the valley are taking; 

 every possible opportunity to strengthen their 

 position in the matter of obtaining stock for the 

 future. The KneelandBigelow-Buell interests 

 have a stock of hardwood sufflclent to stock their 

 two mills at 23,000,000 feet a year for flfteeu 

 years if they do not buy another stick, and they 

 are picking up every tree they can get an option 

 on. They are stocking the Bliss & Van Auken 

 mill with 10,000,000 feet annually for ten years, 

 and the latter firm also has some timber of its 

 own. The Wylie & Buell Company is furnishing 

 a large quantity of hardwood logs for J. T. 

 Wylie & Co. and one or two other firms. 



A deal is now being negotiated which will 

 bring the timber from 30,000 acres of land to 

 Bay City to be manufactured. W. D. Young & 

 Co. and people with whom they are associated 

 control 200,000,000 feet of hardwood timber 

 which comes to Bay City ; S. G. M. Gates is cut- 

 ting 7,000,000 feet annually at his mill anil 

 owns the timber which it cuts. The .Johan- 

 nesburg Manufacturing Company, Sailing, Han- 

 son & Co. and the Michaelson & Hanson Com- 

 pany have very large holdings of hardwood, and 

 the Stephens Lumber Company is cutting mixed 

 timber which embraces considerable hardwood. 

 At Au Sable the H. M. Loud's Sons Company not 

 only owns a large quantity of hardwood timber 

 tributary to the plant, but also a number of 

 thousands of acres in Presque Isle county as 

 yet unprofaned by the axe and saw. 



The White Brothers plants at Boyno City have 

 thousands of acres of hardwood timber liehind 

 them, as have the Gilchrist and Churchill com- 

 panies at Alpena. The Richardson Lumber Com- 

 pany, which is erecting a hardwood plant at Bay 

 City, has a twenty-year stock for the new mill, 

 located in Montmorency county, and the Lewis- 

 ton branch of the Mackinaw division of the 

 Michigan Central is to be extended twelve miles 

 to reach the Richardson timber ; it will be cut 

 and hauled by rail to Bay City. There are also 

 numberless smaller tracts of timber available 

 and which will be gradually picked up, though 

 the larger tracts are now in comparatively few 

 hands. Stumpage is appreciating and some hold- 

 ers have put prices out of sight. Lumbermen 

 regard $4.50 and $3.50 as about the stumpage 

 prices that will enable cutting, hauling to the 

 mill by rail and manufacturing at a profit at 

 existing prices for the manufactured product, 

 but some stumpage owners are asking as high 

 as $8. 



The Ottawa Hardwood Company which has 

 operated a sawmill plant, cutting about 5,000,000 

 feet annually the last few years, has been suc- 

 ceeded by Gardner & Richards, who have ac- 



quired the property and will operate the mill. 

 It has a stock 'of over 4,000,000 feet for the 

 season. 



Wages paid men in the woods continue high, 

 as all of the large manufacturers who operate 

 jilauts the year through run about the same 

 number of camps in summer as in winter, and 

 ihc small mills and the portable mills in opera- 

 tion give employment to a large number of men 

 in the aggregate. 



The H. M. Loud's Sons Company shipped a 

 large cargo of hardwood limber last week to 

 Port Arthur, Ont., on contract to furnish timber 

 for harbor purposes for the Canadian govern- 

 ment. The company shipped a cargo of maple 

 to Lake Erie ports. This company has some 

 heavy contracts for timber to fill during the 

 year. 



The maple flooring business is in excellent 

 condition, both as regards prices and volume of 

 business. The S. L. Eastman Flooring Company 

 has made extensive improvements to its plant 

 and reports a good trade. The Strable plant at 

 Saginaw is already full of orders, and the Bliss 

 & Van Anken and the W. D. Young & Co. plants 

 ai-e running day and night. The new Richardson 

 plant at Bay City will give the valley five large 

 plants, and still another is being projected at 

 Bay City. 



.1. E. Wright has taken a contract to cut 

 l.(JOO,(IO0 feet of hardwood lumber at Ocqueoc 

 Lake lor the Embury-Martin Lumber Company 

 (if Cheboygan. 



The Cook, Curtis & Miller hardwood plant at 

 (Jrand Marais will ship its cut by lake this sea- 

 son. 



I). B. I'inkerton has his hardwood plant at 

 Onaway ready to begin operations and has 

 enough logs to stock the plant for the season. 



The Metz Manufacturing Company's sawmill 

 at Metz after being thoroughly overhauled and 

 receiving a new boiler and steam feed has re- 

 sumed operations. 



At West Branch the P.atchclor Timber' Com- 

 pany is installing a finely equipped heading 

 plant to be operated in connection with its saw- 

 mill plant. Brick kilns will be erected in con- 

 nection and the entire plant is equipped wllh 

 electric lighting. 



Scarcity of cars is the only serious obstacle 

 that confronts the hardwood operators, but it is 

 a serious problem. It is almost impossible to 

 got box cars at all. Where ten are wanted the 

 shipper is thankful to get one. It is a source of 

 no little vexation that lumber cannot be shipped 

 after being sold, and when loaded the delay in 

 gc'tling it forward is exceedingly exasperating. 



