HARDWOOD RECORD 



for its owner as the same rig pushed hard for count and cutting 

 a half more feet in the same length of time. 



The one looking carefully after his balance sheet while conserving 

 his resources, tlie other striving to make a good report to his com- 

 pany in feetage pushed through the saw. 



Tliis is not an exaggeration, or overdrawn statement, but there 

 are plenty of the latter class of mills in every producing territory. 



Further as to hardwoods, in the not far-distant future, much 

 sooner than we now think, edgers and trimmers will not occupy 

 the important position on the sawmill floor of the hardwood mills 

 as they do to-day, and slashers will be in oblivion. But, rather most 

 logs, e.Kcept for special uses, will be flitched only, and sent to the 

 work shop likely not far distant, where all taper and wane edge 

 will be utilized to its full width, and defects cut out without waste. 



This is not dreaming, but is being successfully applied to-day in 

 all European countries where logs are being manufactured, and 

 even in tliis country to-day, to some extent, in our more valuable 

 hardwoods. 



Xow if you will bear with me just a minute, let us look at the 

 other side of the picture. 



As stated, the question of forestry is of but very recent origin in 

 the United States. First Congress in the city of Cincinnati in 1882 

 as referred to, and nothing done, not even brought to public notice 

 until the administration of President Cleveland, so with com- 

 mendable pride and true American spirit we have accomplished as 

 much in these few years as any other nation would attempt in a 

 century. 



At first we needed the land cleared for farming, now conditions 

 have changed as stated, so that while we need and badly need more 

 farming we do not necessarily need more farming land, and while 

 we are teaching, preaching, and practicing conservation .niong our 

 individual industrial lines, let us also be as much interested in and 

 teach what is known to-day as intensive farming. Whereby as much 

 can be produced from one acre as is now gathered from ten. This 

 with a view of being able to feed our stock in the woods, while 

 logging grain at a fair price, and thus also eliminate the necessity 

 of a meat boycott. 



This committee beg leave then to recommend that this asso- 

 ciation resolve to teach and preach intensive farming, also con- 

 servation, to treat fire as a crime ( crime of ignorance, crime of 

 carelessness, crime of arson), and above all and beyond all, 

 resolve, to never increase capacity. 



The president next introduced B. F. Masters, of the National As- 

 sociation of Box Manufacturers, who delivered the following ex- 

 cellent address on "Wooden Packages": 



WOODEN PACKAGES 



One day last week Mr. Doster, your secretary, notified me 

 through the kindness of Mr, Defebaiigh, our secretary, that I had 

 been obligated to present a paper to this meeting. This is the first 

 intimation that I have had. You will therefore appreciate that I 

 am somewhat surprised to find my name on this program along with 

 others. I can not help but feel that the committee might have 

 given me a little intimation of what was expected. * * * In 

 response to Mr. Postern's request I dictated a letter to him. I will 

 read that letter to you as a basis for my remarks, something like 

 reading an obituary perhaps, as I have never sent the letter to 

 him. 



The history of the lumber business begins with the history of 

 the world. From the dawn of creation through all the advancing 

 years of civilization, from the experience of our ancestor with the 

 fruit of the apple tree, and from the building of the ark down to 

 the present d.iy, the progression of the human race has marked the 

 progression and development of the lumber industry. 



Linked with this industry through the influence of, civilization 

 and its attendant necessity for the transjiortation of goods and 

 products from one place to another, we find the business of the box 

 manufacturers. Both have gone on and on. hand in hand, through 

 the evolution of the ages, and today we find them just as indis- 

 pensable to the development of our civilization and indeed to each 

 other as ever before. 



Therefore, the relations between them should be most cordial 

 and there should be cultivated a spirit of cooperation. We can 

 not liken them to that of the buyer and seller nor the producer 

 and consumer, for the box manufacturer is not the ultimate con- 

 sumer, but really an assistant to the lumber manufacturer, and 

 carries the manufacturing process to a little higher degree of per- 

 fection. Their interests are in the main identical and their opera- 

 tions should be along cooperative lines, having in view mutual ad- 

 vantages for both classes. Box manufacturers are, beyond doubt, 

 the best customers lumber manufacturers have. It is estimated 

 that the box manufacturing interests of the country consume an- 

 nually six thous.'ind million feet of stock, which is "from 1.5 to 20 

 per cent of the annual output of lumber of all kinds. With the 

 growing industries of our great country and the natural and con- 

 tinued increase in the use of packages for various purposes, this 

 amount would naturally increase under favorable or even ordi- 



nary conditions. Instead of an increase, however, the box manu- 

 facturer has suffered severe loss in the volume of his business 

 brought about by the substitution of jjackages of various sorts 

 other than those made of lumber. We wish to impress upon him that 

 they are primarily the cause of this great loss of trade through 

 the invasion whiidi has so visibly affected the interests of the box 

 manufacturers and which in turn produces a sluggish market for 

 low grades of all kinds. 



