NOTES AND COMMENTS 799 



While this enterprise is not a very large one, it is commendable and 

 hopeful in its results. 



B. E. F. 



At a meeting of the National Lumber Manufacturers' Association, 

 held June 20, 1917, a new form of organization was effected which is 

 designed to bring about a greater degree of co-operation among the 

 regional lumber associations which comprise its membership. In the 

 future the secretary's office will issue to trade journals a monthly re- 

 port of the activities of the National Association, in the belief that 

 these activities are of general interest to all branches of the industry. 

 Statistical information collected by the association will be distributed 

 through the affiliated secretaries as heretofore. A regular monthly 

 bulletin will also be issued. An assessment of three-fourths of one 

 cent per 1,000 feet instead of a voluntary subscription, as has been 

 the custom heretofore, will provide about $100,000 annually for as- 

 sociation work. The field of work now outlined includes trade ex- 

 tension, legislation, national market information, and association co- 

 operation. Some interesting facts in regard to trade extension have 

 been brought out in this connection, namely, that in the consumption 

 of 80 per cent of southern pine and Douglas fir the buyer has no 

 thought or intention of using other than southern pine or Douglas fir, 

 but the remaining 20 per cent is sold under competitive conditions in 

 the territory between Iowa and New York, and while 15 per cent of 

 this trade is probably converted to the use of some wood, the remain- 

 ing 5 per cent must be persuaded to use wood instead of some other 

 construction material. It is this 5 per cent that national trade extension 

 attempts to secure. This necessitates both defending wood as a con- 

 struction material and also increasing its use. In this field the National 

 Association is concerned in the development of the markets of wood 

 as a whole, leaving to sectional associations the advertising of a given 

 species. 



The National Hardwood Lumber Association, on June 15, 191 7, 

 adopted a revised set of rules for grading cypress lumber, which are 

 to a large extent in conformity with the standard rules of the Southern 

 Cypress Manufacturers' Association. The former cypress rules of the 

 association had become antiquated and did not meet the needs of the 

 trade. 



