HARDWOOD RECORD 



97 



company gets its logs from off the line of the 

 Mackinaw division of the Michigan Central. 



C. A. Bigelow is taking an auto trip to Atlan- 

 tic City and thence to New England and the 

 White mountains. 



The South Branch Lumber Company, in which 

 S. L. Eastman is largely concerned, has been 

 extending its logging road to reach some timber 

 recently acquired. The mill of the company 

 at Goodar. Ogemaw county, on the Kose City 

 division of the Detroit & Mackinac railway, is 

 turning out over 50,000 feet of hardwood lumber 

 daily. 



GRAND RAPIDS 



The Nichols & Cox Lumber Company has 

 bought three acres of land on Godfrey avenue 

 and will cover the ground with sheds for the 

 storage of hardwood lumber. 



Chas. A. Phelps left for Vancouver, B. C, 

 August IS on business connected with the Mich- 

 igan-Pacific and the Michigan-Puget Sound com- 

 panies. A syndicate of English capitalists is 

 negotiating for the purchase of the timber hold- 

 ings of the two companies. 



Chas. W. Garfield, of this city, president of 

 the Michigan Forestry Association, has been 

 appointed by Governor Warner as one of the 

 delegates to the National Conservation Congress, 

 to be held in St. Paul, September 6-9. 



"Two of our mills near Dighton are running," 

 says A. L. Dennis, of the Dennis Brothers Salt 

 & Lumber Company." and we shall cut about 

 10,000,000 feet of lumber, hardwood and hem- 

 lock, and 8,000.000 feet of maple flooring. Our 

 jobbing business, which was started this year, 

 is also developing nicely." 



The week opening August 22 was observed 

 as Home Coming week in Grand Rapids, and 

 prospects indicate big crowds and a great cele- 

 bration. Thursday will be a civic holiday, with 

 factories closed and general business suspended. 



Final review of the recent fire loss of the 

 Gibbs, Hall & Allen Company in the upper penin- 

 sula shows that about 200,000 feet of birch, 

 four-quarter and thicljer, were burned. The 

 loss was covered by insurance. Secretary Hall, 

 of the company, who has been out on the road 

 for a couple of weeks, says that while trade 

 is about as usual, the prospects for fall busi- 

 ness are good. 



PHILADELPHIA 



1 



Hardwood Market. 



(By BA3DWOOD SECOKD Ezclnsive IIa,rket BepoxterB.) 



CHICAGO 



The hand-to-moulh buying which has charac- 

 terized the Chicago trade for the last couple of 

 months, is crystallizing gradually but surely 

 into what the local lumbermen are pleased to 

 call a very fair fall trade. There is evident 

 almost everywhere an increase in confidence, 

 not only in the volume of sales, but in the 

 ability of the buyers to dispose of what they 

 have already manufactured and to purchase 

 more raw material. There is everywhere a 

 tendency to more promptly meet statements, a 

 condition which is always encouraging, especially 

 in the lumber business. 



There has been no evident increase in the 

 output of the car building plants, and a conse- 

 quent slackening in the demand for both pine 

 and hardwood car material lias followed. It is 

 not at all likely that the car builders will be in 

 any position to take their normal supply for 

 some time in the future. The factory trade 

 is slightly more encouraging than when last 

 quoted. Low grades are selling fairly well, but 

 there seems to be a plentiful supply of upper 

 grade stock on hand. 



Dimension stock is slow and gives no promise 

 of increasing sales. Box manufacturers are 

 taking low grades of Cottonwood and poplar in 

 fair quantities and have given the handlers of 

 this class of wood encouragement as to the 

 future. Box boards, on the other hand, are 

 slacking up slightly as to sales, and there is 

 no doubt but there will be a falling off in the 

 value of wide poplar. Representatives of cer- 

 tain northern mills state that they have ex- 

 perienced as much as a $30 decrease in poplar 

 panels for automobile bodies. Inasmuch as 

 several automobile concerns have gone to the 

 wall in the past couple of months, and others 

 are curtailing their output in all lines, it seems 

 as though the limit had about been reached 

 in 'this particular. 



Plain red oak is still being taken more gener- 

 ously than any other line of stock, quartered 

 white oak is maintaining its usual popularity 

 with a slight indication to give concessions for 

 certain attractive sales. Lower grades of oak 

 are far ahead of the demand, and shipments 

 are being stopped in a good many cases. 



Wagon and carriage manufacturers and the 

 makers of implements and handles are calling 

 for upper grades of hickory and ash and are 

 about using the normal supply. Lower grades 



are still a drug on the market and a sale is a 

 comparative exception. 



Red gum as usual continues to lead. Its con- 

 sumption in all lines and noticeably for veneer 

 is steadily increasing. The last government re- 

 port showed that gum veneer production was 

 about three times as much as the next nearest 

 competing wood. 



