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HARDWOOD RECORD 



The Logical Evolution of the Hardwood Lumber 



Business 



After careful analysis it can be stated, without fear of contradic- 

 tion, that the production and distribution of hardwood lumber are 

 today accomplished on extravagant lines. Primarily, only the bet- 

 ter portion of forest growth is cut into saw logs, and of this small 

 percentage of the total forest yield, probably not more than two 

 thirds becomes a merchantable lumber product. Of the resultant 

 lumber, it is doubtful if an average of more than fifteen per cent 

 could be classified as firsts and seconds. 



To be sure, as lumber operations have gone on from year to 

 year, some progress has been made, but on the whole lumbering has 

 shown less improvement, conservatism and economy than almost 

 any other industry which has to do with the reduction of natural 

 resources into commercial products. 



It must needs be noted that hardwood lumber of the varying 

 grades, from firsts and seconds down to No. 3 common, is beinu- 

 shipped greater and greater distances as time progresses. Owing 

 to the necessity of developing far distant forest areas, each year 

 freight costs are higher on every thousand feet of lumber shipped 

 to points of consumption. 



Again, it must be remembered 

 that comparatively little hard- 

 wood is today'employed as an en- 

 tire piece in the form of timbers 

 and joists, and even the call for 

 heavy car material is fast ceas- 

 ing. As the years have gone by, 

 hardwoods, in their eventual 

 .utilization, have become prac- 

 tically a cut-up material. 



A furniture manufacturer at 

 Chicago, Hockford or Grand Eap- 

 ids makes a purchase of firsts and 

 seconds oak or some other kind 

 of lumber. He yards this stock 

 and, as occasion requires, sends a 

 portion of his purchase to the dry 

 kilns for final seasoning, puts it 

 through his planing machines and 

 cutting tables and reduces the 

 stock to the sundr\' sizes he needs 

 in the manufacture of furniture. 

 His waste and cutting cost on 

 this grade of lumber may not 

 exceed twenty per cent of his 

 lumber cost, and very likely the 

 transaction is warranted as au 

 economical business proposition. 

 When this same manufacturer 

 buys Xo. 1 common lumber, paying thereon a freight, ranging 

 from .$4 to $15 a thousand, pays his yarding cost, his waste and 

 labor expense, he has doubtless paid freight on from forty to fifty 

 per cent of the material which goes into his fire room. The lower 

 the grade he purchases, the greater the per cent of waste on which 

 he pays freight and an increased cutting cost. 



It seems illogical that a freight rate of from ten to, in some 

 cases, as high as eighty cents per hundred pounds, should be paid 

 on material that eventually finds its way to the fire room. Beyond 

 question, the place to leave waste wood, whether it be woods or 

 sawmill ofl'al, is just as near the point of production as possible. 

 KvoUition and progress in making lumber purchases are manifest 

 at the II.UJDWOOD Kecord offices, where practically every mail brings 

 a request for a source of supply of some specific kind of lumber 

 reduced to dimension sizes. One prominent buyer tells the Eecord 

 that he seeks to purchase all his lumber supplies in cut sizes suita- 

 ble for his requirements. He says: "When I buy well manufac- 

 tured dimension material suitable for the tops of tables or dressers, 



Success 



T)t bae achieved success who has lived 

 well, laughed often and loved much ; who 

 has gained the respect of intelligent men 

 and the love of little children; who has 

 filled his niche and accomplished his task; 

 who has left the world better than he 

 found it, whether by an improved poppy, 

 a perfect poem or a rescued soul; who has 

 never lached appreciation of earth's beauty 

 or failed to express it; who has always 

 looked for the best in others, and given 

 the best he had; whose life is an inspira- 

 tion; whose memory a benediction. 



— IMrs. H. 7. Stanley. 



for the rails and posts of beds and for panels, I am not buying 

 firsts and seconds, but I am buying clear lumber, and I tell you 

 frankly that lumber delivered to my plant in this form is worth 

 twenty per cent more to me than any firsts and seconds, when I 

 take into account yarding, dry-kilning, waste and the cost entailed 

 in my cutting-up room." Today Hardwood Eecord has on file a 

 list of more than seven hundred specific requirements for hardwood 

 dimension material. 



The question arises — Why do not lumber manufacturers enter 

 more generally into the scheme of selling their high-grade stock in 

 the form of lumber which can stand any reasonable freight rate, 

 and reduce the remainder to sizes suitable for use by the furniture, 

 interior finish and scores of other trades? 



The answers are manifold. Primarily, the average hardwood 

 lumberman knows little or nothing about reducing his stock to 

 dimension sizes to advantage. He may have tried it in a tentative 

 way, utilizing refuse or absolutely unsalable stock, cutting it to 

 random sizes that he imagined might sell, and getting a resultant 

 product that was so far below the average of the cutting from 

 No. 1 or No. 2 common that it was practically unsalable. He became 

 disgusted with the whole dim.ension proposition and threw it up 



as a bad job. He said to himself: 

 ' ' I am a lumber manufacturer 

 and I am going to sell lumber as 

 lumber and not tinker with the 

 dimension game. There is abso- 

 lutely nothing in it." 



On the other hand, when fur- 

 niture lumber buyers or their kin 

 in other lines of production buy 

 dimension stock, they insist 

 upon considering it of little or 

 no cost to the manufacturer. 

 They say: "You obtained this 

 from refuse; we should pay you 

 nothing except a reasonable 

 profit on your labor cost, and the 

 freight. We are willing to pay 

 you practically the price of Xo. 

 1 common for dimension, and 

 that is all tliat we can consent to 

 j.ay. " 



The result is that these buyers 

 liave done everything possible to 

 discourage manufacturers in the 

 ]iroduetiou of first-class dimen- 

 sion material. They have not 

 I'onceded up to this time a just 

 \'alue for high-class dimension 

 ii.aterial, and therefore a good 

 proportion of the shipments they 

 have received they have been compelled to cull and cuss, and to 

 put in reclamation charges. Hardwood manufacturers would like 

 to develop an economical system of delivering them cut-up lumber, 

 but so far the effort has been discouraging. 



The cutting of hardwoods to size for the use of remauufacturers 

 of lumber is a logical and businesslike proposition whose develop- 

 ment is possible of effecting a manifest profit for the manufacturer 

 and an equally manifest economy for the remanufacturer. 



If remanufacturers of hardwood lumber want to secure their 

 lumber at a lower cost than they do now by the elaborate and 

 costly method of carrying large stocks on hand, together with 

 the details and expense of maintaining large cutting plants, they 

 must standardize their sizes. They must make it possible for 

 lumbermen to produce in due proportion regular assorted sizes that 

 will be salable not to one but to hundreds of users. They 

 must educate manufacturers as to their specific requirements and, 

 fui'thermore, they must be willing to pay for this material prices 

 such as will eiinlilc luuilicr operators to cut into their sizes just as 



