HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



material in the furniture manufacturing trade as a substitute for 

 oak, especially in the production of medium and low grade lines. 



This recourse to substitution on the part of manufacturers can- 

 not go on indefinitely. It would seem that substitution is about 

 at an end, for where can other low priced woods be found to 

 substitute for those in current use? Undeniably future evolution 

 in the hardwood trade will be for a finer manipulation and a 

 more through utilization of the coarse end of standard hardwood 

 products. This surely means the cutting up of a large portiou of 

 hardwood lumber, from the coarse ends of No. 1 to mill culls, 

 into the form of dimension stock, and delivering this clear lumber 

 to renianufacturers in the exact sizes which they require in their 

 various lines of production. 



Again, it is more than likely that American inventive genius 

 will eventually succeed in producing from lumber and woods offal 

 a compound lumber that shall take the place of many varieties of 

 hardwood for the cores of veneers and for other purposes where 

 grain and figure are not an essential element, especially in furni- 

 ture and cofl^n construction and interior finish. 



The Low Grade Problem 



More and more of a bugbear, and more and more of a menace 

 to possible profits, is the low-grade problem that faces every 

 manufacturer, and especially those who are manufacturing hard- 

 woods at points remote from regions of consumption. The hard- 

 wood manufacturer so located that he can reach furniture and 

 kindred trades with his product on freight rates of from 6 to 10 

 cents a huudred has no particular difficulty in unloading his low 

 grades at a satisfactory price even if there is a cutting waste 

 of from 40 to 50 per cent in them, but the man shipping hardwoods 

 on rates ranging from 2i to 35 cents a hundred is in trouble. 

 Pajing freight on a lumber product where 50 per cent goes under 

 the boilers can by no possible chance show a profit in manufacture 

 and, on the contrary, it shows such a distinct loss that the profits 

 on the good end of the output are pretty well absorbed in the 

 total transaction. 



Undeniably, the solution of the entire low grade hardwood proli- 

 Jem lies in the proper seasoning, kiln drying and intelligent cutting 

 up of everything but the good end of No. 1 common and firsts and 

 seconds into dimension stock at the points of production. The 

 shipping of high-class, clear dimension stock to remanufacturers 

 would simplify grading problems and end once for all all contro- 

 versies on grades and qualities. It is the logical evolution of the 

 hardwood business where manufacturing is carried on at a point 

 remote from a large consuming demand. Today a considerable por- 

 tion of table and furniture material is in standard dimension sizes. 

 When lumber manufacturers succeed in analyzing these various 

 sizes they can establish a trade for dimension material in a 

 sequence of sizes that will be salable not only to one customer but 

 to thousands. 



Relative Oak Values 



At a recent meeting of table manufacturers held in Chicago an 

 analysis was made of the average clear cutting value of firsts and 

 seconds and No. 1 common oak. Reports secured from something 

 like twenty-five leading table manufacturers were collated and 

 an average made of the total reports. These figures showed that 

 table manufacturers were able to produce 80 per cent of the net 

 quantity of lumber in the form of their finished tables from 

 firsts and seconds and 67 per cent from No. 1 common. While 

 there was no expressed opinion on the subject of the waste 

 entailed in the utilization of No. 2 or lower grades of oak, it went 

 by inference that the percentage of waste in the lower grades was 

 too heavy to consider these grades as worthy of attempted utiliza- 

 tion in table manufacture. 



The percentage of results of net cutting shown in firsts and sec- 

 onds and No. 1 are worthy the earnest consideration of the grade 

 and price makers of hardwood lumber. No. 1 common, on the basis 

 of present grading, has been ranged along about two-thirds of the 



price of firsts and seconds. If the net cutting results as herewith 

 shown are borne out by general experience, it goes without saying 

 that No. 1 common is worth more than 75 per cent as much 

 as firsts and seconds to rema'nufacture, or, to put the matter in 

 other words, either the price of No. 1 common is too low or the 

 grade is too high as compared with the grade and price of firsts 

 and seconds. Table makers and other remanufacturers of hard- 

 wood lumber apparently are purchasers of firsts and seconds only 

 in a minor quantity and then for the purpose of securing the small 

 proportion of long cutting lengths that they are not able to get 

 out of No. 1 common. Let any lumberman figure the matter out 

 for himself, for on the basis of present grades and prices No. 1 

 common is more than $11 a thousand cheaper than firsts and sec- 

 onds for the ordinary uses into which lumber is remanufactured. 



At the furniture meeting referred to there seemed to be a senti- 

 ment on the part of the table makers tha"t they could do even 

 better in their purchases if they could coax manufacturers to split 

 No. 1 common into two grades and give them the opportunity of 

 buying the selected No. 1 common. This scheme would be all 

 right for the table and furniture makers without doubt, but it 

 would not have a satisfactory outcome for lumbermen. Appar- 

 ently, the truth of the matter is that No. 1 common has got so out 

 of range in quality and value that the wise remanufacturer has 

 now found a particularly "soft spot" in the lumber market, and 

 wants to hold on to it. This is self-evident from the fact that 

 while firsts and seconds and No. 1 common in oak are active 

 sellers, the No. 2 and No. 3 grades are manifestly dragging. 

 Bight here is an opportunity for an awakening of lumber manu- 

 facturers to equalize grade and value in sundry oak qualities. 



About Red Gum 



Red gum — this erstwhile despised wood of the Mississippi valley 

 and the Gulf and lower Atlantic- coasts — is fast coming into its 

 own. Through a long campaign of education iu manufacture, 

 curing and utilization, makers of furniture, interior finish and 

 kindred lines have learned that red gum is a very likely and 

 reliable wood which can be utilized for a great variety of pur- 

 poses, and especially is a desirable commodity for the manufacture 

 of medium and low grade furniture, for interior finish, for doors, 

 for cofiins and sundry other purposes. 



The region of the Middle West has recognized for years, follow- 

 ing the example of Great Britain, that gum was a wood worth 

 consideration, but it is only during the last year or two that the 

 great eastern section of the country has been willing to consider 

 red gum as a worthy lumber commodity. Today red gum is essen- 

 tially the wood that is being substituted for oak, poplar and sundry 

 other types that have been regarded as high class and particularly 

 adaptable for specific purposes. 



There is a general impression that red gum grows in almost 

 inexhaustible quantities. It is well known that there are large 

 stands of this wood in southern Missouri, throughout a large por- 

 tion of Arkansas, in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and along the 

 fringe of the Gulf and Atlantic coasts as far north as the Pamlico 

 and Albemarle sound region of North Carolina. A close study of 

 the range and growth of this wood and the average stand leads the 

 Eecoeb to the belief that the supposed quantity of red gum is very 

 much overestimated in the pubUc mind. Students of timber 

 growth who are well equipped to figure out this stumpage have 

 spent much time in an analysis of it. The Record has made a 

 considerable investigation along the same lines and it is practically 

 safe to say that the total stand of red gum existing is not to 

 exceed eleven billion feet. This quantity is very small when com- 

 pared with the aggregate possibilities of gum consumption during 

 the next few years, and it may safely be stated that gum stumpage 

 values, on the basis of the paucity of stand, is perhaps the best 

 timber purchase in the country today and that surely values will 

 accrue to this wood within a very short time that will make timber 

 investments particularly profitable. 



