42 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



wife the sight of her pretty tile walls hacked 

 and cracked in all directions, and bedecked 

 on the outside with the ugliest of lead pipe ; 

 nor of mopping the entire room after each 

 bath, because the bulk of the water from 

 the short faucets in the wall seeks the floor 

 through the crack between wall and tub! 



With these matters the exporter has nothing 

 whatever to do. It is clearly a case of ' ' His 

 not to reason why — his but to do or die. ' ' 



Again, American manufacturers are noted 

 for their careless marking of shipments of all 

 kinds, plastering them over with unnecessary 

 and unintelligible figures, such as names and 

 numbers of factory, trade-marks, measure- 

 ments, sizes, etc., instead of the one thing 

 necessary, viz., weights, mark and number, 

 as given in bill of lading. They are usually 

 put on in such a fantastic style that they 

 more nearly resemble the ancient hierogly- 

 phics, so that the easy-going custom house 

 workmen are quite warranted in saying they 

 cannot find the marks; and thus delivery is 

 retarded perhap.s a month or two, until one 

 day they are divined by somebody, quite ac- 

 cidentally! All of which is highly annoying 

 to the buyer, especially when he is urgently 

 in need of the goois, and has before him 

 examples of the artistic packing and marking 

 with stencils done by Germany, for instance — 

 facilitating in no small degree pi'ompt de- 

 livery of the goods, and in fine condition. 



One of the most frequent and serious 

 complaints, heard on every side, is the great 

 delay before receipt of many shipments from 

 the States. An American manufacturer may 

 accept an export order for prompt delivery, 

 but should the domestic market suddenly 

 pick up, he will perhaps shelve it until quite 

 convenient to fill — which may be six months 

 or more! Worse still, goods which have 

 turned out defective, or which have been re- 

 fused by a domestic buyer, are often palmed 

 off on some distant exporter, with the idea 

 that by the time he finds it out payment will 

 have been made and distance is so great that 

 negotiations for claim will not be very lively. 

 In many instances where no deceit is in- 

 tended, quality for some reason or other is 

 not up to standard. It would seem that 

 manufacturers might realize the importance 

 of paying special attention to goods intended 

 for export, not only because negotiations at 

 a distance and by translation from one lan- 

 guage into another are difficult — but lest they 

 themselves suffer heavy loss through well- 

 grounded claims ; and goods left on one 's 

 hands in a foreign country prove very trouble- 

 some of disposal. 



The writer observed some American opera 

 chairs in one of the theaters recently, which 

 had been in use less than five months. The 

 bottoms were composed of layers of 

 basswood, inserted under the framework 

 surrouuding the seat. Already the bot- 

 toms on many have swollen and sagged 

 away from their frames, which apparently 

 confined only a very narrow margin of the 

 wood, and by means of glue probably poorly 



applied. Naturally, when a certain stage is 

 reached, the thin layers of wood split into 

 strips and hang down, permitting a corre- 

 sponding sinking of the leather upholstery 

 above. Each seat has to be reinforced here 

 at a cost of $1.50, and new ones are breaking 

 down every day! The disgust of the pro- 

 prietor may easily be imagined. 



Such instances are by no means rare, and 

 get noised about very quickly; in fact, they 

 liappen so frequently that buyers are exceed- 

 ingly wary of Americans and things Amer- 

 ican, while in many houses the word is a 

 synonym for error! Not only do they work a 

 great hardship on buyers and prevent the 

 manufacturer who perpetrates them from get- 

 ting further business, but they arouse new 

 antagonism and prejudice for the really seri- 

 ous and careful exporter to overcome. That 

 there are a few of this description in the 

 States is evidenced by the fact that the han- 

 dle trade, for instance, is practically con- 

 trolled by a well-known concern, which has 

 the reputation of always furnishing high- 

 grade stock of the desired patterns, and its 

 goods are therefore always in demand. The 

 same may be said of the trade in axes, and 

 one firm has the bulk of demand in South 

 America. Again, the popular logging ma- 

 chinery is that furnished by a well-known 

 New York house, whose trade is rapidly 

 growing with the development of the timber 

 industry, and who will undoubtedly have the 

 future call for this apparatus, owing to the 

 satisfaction which its product is giving. 



Another source of annoyance is that the 



majority of manufacturers supply their agents 

 with too little printed matter — catalogues, 

 posters, etc., and what they do supply is 

 usually in English, which is absurd on the 

 face of it! While in many cases there are 

 people in an Argentine business house who 

 understand English well — nevertheless they 

 may not be connected with the department 

 in which printed matter would be most used. 

 As to explanations of illustrations, types and 

 functions — to say nothing of directions for 

 setting up complicated machines, etc. — it is 

 ridiculous to suppose that because one or 

 more persons in the house have a knowledge 

 of English, they are to be called upon to 

 translate every time recourse is had to any 

 printed matter; nor may their knowledge ex- 

 tend to technical terms; and certainly work- 

 men and artisans whose advice may be very 

 valuable in placing orders, and who will han- 

 dle the goods when received, are not usually 

 linguists. Incidentally, many a house has 

 been known to send quantities of Spanish 

 advertising matter to Buenos Aires and Eio 

 Janiero as well, evidently not knowing that 

 the language of Brazil is not Spanish, but 

 Portuguese ! 



If manufacturers are to get anything like 

 their share of the trade, they must eliminate 

 all the egotism and ridiculous notions cited, 

 and remedy these serious faults which result 

 in dissatisfaction to both exporter and im- 

 porter, and make the ability to decry Amer- 

 ican methods and excellent stock in trade for 

 the more accommodating and hence successful 

 European competitors. A. E. G. 



Comparison of Sluarter=saWing 



Methods 



There aj-e scarcely two experts on the 

 quarter-sawing of oak logs who will agree 

 exactly as to the best methods of sawing. The 

 head of one large oak-manufacturing institu- 

 tion has made repeated tests of various sys- 

 tems, and has repeatedly employed the meth- 

 ods illustrated in the two diagrams accom- 

 panying this article. 



In the method illustrated in Figure No. 1 

 the log is split one side of the heart, and 

 the minor portion dropped onto the log deck. 

 Four to seven or eight boards are then cut 

 through the center of the log; the half sec- 

 tion is again split in halves, and the quarter 

 thrown onto the deck. The remaining quar- 

 ter is then sawn; then the half section is 

 split and the same process ensues. Many ad- 

 vocates of this system contend that a larger 

 amount of wide stock, and less waste results 

 than by any other means. 



In the second method, illustrated in Figure 

 No. 2, the log is split absolutely in the center 

 and the half dropped onto the log deck and 

 each half is sawn witTiout removal from the 

 carriage. 



The gentleman referred to has made re- 

 peated tests of these two methods and his de- 



duction is that method No. 2 affords the 

 best net result in quality and economy of 

 time in sawing. These results are indicated 

 in the following tables and show Tery closely 

 what has been achieved in scores of tests. It 

 will be noted that the prices shown are lower 

 than the present average values on quarter- 

 sawed stock, but the comparison is just as 

 valuable. 



METHOD NO. 1. 