Grand Baplds. 



M. F. Butters of Ludington was in the city 

 May 5. 



C. A. Phelps. "W. A. Phelps and J. H. Bon- 

 ncll of the Hackley-Phelps-Bonnell Company; 

 Clay H. HoUister. Edward Lowe, Dudley E. 

 Waters. H. S. Jordan and T. F. Garratt of the 

 Michigan Chair Company, and W. A. Gunn of 

 the Gunn Furniture Company are included in 

 the list of stockholders in the National Bank 

 of Commerce, recently organized in Detroit. 



A belt line steam road, connecting all the 

 roads entering Grand Rapids, will be con- 

 structed this year, which it is expected will be 

 of great advantage to shippers and at the same 

 time will open up excellent factory sites just 

 outside the city. The Grand Rapids-Muskegon 

 Power Company will stretch one of its big 

 feeder wires around this loop, supported on 

 steel towers 100 feet high, to supply the new 

 industries with power. 



L. L. Skillman, B. D. Hazard and C. S. 

 Travis, a committee of creditors appointed to 

 straighten out the affairs of A. L. Utter of 

 Grandville. have secured a bill of sale of the 

 lumber yard and other property, which will be 

 disposed of to the advantage of creditors. 



John E. Barnes, until recently president of 

 the Spencer-Barnes Furniture Company, Ben- 



ton Harbor, has organized a new company 

 there, known as the John E. Barnes Furni- 

 ture Company, and will manufacture dining- 

 room furniture and specialties. Mr. Barnes 

 has an interest in a large tract of southern 

 timber and has options also on some scatter- 

 ing pieces in the southwestern part of 

 Michigan. 



The Northern Michigan Press Association 

 met recently at Traverse City and forestry 

 matters, including the state's policy in deal- 

 ing with its lands, were discussed. Perry F. 

 Powers of Cadillac, former auditor gener£Ll, 

 favored a continuance of the present policy 

 rather than turning over the lands to the 

 Forestry Commission. He said that the turn- 

 ing over of lands to the commission would in- 

 jure the value of adjoining property for years, 

 or until the crop of trees had been grown. The 

 association evinced its interest in forestry, 

 however, by asking E. L. Sprague, a news- 

 paper man of Traverse City, to prepare an 

 article on growing locust trees for ties and 

 posts, with cuts showing the growth of such 

 trees in one, five, ten and sixteen years. 



In discussing the above objection to re- 

 forestation Charles W. Garfield, president of 

 the State Forestry Commission, said: "It is 

 unworthy of consideration as an argument. In 

 any plan of timber growing on a large scale 

 somebody will be injured for a time. This is 

 true in the development of a street or a drain 

 or .T. thousand other public utilities. The state 

 must look out for all its people in adopting 

 its land and forest policy. The question of 

 growing timber enough for its woodworking 

 industries is alone of tremendous importance." 



Cleveland. 



F. M. Kinderman of Columbus, O., repre- 

 senting the Collins Lumber Company, of Elk- 

 hurst, W. Va., called on the hardwood trade 

 here last week. 



John D. Mershon of Mershon, Schuette, 

 I'arker & Co., Saginaw, Mich., was a caller 

 among the dealers here this week. 



James Miller of Pittsburg, representing Wm. 

 Whitmer & Sons, Inc., called on the trade this 

 week. 



W. D. Steinmetz of Bergholz, O., an exten- 

 si\-e hardwood manufacturer, was a visitor in 

 this market recently. He reports business 

 good and the outlook very promising. 



W. P. Hilton of the Advance Lumber Com- 

 pany has just returned from a two months' 

 absence at their mill at Baskin, La. He re- 

 ports they are cutting a very fine lot of oak. 

 This stock will find a ready market in New 

 Orleans territory. 



W. A. Cool of W. A. Cool & Son is at their 

 mills in West Virginia looking after securing 

 car.s for shipments of stock. 



White oak has been moving freely of late. 

 I'oplar continues firm and dry stock is exceed- 

 ingly scarce. Jobbers fight shy of taking orders 

 for this stock unless they know where they 

 can put their hands on it. Large quantities 

 of beech and maple are being shipped into this 

 market, and iu some cases this stock is being 

 substituted for other hardwoods which consum- 

 ers have not been able to buy owing to the 

 scarcity of dry stock. A cargo of hardwood 

 recently arrived from Michigan, being the first 

 stock to come in by boat this season. 



Indianapolis. 



The Turner, Day & Woolworth Haudle Com- 

 pany is preparing to build a large plant at 

 Bluffton. Bids have been asked and work will 

 be started within a short time with a probability 

 that tlie new factory will be occupied early in 

 the Fall. 



G. II. Palmer of Sheridan suffered a loss of 

 considerable lumber stored in a barn. Boys and 

 cigarettes were responsible for the burning of 

 the building. 



The Advance Veneer & Lumber Company at 



