With Ccrliforniq Lumbermen

H. V. Simpson, Executive Vice president of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association, of Portland, Oregon, held six lumber group meetings in California in the past two weeks' time, in which he discussed with several hundred lumbermetr, both manufacturers and retailers, details of the proposed nerv Douglas Fir grading rules.

The first meeting was at Eureka on June 2nd; the second at Crescent City, June 4th; the third at Los Angeles, June 7th; the next at San Francisco, June 9th; and the last at Redding, June 10th. These were all meetings of sawmill men and manufacturers and were well attended. Besides these mill meetings, he held one in Los Angeles on June 8th which was arranged by Orrie W. Hamilton and was attended by more than 100 leading retailers from Santa Barbara to San Diego.

By means of blackboards and charts, Mr. Simpson ex- plained what has been done by his association thus far toward remodeling the grading rules and grade naures for Douglas Fir. This book they have been working ou for rnonths is not nearly complete as yet, and it will be sorne time before sufficient agreement on them can be reacl,ed. As THll CALIFORNIA LUMBtrR MERCHANT has explained in the past, one of the major thoughts is to change the names of commonly used grades to make them more practical and understandable, and to change for useful and practical puiposes some of the present grades.

Mr. Simpson, as always, made a fine witness, and explained what had been done and what still has to be accomplishecl. At each meeting his talk was followed by a question, answer, and discussion period. The Los Angeles retail meeting was held in the Biltmore Hotel, and the manufacturers' meeting in the Statler.