HARDWOOD RECORD 



21 



in a gooil mauy varieties «hieli is not being taken up by current 

 tieniands. 



Unilenialily more liardvrood lumber has been sliipped during the 

 first six months of 1910 than has been produced. The demand for 

 the greater part of this period has been excellent and it is only 

 during the last few weeks that there has been a material slackening 

 in trade. Fully one-half of the country's hardwoods are produced 

 in the lower Mississippi Valley, and logging conditions, owing to 

 hea\7- rain and wet ground, are in such shape there that a good 

 many operators have been forced to shut down their mills as logs 

 could not be gotten out of the woods. It is doubtful if more than 

 twenty-five per cent of the normal output is being maintained at the 

 present time, and it will be late this fall before sawing will again go 

 forward at full tide. 



This condition then promises little dry stock of good lumber in 

 the hands of manufacturers before next spring. Everything points 

 to a material shortage, and the buyer who is waiting for the low- 

 range of values of 1907 before placing his orders had better abandon 

 tliat foolish liope. Prices will be higher before they are lower. 



Crop Conditions 



Due to the unholy desire of the railroads to show in what liard 

 lines they are at the present time and how dark are their prospects, 

 numerous canards have been issued during the last month showing 

 the woeful state of crop conditions the country over, as a result of 

 which the railroads anticipate but a small tonnage from crop move- 

 ment. 



Experts have made a close analysis of crops during the last few- 

 weeks, and authpritative deductions show that outside of the Dakotas 

 and the extreme Northwest where spring wheat is only about fifty 

 per cent of the average, crops generally the country over are way 

 above normal, and on the whole are going to be large. Texas crops 

 are the biggest in history. The same is tnie of Oklahoma, and there 

 are no bad reports coming in from any of the great grain-producing 

 sections. On top of this, prices are ranging high and certainly there 

 is going to be no dearth of money in the hands of American farmers. 



European crop conditions are only fair, outside of the chief grain- 

 producing section of Eussia, where they are excellent. European 

 countries are going to have little grain to export this year and every- 

 thing points from the crop situation to a good market for all com- 

 modities for mouths to come. 



Forest Fires 



While no single fire has resulted in any vast property loss in the 

 country thus far, it is surprising that this recrudescence of disaster 

 should come so early in the year. It is accounted for in some meas- 

 ure by the fact that it has been a very dry spring. However, the 

 total losses in Wisconsin up to date this year are estimated at 

 approximately three million dollars, of which one million dollars is in 

 the territory north of Chippewa Falls, a million dollars in the 

 Marinette district and a like amount in the -vicinity of Wausau. 

 Twenty of the seventy-oiie counties of Wisconsin have suffered from 

 forest fires this year. Five mills have been destroyed, witli an 

 average loss of .$100,000 each. 



A considerable number of minor fires have also ranged in the 

 state of Michigan, and it was only by strenuous work that the town 

 6f Grayling escaped. 



It is h#ped the rain that has prevailed over nearly all the lake state 

 region during the last week will be a check on this serious jnenace 

 to life and property. 



The Usual English Way 



Apparently the British trade press is familiar with American 

 methods of doing business and with American progress, especially 

 among the lumber trade, only from such insight as it manages to 

 get through the rank and file of the English timber merchants. An 

 article in a certain English lumber publication epitomizes this lack 

 of knowledge of conditions as they actually are, and shows the 

 tendency on the part of our English brothers to pick out the worst 



as the average level of trade morality. They do not seem capable 

 of realizing that while, as in all lines of business in every country 

 under the sun, there are certain firms doing a business merely on the 

 gullibility and lack of business sense in others, this class is far out- 

 numbered by the other which stands for strictly honest methods 

 abroad as well as among the home trade. That the British buyers 

 do not take enough interest in their atfairs to investigate the rating 

 and reiiutation of American firms lx>fore placing orders, they have 

 only themselves to blame. 



The following is a partial rcproiliu-tion of the complaint as jiriiited 

 in the journal referred to: 



"American Methods. — British timlier agents and importers have on 

 many occasions good cause not only to grumble about, but to declare 

 they have been swindled out of their money by certain lumber ship- 

 pers in various American ports, timber often being sent (and for 

 which shippers have drawn the money before it has been received 

 on this side) which on arrival has turned out to be of a very low 

 grade, and far from what the shipper, according to his contract, ought 

 to have supplied. We should have thought, seeing that there are 

 about 5,000 lumber associations of one description and another in the 

 States, that between picnicing, guzzling, and Hoo-Hoo tomfoolery, 

 horseplay concatenations, at least an hour or two could be profitably 

 spent by the members in weeding their ranks. ' ' 



Of course the accusation is ridiculous on the face of it and indi- 

 cates a narroiv scope of business -i-ision. At the same time it might 

 serve as a warning to the American trade that inasmuch as the 

 English merchants have sufi'ered through their own dilatory methods, 

 it might be wise for the shippers on this side to do a little in- 

 vestigating on their own account before shipping to new customers 

 abroad. There is as much chance for business corruption even in 

 staid old England as in hustling America. 



What Log Run Means 



The purchase of log run hnulnT in liardwuods is made by people 

 who desire to assort it into grade or to cut it up into furniture or 

 other material. It therefore comes about that the general acceptance 

 of the term log run is the full run of the log with all boards ex- 

 cluded that will not cut fifty per cent sound cuttings, except walnut 

 and cherry which take a minimum of thirty-three and a third per 

 cent of sound cuttings. This is in accordance with the interpretation 

 of the term made by the Hardwood Manufacturers' Association. 

 Therefore, inasmuch as Ko. 3 common in certain grades requires at 

 least fifty per cent of sound cutting and other woods require fifty 

 per cent of sound cutting only in No. L' common, the Hardwood 

 Manufacturers' Association has issued the following table indicative 

 of the grades that are comprised in a sale of log run lumber: 



Ash. So. 3 common and better. 



Basswood. No. 3 common and better. 



Beech, No. .'! common and better. 



Birch, No. 3 common and better. 



BiJekeye, No. 3 common and better. 



Butternut, No. 3 comm.on and better. 



Cherry, No. 3 common and better. 



Chestnut, No. 2 common and better. 



Cottonwood, No. 2 common and better. 



Elm — soft, No. 3 common and better. 



Elm — reck. No. 2 common and better. 



Gum, No. 2 common and better. 



Hickory and pecan. No. 3 common and better. 



Maple, No. 3 common and better. 



Maple — .soft, No. 2 common and better. 



Oak — plain, No. 3 common and better. 



Oak — quartered. No. 3 common and better. 



Poplar, No. 3 common and better. 



Sycamore — plain, No. 3 common and better. 



Sycamore — quartered. No. 3 common and better. 



Walnut, No. 3 common and better. 



The lower grade out of log run would not be suitable for cutting 

 up purposes for furniture or finish, and would be adaptable only for 

 box, crating or sheathing uses. The association finds that some sales 

 have recently been made for log run shipments where only No. 2 

 common and better in woods like bassw-ood, ash, birch, beech, elm 

 and oak were loaded out, when as a matter of fact the.se shipments 

 should have been made on the basis of No. 3 and better. 



