14 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



SHORTAGE OF COOPERAGE LOGS. 



Reference was made recently to the shut- 

 ting down of the Standard Hoop Co.'s fac- 

 tory at Bay City by reason of a shortage of 

 timber. This is 'a cotnmoii complaint. J. T. 

 Wylie, one of the largest manufacturers of 

 cooperage stock in the west, says that there 

 i were not one-half the amount of logs gotten 

 out for cooperage stock last winter as there 

 has been in the past. In fact, all of the mills 

 are very short on stock, and if there is any 

 fruit at all prices should advance very ma- 

 terially. There is about the same amount of 

 cooperage stoc^k" being used today as there 

 was the last few years, but, as lath is bring- 

 ing such a good price, most all of the saw 

 mills arc making lath instead of staves, as in 

 the past. 



The Goldie Manufacturing Company is run- 

 ning steadily and putting out about 50,000 

 hoops a day, but the company only secured 

 about half a stock last winter. 



Roadway, Jamestown Exposition. 



TO LUMBER IN MISSISSIPPI. 



The Gilchrist-Fonlney Company is the name 

 of a Michigan corporation that has filed articles 

 with the secretary of state, and it is organized 

 for the purpose of engaging in the lumber busi- 

 ness in Mississippi and ether southern states. 

 . The authorized capital is $1,200,000. The com- 

 pany has purchased the interests of the Kingston 

 Lumber Company, operating at Laurel, Miss. 

 The Kingston company has been in full opera- 

 tion for some time, and owned a first-class saw 

 mill with a capacity of 150,000 feet a day, which 

 the new company takes over, together with about 

 50,000 acres of timber land estimated to cut up- 

 wards of 400,000,000 feet of merchantable logs. 

 'The timber is generally long and short leaf pine. 

 There is some valuable hardwood. 

 ' The new company assumes control of the plant 

 nt once. ;md Mr. Fordney has left Saginaw for 

 Mississippi, Within the last few months he has 

 spent somewhat extended periods in Mississippi 

 twice. The ether members of the company ha\e 

 i on the ground and the Gilchrists -are well 

 up in the lumbering lui-iness in the south. In 111.4 

 licavy owners in the Throe States. Lumber Com- 

 pany, operating in MU-,i-sipi;i. '1 he stockholders 

 >f the GiVhrist-Fi.rdncy Comnanv are: I". W. 

 Ciilchri-.t and three sons, A. W. Gilchrist, Frank 

 C-iilehrM a;-d R-iHi Gilchrist, Al-ena. and J. W. 

 Ford-icy, c I Saginaw. It is underwood that A. 

 W. (iilchriM Tind Frank Gilchrist will take t In- 

 active management of the business. 



LATH IN BIG DEMAND. 



Owing to the active demand and' good prices 

 which have prevailed the last two years for 

 lath the building and operation of the mills 

 has been greatly stimulated. The M. Garland 

 Manufacturing Company, of Bay City, has 

 been overwhelmed with orders for lath mills 

 for more than a year, and has put out a large 

 number of them. All through the northern 

 part of the lower peninsula north of Bay Citv 

 and north of the straits, lath mills have been 

 Tut in wherever timber that can be converted 

 into lath can be obtained. 



In the early days when white pine was king 

 in eastern Michigan lath mills were operated 

 in connection with saw mills, and the slabs 

 from the logs were covered into lath. From 

 186(5 to 1891 inclusive, there was manufac- 

 tured in the mills of the Saginaw river no 

 less than 1,076,000,000 pieces of lath, the high- 

 est output in any one year in that period 

 being 153,000,000 pieces in 1894. When the 

 manufacture of pine lumber dwindled down 

 the manufacture of lath fell off. In 1891 they 

 sold at $1.50 to $1.75, and for many years the 

 price of pine lath ranged from $1.25" to $2.00 

 a thousand pieces. 



At the present time hemlock is largely used 

 in (lie manufacture of lath. Today lath are 

 quoted at $"> to $7 a thousand, and the trade 

 is taking all that are" offered and calling for 

 more. Many of the piles on which docks 



were built on the river at the saw mill sites 

 years ago, were pulled when the mills shut, 

 down and have been converted into lumber 

 and lath. And it is so at other places 



MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP FAILS. 



The present endeavor of Syracuse, X. V.. In 

 determine whether to install an electric lighting 

 plant of its own or to continue to secure light 

 from a private company has resulted in a general 

 and careful inquiry regarding municipal owner- 

 ship in New York state, which gives the advo- 

 cates of a city plant at Syracuse a black eye and 

 is causing a general public protest against taking 

 the risk. It has been found that a number of 

 plants in New York state have proved to be fail- 

 ures. Mismanagement, incompetency and in some- 

 cases graft have caused the failures, and in 

 nearly every case it has been found that municipal 

 electric lighting has cost the citizens more than 

 light furnished by private companies. 



Prof. George F. Sever, of Columbia University, 

 for many years consulting engineer of the De- 

 partment of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity of 

 New York city, in a special report to the lighting- 

 commission expressed his opinion that the city of 

 Syracuse could not produce lights at as low a 

 cost as they are now furnished by a private com- 

 pany and said the general experience has been 

 that municipal plants are not conducted as effec- 

 tively and economically as plants owne.d by public 

 service corporations. 



Of the instances throughout New York state 

 where municipal ownership has not been a suc- 

 cess a number have been secured and are being 

 used in the opposition to the municipal ownership 

 movement at Syracuse. It is told how Frankfort, 

 after four years' experience with its municipal 

 plant, .nave it up as too costly and now gets better 

 service from a private company for less than the 

 cost of operating its own plant. 



Citizcrs of Jamestown, where the plant has 

 been held up as a model municipal ownership 

 operation, are complaining about the poor service 

 and the numerous occasions on which lights ao: 

 out. LeRoy invested $20,000 in a plant aftei 

 getting light for $2,000 a year from a private 

 romp-"'- and, .finding that the municipal piant 

 cost $-4,!>P8 a year to operate, went back lo me 

 private service again. The plant at SYaddingU,ti 

 proved so unsatisfactory that it was sold to A 

 private company, and the citizens of Charlotte a/e 

 now anxious to sell their plant, which gives ]x,or 

 service at a high rate, in the same manner. 



A thorough investigation of the Green Island 

 plant, to ascertain why it was so costly and the 

 service so poor, resulted in the discovery that it 

 was losing about $1.400 a year and was steadily 

 depreciating, while a private lighting company 

 has offered to supply Holly with the same light 

 it is now getting and to guarantee better sen ice 

 for a lower price than Holly's plant is now able 

 to manufacture the l : ght. 



Syracuse citizens believe that that city shouH 

 be able to manufacture lights, if a municipal plant 

 is operated, at the same average cost to private 

 companies. .0200 cents an hour, using coal, and 

 the opponetns o flhc measure have scored a tell- 



