PACIFIC HARDWOOD SALES CO.

Feds Effect on lumber

The policies of the federal government will play a significant role in the market outlook for lumber in the 1970s, Dr. John Muench, Jr., forest economist for the National Forest Products Association, W'ashington, D. C., has said.

"The federal government has established housing goals; the government regulates the economy, including the availability of of mortgage and c,onstruction money, and the government controls the largest source of tim'ber needed to supply the market."

At the annual meeting of The Forest Products Research Society in San Francisco, Muench noted the irony of the situ- ation where the alleged bastion of conservatism, the lumber industry, is heavily dependent upon the federal government at both ends of its production process.

He said the forest industries are dependent largely upon the federal government {qr raw material and for the market climate in the housing and construction industries which use the bulk of the lumber and wood products produced.

Muench cited forecasts by four authorities representing different interests who independently projected an optimistic market potential for lumber in the decade of the 1970s.

"In almost any way it can be figured, the market outlook for lumber in the next decade appears bright, despite present temporary disclocations," he said.

However, he noted that the "potential market" will be strongly influenced by the mortgage credit situation and the tight timber supply situation.

Feds Drug on Stondords Count

Best estimates on the acc€ptor balloting results for the propoaed new revision of the softwood lumber standard are that the Bureau of Standards will not receive the complete return from the Census Bureau before the middle of August or possibly later.

Streqmline Nqil S<rles

'What

"piggy back" has done for the movement of freight, "pick-a-pack" is doing for the sales of nails, according to Richard Freeman o{ So-Cal Commercial Steel.

Packaged nails streamline sales through modern, self-service, adding efliciency to the store's operation by eliminating the expense of a salesman's time in filling thc order, Freeman pointed out.

"Besides," he added. "the customer is not waiting while his order for nails is hand-weighed and placed in a bag by the salesman." He also reminds management that a salesman nerer underweishs and generaljy over-weighs which cuts m!ny dollars off the profits when this operation is multiplied hundreds of times over a year.

So-Cal Commercial Steel has been marketing all types and sizes o{ nails in one and five pound packages nationally under its Double Grip brand. Recently the firm launched a new "pick-a-pack" product of color-matched nails for paneling, packaged in clear, hard, plastic, see-through boxes in self-selling, attractive display carton under the Double Grip brand.