12 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



posted on what they are going against as they should be, or they 

 would not Im! so zealous to get into the flooring making trade. 



Hardwood flooring manufacture is a distinct calling, and every 

 man who has ever gone into it has spent a lot of money in paying 

 for experience. In the history of northern hardwood flooring produc- 

 tion there is no concern with a small plant which has ever made any 

 money; on the other hand the big plant calls for an investment run- 

 ning from $100,000 to $250,000 for factory, raw material, flooring 

 stock and the carrying of accounts. It requires experienced and 

 skilled workmen to produce a good quality of maple or beech floor- 

 ing. Buyers view with suspicion the output of a new plant, knowing 

 that it takes time to educate a force up to the high standard of 

 manipulation and accuracy necessary for the production of high- 

 class flooring from these very refractory woods. Manufacturers 

 have in the past been obliged to spend nearly twice as many dollars 

 per thousand feet in the actual production of maple flooring as 

 have experts in tliat line during the last year or two. The manu- 

 facturer who ha.s paid dearly for his experience is able to produce 

 maple flooring at a profit, on a price basis that would mean loss 

 to the amateur in the trade. There is no demand for any more of 

 these plants at the present time, and the average producer of maple 

 lumber will find his bank balance in as good shape, at least at the 

 end of the first few years, if he sells his lumber to existing maple 

 flooring factories, as by entering upon the production of the flooring 

 himself. 



In the oak flooring business the situation is somewhat differant. 

 Oak has not nearly so refractory working qualities as maple, and the 

 demand for oak flooring is still in excess of the supply. Good oak 

 flooring is a mighty good seller at the present time, and even if the 

 output were increased fifty per cent the business would still be a 

 profit-bearing proposition. However, persons figuring on entering 

 the oak flooring business should exercise a good deal of caution in 

 tying up a large sum of money unless they have positive assurance 

 of a source of supply for a good many years. Oak stumpage is grow- 

 ing remarkably scarce, and the demand for the wood for other pur- 

 poses than flooring is so strong that they must needs expect to pay 

 almost fancy prices for rough stock from now on. The end of 

 even maple stumpage may be seen today, but the maple flooring 

 producer is in better shape than the oak man, for the reason that 

 there is not an extraordinary demand for maple lumber for any 

 other purpose. 



Philadelphia Lumber Promotion Enterprise. 



The Hardwood Kecord adds another chapter to the history of the 

 International Lumber & Development Company of Philadelphia in 

 this issue. This story tells in detail the methods employed by this 

 extensively advertised "promotion" scheme and- the peculiar sys- 

 tem of bookkeeping by which it claims to be making such remark- 

 able earnings, and which, according to good authorities, it has thus 

 far paid in dividends. It is an interesting story and well worth 

 reading. 



Hardwood Lath. 



A number of Michigan hardwood operators have been able to solve 

 the problem of profitable disposition of their refuse this year by 

 entering upon the production of hardwood lath. Owing to the short- 

 age of white pine, hemlock, yellow pine and cypress lath, prices have 

 climbed very high, and buyers and consumers who up to this time 

 would not listen to a suggestion of the utilization of hardwood lath 

 have been purchasing them with a good deal of freedom during the 

 last three or four months, and are coaxing their house builders and 

 lathers into their use. This hardwood lath product has actually 

 shown manufacturers a price of $20 a thousand feet board measure 

 for their refuse. 



While hardwood lath are selling fairly well during this particular 

 period of high values of softwood lath, it must not be presumed 

 by any means that at all times it will be possible to manufacture 

 them at a profit. Today it is simply a matter of the extreme short 

 supply of softwood lath that makes it possible to get the maple 

 and other hardwood substitutes upon the market. 



Ordinarily, and especially at present current values, the manu- 

 facture of dimension stock should be a much surer profit-making 



proposition than the making of lath, but inasmuch as a lath outfit is 

 inexpensive a good many mills might logically be equipped with it 

 for the purpose of taking advantage of lath making when the market 

 warrants their production. There is no argument against hardwood 

 lath as compared with softwood, save that it costs more to nail 

 them on. They make a stifEer foundation for plaster, but lathers 

 seriously object to the extra expense involved in nailing. It is 

 therefore safe to presume that hardwood lath should be manufac- 

 tured in preference to dimension stock only when the extraordinary 

 prices of the last few months prevail. 



