444 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Chicago as a Lumber Market 



Lucius E. Fuller, editor of the Lumber 

 World, in the Pioneer Western Lumberman, 

 describes Chicago as the "premier lumber 

 market of the world." He states that the 

 largest wholesale lumber yard in the country 

 is located there, and that there is a stock on 

 hand at all times in the pine and hardwood 

 yards of from 300,000,000 to 380,000,000 feet 

 of rough lumber. He also notes the quantity 

 of hardwoods and the great variety of all 

 kinds that may be called for. The receipts 

 of lumber at Chicago by rail and water in 

 1909 aggregated 2,578,309,000 feet, an in- 

 crease of 509,675,000 feet, or twenty-four per 

 cent, over the receipts during 1908. Of this 

 amount 1,614,000,000 feet were consumed in 

 the city for purposes of various kinds. The 

 shipments from Chicago in 1909 were 969,- 

 000,000 feet, being nearly 200,000,000 feet 

 larger than in 1908. 



These figures, Mr. Fuller says, are far 

 ahead of the reports furnished by New York, 

 and fully double the figures emanating from 

 other markets where any record is kept of 

 the lumber movement. 



Making the Most of the Log 



A subscriber for the American Lumberman 

 directs attention to the large amount of 

 stumpage that well could go into higher uses 

 that is being sawed into low-grade products 

 by men who are not directly engaged in the 

 lumber business. In the east such operators 

 are buying areas of timber, logging them, 

 and turning the entire product into goods 

 for their specific requirements, with the in- 

 evitable result that a large amount of high- 

 grade stock goes into this consumption along 

 with the low-grade timber that is properly 

 suited thereto. They are satisfied because 

 they can manufacture these articles at a low 

 cost, even with the high grades in, since the 

 operation is all their own and the profits of 

 manufacture their own exclusively. 



Yet a question arises as to whether th 

 are not throwing away good profits in sawi 

 up No. I pine or spruce into low-grade : 

 tides. Unfortunately, not only they are t 

 losers, if such be the case, but the public 

 large is a loser. Their own loss is their o\ 

 lookout, and the man who ignores the oppc 

 tunity to take a larger profit receives t 

 scant sympathy. In recent years, howev 

 the men who are cutting the forests of t 

 United States have had it indicated to th< 

 that they have responsibilities larger th 

 that they owe to stockholders or themselv 

 Every good log that is used for a baser pi 

 pose than that to which it is suited is a k 

 to the lumber industry of the United Stai 

 and to the consumers who are depend* 

 upon that industry for their lumber supply 



It is difficult in this practical age to prea 

 altruism, but perhaps a demonstration of t 

 sacrifice of profit in this indiscriminate t 

 of timber might appeal to such a timt 

 consumer and thereby serve the higher pi 

 pose of saving high-class stock for high-ch 

 purposes, now certainly sufficient to consul 

 all of the upper grades that are availal 

 without permitting them to be manufactur 

 into articles that can as well be made frc 

 lower grades. American Lumberman. 



More Money for Fire Protection 



The state forestry commissioner belie-\ 

 that if the legislature and the forest fn 

 would occur at the same time, the state woi 

 be better equipped to fight the latter. At t 

 present time, there is available each y< 

 $14,000 to support the work of protecting 1 

 forests of the state, a sum by far too lit 

 if the work is to be effective in seasons wh 

 there is the greatest danger. The proper e 

 penditure of a much larger sum would sa 

 many times as much in property that is m 

 wiped out annually by fires in the timl 

 sections of the state. Mississippi Val 

 Lumberman (Minneapolis, Minn.). 



