Rounds Lumber has spent 40 years findinghard to find things.

130,000 grape stakes overnight? A snap.

25,000 board feet for some wooden whatchamacallits by tomorrow afternoon?

A somewhat tougher request, perhaps, but we'll fillit. Just like we've been filling tough orders for people all over the United States for some 40 years now.

In fact, it's that kind of digging and willingness to go after the unusual order, be it big or small, that's built the Rounds reputation.

Which is why a lot of customers think of us as sort of a last resort. (You know, if Rounds can't get it, it probably doesn't exist.)

Which is all well and good.

Except for one thing. Being a last resort seems to keep some people from thinking of us as a first resort. And that's a mistake.

After all, if we're so good at finding the hard-to-finds, imagine how good we must be finding the easy-to-finds.

A few encouraging signs for the lumber and bldg. materials industry have been popping uP recently in the gray gloom of some of the forecasts, though most observers admit it will be a while before their effect shows in themarket...

The Good News: mortgage $$, tho likely to remain tight for the next few mos., may be more available in'74,leading to a strong performance by housing in the 2nd half of '74, according to Federal National Mortgage Assn. chief economist Harry S. Schwartz

He thinks the declining in' terest rates on Treasury bills, corp. bonds , etc. will renew the flow of money back to the s&ls, hence providing the bux to put the bang back in housing; despite a possible 50Vo drop in the flow of mortgage moneY in the lst quarter of '74, "thin raYs of light are beginning to ap- pear."

The new housing plan proposed by President Nixon (also see editorial, p. 4, this issue) could result in an additional 150,000 starts in '74; more importantly, it signals the administration's realization that the housing industry needs a helpinghand....

The Bad News: the Prime lending rate for banks' best customers is at an all+ime high of l0%; there is still talk of it moving uP to lUVzVo . the outflow of sav' ings from s&ls in August was a walloping $1.21 billion, 3rd highest drain in their historY; this excess of withdrawls over deposits is expected to continue intoSept....

H ousing starts fell 6Vo in A ug. (latest figs.) to 2,045,000, the lowest level in 2 years; a home builders assn. economist says,

"the worst is yet to come" . . the bldg. permit rate is also on a slide . . . lst Nt'I. City Bank expresses the current consensus that the starts level for at least the lst Vz of '7 4will be 1.5 million to 1.75 million the latter fig. is high from an historical standpoint, but low compared with thelast2years....

In other news, Nt'I. Forest Products Assn. sees demand for hardwood products continuing strong thru '73 because of the strength of furniture demand that follows earlier high rates of home bldg., and other manufacturingactivity...

Stephen Hedstrom, 33, mgr. of Visalia Lumber Co., Visalia, Ca., and Alan Francis T homas, 34, and Lyle O. Long, 47 , of Arroyo Grande, owners of Pacffic Coast Building Supply, Grover City, Ca., are under arrest on charges ofconspiracy to receive stolen property in a case involving truck hijacking

Branson-Cross Lumber Co. has moved to Union City, Ca., from San leandro, into a new, larger facility, 12 acres, on rail . . . l{ard & Haruington has closed their New'port Beach, Ca., store on Pacific Coast Hyw., new one, inland, opens in Dec.; old property is being converted into a restaurant

International Forest Pro' ducts, Pomona, Ca., chartered a fishing boat recently and treated some 35 friends and employees toadayonthewater . . .Capital Lumber Co., Cheyenne, Wyo., had a successful grand opening for their remodeled and enlarged store Ensley Lumber, Modesto, Ca., is building a home center; Hayward Lumber Co., Salinas, Ca., is building a new 10,000 sq. ft. HQ office, reportedly very deluxe, atrium, waterfall, reflecting pool

Monument Lumber Co., Freedom, Ca., just oPened a new 7,500 sq. ft. store with an additional 4,500 ,sq. ft. of covered area; old'store is being razed for more parking . . Handyman is constructing a new store in the Lomas Santa Fe area of Solana Beach, Ca. . .

President Nixon endorsed the recommendations of a presidential panel on timber and the environmentthat called formore ftee plantins and an increase in cut- 'ting coupled with general better management of our nation's forest resource

New stores being opened in No. Ca. by the Hubbard & Johnson div. of Evans Products are open ing under the Grossman's name E.P. uses across the U.S. . 2 opened in Fairfield and Antioch; slated to open soon are locations in NaPa, Vallejo, Merced and Livermore-Pleasanton . . . GeorgiaPacific is shooting for a Nov. 15 opening for their new Santa Clara, Ca., warehouse

DG Shelter Products plans an early opening of their new warehouse in Rocklin, Ca., Paradise Lumber Co., in the small Ca. town of the same name, has held a big grand opening . . . a $240,000 verdict was returned against Diebold Lumber Co. and Simpson Lumber Co., Crescent City, Ca., for negligence in an accident that cost a worker a leg . .

Burglars sawed'thru the roof of the Houston Lumber Co., Palm Desert. Ca.. to steal more than $5,000 of Indian jewelry . . Oregon Builders Hardware has purchased the contract hardware div. of John Warren Hardware, Eugene, Ore., for an undisclosedprice...

Boise Cascade is spending some $8 million to buY West Oregon Veneer Co. at Willamina and Oregon Alder-Maple Co., Sheridan, as well as build a small log sawmill at its existing plywood plant at Kettle Falls, Wash.

HARDWOODS MOULDINGS

TREADS RISERS SILLS DOWELS THRESHOLDS

PLYWOOD PINE SPRI,ICE PLIANT WOOD VENEERS II,CO DISTRIBT]TORS

1576 SOUTH 2nd WEST SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH (su) 484-7616 3'rrr

RARE EXOTIC HARDWOODS CEDAR CLOSET LINING CEDARLINE FLAKEBOARD MAPI,E CHOPPING BLOCKS FLECTO, DET-T, WATCO, MINWAX MII,I,WORK I.'ACIIJ'I'II.]S

93O ASHBY AVE. BERKELEY, CAL|F. tatlo (4r5) 843-4390

Exclusive soles ogenfs fort M & J Lumber Co., lnc. (|ieyer: Flot, Colit.l Englewood Lumber Co. (ledcrcrt, Colif.l