HARDWOOD RECORD 



53 



it Is expected it wili be ready for operation 

 early In the year. Tlie company is building an 

 up-to-date plant and the machinery is new and 

 of the most approved pattern. The Kneeland- 

 Bigelow and the Kneeland, Buell & Bigelow 

 sawmills are to run through the winter, the 

 former day and night and the latter ten hours 

 daily. Mr. Bigelow, the manager, speaks very 

 confidently of the conditions of trade, and says 

 he can see that business is increasing steadily 

 from weelt to week and month to month, the 

 close of every period showing an increase over 

 the preceding one, while prices are strong and 

 in some kinds of stock are considerably higher. 

 The output of this firm will approximate 40,- 

 000,000 feet this year. Last year the plants 

 were both shut down a number of months owing 

 to dullness in the market. The Campbell-Brown 

 Lumber Company plant and the Knapp & Scott 

 mills have been running through the year. The 

 Gates mill will not be operated during the 

 winter. 



Victory Bros.' single band hardwood mill, 

 eight miles from West Branch, burned last week, 

 involving a loss of $8,000, with no insurance. 

 The mill was cutting for Albert Tow, who lost 

 lumber valued at $2,000. The mill was cutting 

 20.000 feet daily. 



The Richardson Lumber Company's single 

 band sawmill at Bay City will run through the 

 winter ten hours a day. The company has a hot 

 water pond, into which the logs, a train load 

 every day, which comes from the North, are 

 dumped. The plant is cutting about 60,000 feet 

 a day. 



The Mershon-Bacon Company, at Bay City, 

 manufacturer of box stuff from hardwood, is 

 erecting a new plant. The plant the company 

 has been operating is in one end of the planing 

 mill and inadequate to the development of the 

 company's business. The new plant will af- 

 ford adequate facilities for handling the in- 

 creased business, which has assumed propor- 

 tions of magnitude. 



Another industry that calls for a large quan- 

 tity of hardwood is that of the Woodworking 

 Company, engaged in the manufacture of hard- 

 wood skewers. The output is nearly a million 

 a day. The product is shipped all over the 

 world where skewers are utilized, recent orders 

 having been shipped to London, Liverpool, Glas- 

 .:?ow, Paris and other cities in Europe and Into 

 every state in this country. Hard maple, beech 

 and birch are the timbers used. The company 

 carries a stock for five years constantly on hand, 

 and it comes from northern Michigan. 



The s.iwmiii of the Churchill Lumber Com- 

 pany at Alpena is still in operation, but the 

 other three mills have shut down for the sea- 

 son. The mills have had a successful season 

 and the output will exceed 50,000,000 feet. 



M. D. Olds of Cheboygan has finished his log- 

 ging road from the mill down the shore into 

 Presque Isle county. He has over twelve miles 

 of main line and eight miles of branches fin- 

 ished and next spring extensions will be made. 

 The road will handle 75,000 feet of logs daily 

 from the woods to the mill and three camps of 

 his own and five jobbers will take the logs from 

 the tree and convert them into saw logs. Thret 

 steam loaders and skidders will be employed. 

 The sawmill will be operated through the win- 

 ter. 



The sawmill of the Embury-Martin Luml)cr 

 Company at Cheboygan will be operated during 

 the winter, cutting hardwood. 



The new band mill of the E. H. StaBford 

 Manufacturing Company at Sand Bay, Bois 

 Blanc Island, a few miles off Cheboygan, will 

 be completed and start operations early in the 

 year. It will have a capacity of 50,000 feet 

 daily, and the firm has an eight years' stock. 

 The product to a large extent will go to the 

 hardwood manufacturing plant of the owners at 

 Ionia, Mich. 



GRAND RAPIDS 



Gibbs. Hall & -Allen, Inc., have reopened offices 

 in the Murray building, after a short stay in 

 the Leonard building, and Secretary W. C. Hall 

 will give ills entire attention to the lumber busi- 

 ness again. He had been giving some time to 

 the Cookerette Company of this city, a concern 

 in which Gibbs. Hall & Allen are still interested, 

 but now returns to lumber again. A. Gibbs is 

 visiting the mills in the upper peninsula. 



S. P. Coppock of the S. P. Coppock & Sons 

 Lumber Company. Fort Wayne, was a recent 

 caller on the lumber trade here. 



Ed Ward of this city, a furniture salesman 

 for many years, is now interested with others 

 in a timber proposition in the upper peninsula. 



ITptegrove & Beckwith, mahogany and veneers, 

 have removed their warehouse from Muskegon 

 and Seventh streets to Court street and Shawmut 

 avenue, where they have a larger building and 

 better facilities for business. 



The flooring plant of the Nichols & Cox Lum- 

 ber Company is being operated on a twelve-hour 

 per day schedule and business prospects are ex- 

 cellent. The company will supply 400,000 feet 

 of maple flooring lor the new Wanamaker build- 



ing iu Philadelphia and has contracts also to 

 supply the new government buildings in Nortb 

 Chicago and in this city. 



