flaMwoM R oM 



Published In the Interest of Hardwood Lumber. American Hardwood Forests, Wood Veneer Industry, Hardwood Flooring, 

 Hardwood Interior Finish, Wood Chemicals, Saw Mill and Woodivorklns Machinery. 



Vol. XXII. 



CHICAGO. JULY 10. 1906. 



No. 6. 



Published on the lOth and 25th o[ each month by 



THE HARDWOOD COMPANY 



Henry H. Gibson, President 



Frank W. TUTTLE. Sec-Treas. 



OFFICES 

 Sixin Floor Ellsworth Bidg., 355 Dearborn St Chicago, III.. U.S.A. 



Telephones: Harrison 4960 Automatic 5659 



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General Market Conditions. 



The hardwood trade of the country is generally moving on in a 

 steady and fairly satisfactory manner. As is natural at this time of 

 year, there is not the activity and vim in the business that has pre- 

 vailed during earlier months, but prices are well maintained and the 

 outlook is excellent. 



The woods in particularly short sujjply, which are doing extraordi- 

 narily well in the market, are plain white oak, poplar, cypress and 

 Cottonwood. Eed oak seems to be getting back into fair supply in 

 first hands, and apparently there is not an excess of quarter-sawed 

 stock either in white or red being produced at this time. 



June tides in the rivers of the poplar district have not materialized 

 and the larger proportion of the river mills, which produce about half 

 the poplar manufactured, are either shut down or about to be for 

 want of log supply. Every variety of dry poplar at the mills is 

 shipped or sold and there is comparatively little in sight for the 

 remainder of the year. Cottonwood is also short. There is a tendency 

 to advance values on the better grades. 



Cypress stocks are decidedly scant and in rather indifferent assort- 

 ment. The good end of this wood is especially low. Prices ara 

 firm, tending toward advancing values. 



In northern woods inch maple is the best seller, the demand still 

 being very heavy from the flooring makers, but the price is relatively 

 low. Basswood has done better for some weeks, but still it has not 

 achieved a value on a par with poplar and Cottonwood. The market 

 in gray elm, birch and beech is featureless. 



The flooring makers are generally busy, but with the constantly 

 increasing factory capacity being provided it is doubtful if the 

 demand will take up all the flooring made in maple for all time. Oak 

 flooring production is also increasing at a rapid rate, and the in- 

 roads of this high-class flooring will surely have a telling effect on the 

 call for maple. 



Reports from the veneer makers are somewhat spotted. Some are 

 busy at alleged good prices, and others claim the call is slack and 

 prices are off. 



Woods lor the Refrigerator Trade. 



In the manufacture of refrigerators it is necessary to secure hard- 

 woods that are entirely free from odor, and those that are least 



susceptible to climatic changes and moisture. In the construction of 

 these useful devices for household economy, it is necessary that they 

 lie made so that they can be satisfactorily used in all parts of the 

 country. In some sections of the United States, especially along the 

 Atlantic and Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico, the air is full of hu- 

 midity which causes the wood to swell, while in other sections, where 

 the air is very dry, the wood remains in practically the same con- 

 dition as when it left the factory of the manufacturer. 



Ash seems to have been found to be the most satisfactory 

 wood for making refrigerators, and the two chief varieties of ash, 

 tlie brown of the North and the white of the South, are the favorite 

 materials for this purpose. These woods take a good finish, are 

 fairly easy to work, the glue .joints hold well, and in the mind of 

 manufacturers at any rate, are least susceptible to the action of alter- 

 nate heat and moisture. These woods grow in nearly all parts of the 

 United States, although in general hardwood growths are found in 

 comparatively small quantities. They are odorless and can be em- 

 ployed for either inside or outside construction; thus the lower 

 grades may be used in inside work, and the good lumber on the out- 

 side. 



Refrigerator manufacturers very often receive complaints a]]par- 

 ently based on the assumption that the boxes are made of green 

 lumber, for the reason that if the door swells pjeople have that idea, 

 not realizing that the very fact of its swelling shows it to have been 

 previously kiln-dried. 



Some people house their refrigerators in the kitchen near a stove; 

 others place them on a porch outside the house; and it is, therefore, 

 very difScult for the manufacturer to insure construction from any 

 kind of wood, that will neither shrink nor swell under varying con- 

 ditions. 



In the eastern part of the United States many refrigerators and 

 ice-boxes are made of softwood, but very little softwood is used in 

 their manufacture in the middle and far West. Up to twenty years 

 ago a large portion of the refrigerators were made in Buffalo and 

 farther east. At the present time Michigan and 'Wisconsin are the 

 heaviest producers, with Michigan far in the lead. 



The growing scarcity of both white and brown ash is a matter of 

 concern to refrigerator manufacturers, as their experience teaches 

 them that ash is the best wood that can be employed for this pur- 

 pose. Hundreds of experiments have been made vpith other kinds 

 of wood, but nothing seems so satisfactory as the first choice. Re- 

 frigerator makers would consider it a boon and a solution of their 

 wood problems if some material could be presented to them at mod- 

 erate cost that would be satisfactory for this work. 



The Resawed Lumber Controversy. 



It will be recalled that early in the year the United States Board 

 of General Appraisers at New York handed down a decision in the 

 matter of the duty to be assessed on thin lumber, contending that 

 the law contemplated that the collection of $2 per thousand feet on 

 stock imported into the United States should apply in the same sum 

 to the surface measure of stock resawed to thin boards, even to the 

 thinness of picture-backing. The subject was taken up by the 

 National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association at its annual meet- 

 ing in March, and the hearing was reopened before the General 

 Appraisers. After evidence was presented before them, showing 

 that custom and law had always held that a piece of lumber twelve 