It has been remarked that the price of lumber, like that of any 

 other commodity, is regulated by the law of supply and demand, 

 but I am forced to say that the propriety of all such laws has been 

 overstepped to some extent by the lumber manufacturers and that 

 in many instances they have been prompted by a feeling which 

 must be termed akin to avarice. 



Low Grade Stock 



About ten years ago low grades of lumber began to advance 

 and continued to do so at an enormous rate up to the last two or 

 three years. During that period the box manufacturer was 

 scarcely able to keep pace with the continued advance in lumber, 

 but was forced to advance the price of his product to his cus- 

 tomer to cover an ever increasing cost of lumber, to say nothing 

 of the additional cost of manufacturing incident to the poorer 

 grades of lumber that the manufacturers began turning out for the 

 box trade. This continued advance in the price of the product 

 of the box manufacturer made it possible for substitute packages 

 to get ,a footing; shippers are always anxious to economize in 

 anything pertaining to their packing departments, which under 

 any and all circumstances is piureh' an expense item. Boxes are 

 never bought and sold because of their intrinsic value. They are 

 alwa^-s an expense item and one of the first things to be considered 

 in the interests of economy by those who are obliged to use them; 

 therefore the .substitute package, so far as it can be adopted, has 

 been welcomed by shippers everywhere. 



The prices of lumber have not been the only thing with which 

 the box manufacturer has been obliged to contend. The grades 

 have been made harder and harder, year after year, until the box 

 manufacturer is obliged to buy higher grades of stock than for- 

 merly. A few years ago a box common grade was very much 

 better than the No. 2 common of today, and contained suflicient 

 clear cuttings for practicall.y all the diversified sizes and styles 

 of boxes that we are called upon to furnish. This is not true of 

 grades today and we are obliged to purchase a certain quantity of 

 No. 1 common in order to secure lumber of sufficient qualitj- to use 

 in certain classes of jiackages. There are some boxes that must be 

 made with one-piece ends, others that must have one-piece sides, 

 and in boxes requiring widths of stock from 10 to 13 inches it 

 is imposible to get sufficient stock out of No. 2 of a quality suit- 

 able to make one-piece ends and sides. This deterioration in grades 

 and the continued inclination to make the stock poorer have added 

 an increased cost to the manufacture of boxes. A very great part 

 of the expense of manufacturing low grade stock is put in on the 

 board before we begin the process of eliminating defects. The lum- 

 ber must be surfaced, resawed and in many cases ripped, but the 

 real process of cutting out the defects takes place after it has 

 gone through all these processes, and upon the basis of 2.5 per cent 

 waste, only on an assumed basis, the box manufacturer is obliged 

 to practically manufacture one thousand feet of lumber with a net 

 result of 7.50 feet. In other words, the expense of manufacturing 

 is practically as great as applied to the waste as it is to the finished 

 product. It may easily be seen that if this rule be carried suf- 

 ficiently far we might arrive at a grade of lumber which we could 

 not afford to use in our box factories if it were given to us for 

 nothing. 



There seem to have been efl'orts made to standardize the grades 

 of all kinds of hardwood lumber with the apparent intention of 

 simplifying matters or making the rules less liable to misinterpreta- 

 tions, but it does not seem that these changes in grades have been 

 made with proper consideration for the sizes of good cuttings re- 

 quired by box manufacturers. Indeed, the interests of the box 

 manufacturer have not been considered and, if you will pardon 

 frankness, the entire matter seems to have been prompted by the 

 same desire referred to in the beginning as the power impelling all 

 lumbermen in the matter of grades and prices. The lumber manu- 

 facturers must get away from the idea that anything is good 

 enough for boxes, and must work to the eiid that their grades of 

 lumber for the box manufacturer be based upon his requirements 

 and not entirely upon a principle that will dispose of a lot of stock 

 that is practically worthless. 



Substitute Packages 



It may be seen frozn what has been said regarding the advance 

 in the price of lumber and decline in value of the grades that the 

 last two or three years have been most favorable for the introduc- 

 tion of substitute' packages. Shippers have been greatly favored 

 and assisted in their introduction by the railroad companies, 

 through whose generosity they have been permitted to ship prac- 

 tically all classes of merchandise without consideration for the 