Cypress as usual is steady, but not as active 

 as the manufacturers and salesmen would desire. 

 However, its popularity as a building wood is a 

 material help and tends to keep sales up to a 

 satisfactory figure. Those stocks which a short 

 time ago were plentiful, are cleaned up and are 

 being replenished by new lines of dried lumber, 

 and the large stocks are about cut down to the 

 proper comparative quantities. There have been 

 no indications of general concessions in price. 

 All kinds of building lumber are selling satis- 

 factorily. This is specially true of flooring. 

 Thick maple flooring for factory purposes and 

 also better grades for fiats and dwellings are 

 selling about as fast as manufactured, with a 

 very fair level as to price. The upper grades 

 of northern birch and maple are fair sellers. 

 Elm is at the present time slow. Very good 

 prices prevail on the majority of the better 

 stocks of northern products. 



NEW YORK 



There have been no unexpected developments 

 as to business conditions during the fortnight. 

 The midsummer season is always accepted as a 

 lax period and minds are bent largely on best 

 improving the forced hiatus, for recreation and 

 relaxation. However, reports show that business 

 has been satisfactory. A spirit of optimism pre- 

 vails generally, and prosperity is scented from 

 afar. Mill end stocks are light, especially in 

 the better ends of hardwoods, and prices hold 

 firm. Unfortunately a car shortage is soon to 

 he reckoned with, it is predicted. Re-manufac- 

 turers are gradually adding to their working 

 staff and stocks are being depleted, but buying 

 continues conservative. 



A fair amount of stock is moving in the 

 wholesale and retail markets, more especially in 

 good lumber, and prices are being well main- 

 tained. There is a growing feeling that oak, 

 ash and maple will be scarce this fall and par- 

 ticularly so if market consumption develops as 

 it bids fair to at this time. The yards also seem 

 to be moving some stock, but this is the season 

 when trade generally eases off preparatory to 

 the fall opening. It is expected that there will 

 be a material improvement of a satisfactory 

 nature as the fall advances. The piano and fur- 

 niture manufacturing trade complain of inability 

 to market their products and that, of course, 

 holds up lumber consumption, but they are look- 

 ing for a better market within the next sixty 

 days, whicli will again start up local consump- 

 tion. The salient feature of the present condi- 

 tion is that with the opening of anything like 

 a normal demand for hardwoods this fall there 

 will be sharp skirmishes for stock, particularly 

 good lumber, and manufacturers should not be 

 misled into selling their present; holdings at 

 anything but top prices. 



PITTSBURG 



Conditions in the Pittsburg hardwood market 

 are not materially changed. The demand is 

 somewhat stronger this month, although there 

 still seems to be a waiting disposition on the 

 part of prospective buyers. They either want 

 lower prices or they are a little uncertain as 

 to how the industrial situation is going to loom 

 up in the fall. Orders are being kept down to 

 actual current needs as near as possible. How- 

 ever, in some lines there are marked evidences 

 of improvement. The trolley and telephone com- 

 panies are larger and more steady buyers. Small 

 factories manufacturing furniture, handles, etc., 

 are getting in larger stocks in order to be pre- 

 pared for a good winter's run. Some more buy- 

 ing has also been done by the railroads. Stocks 

 of hardwoods at the mills are generally reported 

 fair and in many cases low. On this account 

 prices hold well for all the better grades and 

 the tendency is toward higher quotations. 



BOSTON 



There has been an absence of activity in the 

 market for hardwood lumber for some little time. 

 This is generally the case 'during the two sum- 

 ber months, but dealers look for an improvement 

 during the coming month. As a rule the first 

 of September is looked upon as the time when 

 business should revive. Manufacturing consum- 

 ers have been operating their plants in a fairly 

 active way in some cases, but the majority have 

 been complaining of quiet business. In the fur- 

 niture trade a few factories have appeared to be 

 busy, but demand for lumber has. not indicted 

 that this branch of business has been as good 

 as usual. Prices have been held on a high level 

 for several months and because of this the de- 

 mand has not been as large as it otherwise 

 would have been. It has been difficult to in- 

 terest buyers in more than small lots. In some 

 cases during the past few weeks, a little easier 

 tone has developed, but dealers believe that 

 this will disappear as soon as business improves. 



The call for quartered oak is quiet. Plain oak 

 is not selling as freely as it did. but prices hold 

 steady. There has been more inquiry for birch 

 and the demand is considered very fair for this 

 time of the year. This lumber has been used 

 as a substitute for ash and a larger call is an- 

 ticipated later in the year. Maple is fairly firm 

 with a fair inquiry. There has been a good 

 business done in maple and demand is expected 

 to show an increase a little later. 



BALTIMORE 



While the hardwood trade is without decided 

 changes as compared with the past month or 

 more, a better feeling seems to have set In. A 

 better inquiry is reported in various divisions of 

 the trade and prices show a tendency to move 