Pacific Coast Hardwood Freight Rate. 



A meeting of the Trauscoutiueutal Freight Committee is scheduled 

 to be held at Chicago today, which has the making of freight charges 

 on the several transcontinental lines. There will be presented to 

 this committee from the National Lumber Manufacturers' Associa- 

 tion, the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association of the United States, 

 the National Hardwood Lumber Association, the Wisconsin Hard- 

 wood Limibermen's Association and the producers of maple and oak 

 flooring, a mass of evidence pertaining to the injustice of the cur- 

 rent rate of eighty-flve cents a hundred on hardwood lumber and 

 flooring from Mississipjji valley points to the Pacific coast, and 

 strong arguments will be presented urging the Transcontinental 

 Freight Committee to reduce this rate to at least sixty cents, thus 

 placing producers of hardwood lumber and flooring in an equitable 

 position for the building up of trade on the Pacific coast. Several 

 prominent railroad men who are interested in transcontinental ship- 

 ments confess that the rate is out of proportion to the eastbound 

 rate on forest products. 



It is to be hoped that the committee will take a favorable view of 

 the claims of hardwood producers and cut the existing rate to a 

 price that shall be fairly just. In that event undeniably at least 

 four times the present quantity of hardwood lumber and flooring 

 could be sold in Pacific coast states, and the strong competition that 

 now exists with foreign hardwoods imported in that part of the coun- 

 try almost entirely eliminated. It is simply a question of the freight. 

 If the transcontinental lines can afliord to haul lumber from Port- 

 land to Minneapolis at from forty to fifty cents a hundred, and to 

 Chicago and even further east at from fifty to sixty cents a hun- 

 dred, it wiU certainly be a revenue producing proposition to quad- 

 ruple their westbound lumber shipments by making a lower rate. 



Free Alcohol. 



Since the free denatured :Llr(ihul bill has become a law extensive 

 experiments are planned by Secretary Wilson of the Department of 

 Agriculture to determine how best the farmers and manufacturers 

 of the United States are to take advantage of the new legislation. 

 In the opinion of the secretary it is wise that this investigation be 

 thorough, and include, for examjjle, a study of the white potatoes 

 that grow abundantly in Maine, Michigan and Colorado; of the 

 sweet potato and yam, cassava and coontie of the South; of the sor- 

 ghum throughout the central portions of the country; of the stalk of 

 Indian corn in other localities; and the possibilities of producing 

 alcohol direct from the sugar beet in Michigan, California and other 

 regions where this variety of vegetable may be grown in abundance. 

 Mr. Wilson thinks experimental work should be done by the govern- 

 ment toward adapting a small still to the use of localities. He has 

 decided that the opinion of many farmers that small alcohol stiUs 

 can be run on the farm is chimerical. 



It is passing strange that this series of exjjeriments at government 

 expense to determine the actual benefits to accrue to the poor farmer 

 should not have been made in advance of the enactment of legislation 

 that has materially handicapped the possibilities of making money 

 out of mixed hardwood forests. The government has never spent any 

 vast sum of money in an effort to teach lumbermen how to make 

 money out of forest refuse, but lumbermen have themselves expended 

 hundreds of thousands of dollars in experimenting, and have eventu- 

 ally succeeded in producing wood alcohol, acetate and charcoal iron 

 by utilizing what has heretofore been known as forest and sawmill 

 refuse. Then out of a clear sky comes this legislation, entirely 

 experimental, which, wholly conjectural in its advantage to the 

 farmers of the country, depreciates the value of the millions of 

 dollars invested in hardwood timber lands and in chemical, charcoal 

 and iron plants anywhere from fifty to seventy-five per cent If 

 ever there was a premature, foolish and iniquitious piece of legis- 

 tiou it is the free denatured alcohol bill. 



