14 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



used by trollej' lines. In addition to ties, the street railways are 

 now using a large amount of lumber in construction work. On top 

 of the ties boards are laid which cover all the space between the 

 rails. The object of this is to afford support to the pavement, so 

 that its surface will not be uneven, caused by depression between 

 the ties, as has been the case heretofore. To show the vast amount 

 of lumber required in this work, the city of Philadelphia, for ex- 

 ample, has 500 miles of street railway tracks, presenting a surface 

 of 10,000,000 square feet to be overlaid with boards. 



Statistics furnished by the Forest Service of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture show the consumption of wood for rail- 

 way construction to be greater now than ever before. With such an 

 enormous annual outlay of material it becomes a task of most vital 

 importance to both steam and street railways to discover the most 

 efficient means of prolonging the life of the wood used on their 

 lines. 



Car Shortage. 



The outlook for an adequate car supply this fall, althougli ap- 

 parently disregarded by a great majority of lumbermen, is never- 

 theless unfavorable. Lumbermen the country over have been- fairly 

 busy during the past few months and have had their orders handled 

 by the railroads with considerable dispatch. Because this favorable 

 condition has recently prevailed is no reason why lumbermen should 

 ignore impending difficulty in this direction at this season when 

 for several years past a scarcity of ears has actually existed. 



Crops for 1906 promise to exceed those of 1905, and will soon be 

 taxing the capacity of transportation companies; manufacturers 

 everywhere are exceedingly busy; then, too, retailers and the large 

 consumers of lumber have been buying on a hand-to-mouth policy 

 for some time and must of necessity come into the market for large 

 supplies very soon. Considering these facts the prospects for quick 

 car service can hardly be said to be encouraging. 



Woods Labor. 



The woods labor problem is still a very serious one in all parts 

 of the lumber producing country. There has rarely been a time 

 when competent woodsmen have been as difficult to secure as at the 

 present. This difficulty is not confined to any particular locality, 

 but exists the country over. Both in the north and south woods 

 country even mere boys can now secure good wages for woods work, 

 and the percentage of elderly men employed who ordinarily would 

 be regarded as superannuated is very large in all operations. 



The "lumber jack" and the "hick" are very independent 

 individuals at the present time, and throw up their jobs for very 

 trivial reasons, well knowing that they can secure another situa- 

 tion at the first woods camp they encounter. Every effort is being 

 made on the part of operators to hold their employees. There never 

 was a time when the denizens of the woods were so well fed and 

 housed and given shorter hours and better pay than they are now. 

 The harvest period in the western wheat country is here, and wages 

 that would be astounding in normal times are offered to assist in 

 harvesting the crops. This feature of the labor situation is making 

 it still very difficult to keep a full crew of men in the woods. It is 

 anticipated that after hai'vest labor will be more plentiful. 



The Furniture Trade. 



The semiannual furniture sale, which takes place very largely 

 through the exhibitions at Chicago and Grand Eapids in January 

 and .July of each year, has just closed. The recent sales season has 

 been entirely satisfactory to the manufacturers, and the volume of 

 business has materially exceeded their most sanguine expectations. 

 It is estimated that sales fully twenty-five per cent in excess of those 

 of July, 1905, were made. About 1,700 buyers visited the Chicago 

 exposition, and more than 1,000 were in attendance at the Grand 

 Rapids show. This attendance is the largest in the history of either 

 city. The increase in business over a year ago has not been shared 

 alike by all producers, some having secured a volume of trade nearly 

 fifty per cent above what they had last year, but practically every 

 manufacturer's sales book shows a handsome increase. 



There are no striking features or new departures in furniture 

 making shown, but there seems to be a tendency toward goods of 

 higher grade and a renaissance of plain and more substantial designs. 

 There is a large increase in the production of mahogany furniture 

 and of imitation mahogany. Oak, however, is still the standard wood 

 for nearly every line of case goods. 



Crop Prospects. 



In almost every product, accordiug to the interpretation of the 

 government crop report for the month of July, made by the New 

 York Produce Exchange, this year's harvest will be well ahead of 

 that of 1905. The wheat and corn harvest for 1906 promises to be 

 very near the high record mark. Prospects are that the corn crop 

 will show an increa.se of 50,000,000 bushels over that of a year ago, 

 or a total production of 2,703,641,000 bushels. It is estimated that 

 there will be harvested this season 429,33-1,000 bushels of winter 

 wheat, about 1,000,000 bushels more than last year. Spring wheat 

 promises 29,000,000 bushels more than 1905, so the combined wheat 

 outlook is for a crop 30,000,000 bushels in excess of last year. Barley 

 also shows prospects for an increased yield, probably of 10,000,000 

 bushels more than last season, but- the outlook in oats is for a 

 diminution. 



The prosperity of the entire country, as is well known, is influ- 

 enced by the success or failure of crops. So large an increase as is 

 here promised, and which is undoubtedly a very correct estimate, 

 presages a large and successful year in many lines of industry. 



The News. 



It is scarcely necessary to call the attention of the readers of 

 this paper to its news reports emanating from every important hard- 

 wood trade center in the United States and abroad. The news feature 

 of the Hakdwood Kecord is unequalled by that of any other lumber 

 trade newspaper in the country, and it is particularly proud of its 

 corps of competent correspondents who fortnightly contribute a record 

 of the local happenings in their respective cities and the surrounding 

 territory. 



It is the opinion of the Hardwood Eecord that there is no service 

 which it performs that is more highly esteemed than this news service. 

 The prevailing call is "news, news, news," and to the best of its 

 ability the paper is giving its readers what they ask for. 



For actual commercial value it is proltable that the analysis 

 of local market conditions of these several trade centers is more 

 highly appreciated by some, but undoubtedlj' the feature that makes 

 the Hardwood Record popular with its thousands of readers is its 

 news service. 



Buying Riches on the Installment Plan. 



A review of the evidence presented in the Muck Rake Depart- 

 ment of this issue of the Hardwood Record will reveal the true 

 inw-ardness of the "system" by means of which the promoters of the 

 stock selling International Lumber & Development Company of Phil- 

 adelphia hope to achieve fortunes for themselves and promise riches 

 to their installment-plan investors. 



It is the same old story. Get rich quick is the inspiration, and 

 the word ' ' lumber ' ' — aU lumbermen get rich — is the bait. The 

 installment-plan feature and ' ' your money back if you die ' ' are 

 the new frills to an old game. 



Verily, "a sucker is born every minute" — and so are men of 

 former good repute who for a consideration will lend their names 

 and act as stool-pigeons to questionable enterprises. 



Rainfall and Tree Growth. 



On the authority of Iluriper 's Weekly there is a close analogy 

 between rainfall and tree growth. In fact, the growth of trees 

 depends primarily upon rainfall; not only is this true in the ease 

 of young growth, but in an investigation extending over a period 

 of twelve years, in which the rings of annual growth of older trees 

 were carefully examined, during an annual precipitation of from 

 thirty to thirty-five inches a width of rings was produced varying 

 from .11 to .15 of an inch. On the other hand, an unusually large 

 or small rainfall in any given year was followed by a correspond- 

 ing tree growth during the following year. 