The Lumberman's Club of Grand Rapids held 

 its monthly meeting December 1 at Bauman'g 

 new cafe rooms and an excellent dinner wa« 

 enjoyed by the members. Harry C. Angell of the 

 H. C. Angell Company presided in the absence 

 from the city of President Fred I. Nichols. 

 Transportation matters were taken up for dis- 

 cussion and the queries taken from the question 

 box proved an interesting feature as usual. The 

 club will hold its annual meeting in January. 



The forestry course at the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural college. Lansing, is proving popular, under 

 the direction of Prof. Baker. The seniors will 

 go to the lumber camps of the W. H. White 

 Lumber Company in Charlevoix county December 

 13 to spend ten days studying up-to-date lum- 

 bering methods in camp. An expert from the 

 United States Forest Service at Washington will 

 spend three days with the boys in camp, giving 

 them lectures on forest exports and products. 

 The White company is at present cutting sugar 

 maple, beech, elm, oak, hemlock and a little 

 white pine. 



The King Milling Company of Lowell will In- 

 stall a complete cooperage plant in that village. 



Hardwood Market. 



(By BA3D'WOOD BECOBD Exclnsive Market Reporters.) 



CHICAGO 



BUFFALO 



Local conditions in hardwoods are remarkably 

 good for this season of the year. Probably the 

 very mild weather has helped conditions in this 

 section materially, for certainly the yard trade 

 is very good indeed. There is every prospect 

 of a strong demand for hardwoods throughout 

 the winter, as there is a manifest shortage in 

 stocks among all the leading remanufacturers in 

 this market. 



Some items of oak, poplar, birch and maple 

 are in low supply and strong demand, but, gener- 

 ally speaking, there is a very fair stock in hands 

 of local operators. 



NEW YORK 



The hardwood market at New York shows an 

 improvement from the standpoint of consump- 

 tion, particularly among the local manufactur- 

 ing trade. The yards are also buying quite 

 freely and prices are much stronger all along 

 the line. The demand for good-grade stock is 

 holding its own and the grades less plentiful are 

 naturally very firm, with an upward tendency. 

 The market for good grades, however, has been 

 assured for so long a time that the salient fea- 

 ture of current conditions lies in the improved 

 demand for cheap lumber, and it has really been 

 very encouraging during the past fortnight to 

 note the increased demand for low-grade hard- 

 wood in many channels. The local manufactur- 

 ing trade seems to be receiving increased demand 

 for its product and in consequence is buying 

 more freely than for many months past, which, 

 together with the improvement in demand among 

 the yards for winter supplies, has given a strong 

 movement to hardwoods. 



The stocks most in call are plain and quar- 

 tered oak, birch, maple, chestnut and poplar. 

 In the better grades, stocks seem to be short 

 and the market generally is firm. There is a 

 feeling that good-grade lumber will take care 

 of itself very nicely under any conditions be- 

 tween now and spring, and that the low-grade 

 market therefore must of necessity be commensu- 

 rately improved in l>oth the matter of demand 

 and prices by reason of the scarcity of good- 

 grade lumber and its naturally higher values. 



It appears to be agreed among the city hard- 

 wood dealers that, though they are pretty well 

 stocked up as a whole, it is not easy to keep a 

 full assortment and it is not going to be easj 

 any longer. Customers are asking for odd or 

 unusual lengths and sizes. While the chief de- 

 mand in quartered oak is for inch and flve- 

 quarter, there is call for six and eight-quarter, 

 which most dealers cannot furnish offhand as 

 they used to. The general demand is rather 

 unsteady now, almost every dealer making a 

 different report, due to the near close of the 

 year, and though consumption is good, it does 

 not lead to buying unless some mill has run 

 short of this or that stock sooner than was 

 expected and must have it quick. Oak leads, as 

 usual, and a good supply of quartered would 

 not last long in this market. There is none 

 too much birch either and good poplar and 

 chestnut sell fast, but cherry and white ash 

 are still in their dull season. There is still an 

 ample supply of low grades in almost any wood. 

 The prices are pretty strong and would be 

 stronger but for some price-cutting reported re- 

 cently. It is believed by everyone that lumber 

 will be higher next year than it is now. Hard- 

 wood lumber is going up in the South, and the 

 Pacific coast is also putting its prices up now 

 against the coming demand of next year. It 

 would seem better policy to hold lumber than to 

 sell it at a forced price. 



PHILADELPHIA 



Business has been well sustained in all lines 

 during the last fortnight. The furniture fac- 

 tories in eastern Pennsylvania, the automobile 

 and carriage builders and the railroad and trol- 

 ley car shops are buying more freely. Prices 

 hold stiff in all good ends of hardwoods. Appar- 

 ently there is a sufficient demand for hardwoods 

 to absorb the present output of the mills, but 

 unfortunately complaints are coming in from all 

 sides of the difficulty of obtaining adequate cars 

 for required prompt shipments. Some of the 

 millmen, who have already sold close up to the 



