)RNIA iNT iTRY

80 per cent more building permits in the fif tv-one principal cities of the state than in 1935 and in iucreased large construction ancl public rvorks.

Xlanufacture of cement upon a colnmercial basis was begun in California in 1890, but the first sizable operation dates from 1898, u'hen a portland-cemellt plant with a capacity of 500 barrels a clav rvas opcned at Colton in San Bernardino Countl-. In 1900 it turned out 52,000 barrels. u'ith a value of $121,000. 'Iotal domestic procltrction that year lvas 8,500,000 barreis. Latest available figures of the lJ. S. Bureau o{ N{incs sholv that the cemenl plants of the country producecl more than 76,000,000 barrels in 1935.

For nrany r-ears Calif omia rvas clependent upon importations from Europe for its cenrcnt neerls. As long ago as 1864, San Frar.rcisco in.r- ported 13,000 barrels of portland cement, and in 1884 some 150,000 barrels entered the Golden Gate. But as the American cement industry grew in a rvidening circle from its cradle in the Lehigh district of Pennsylvania, cement produced in Kansas and other states of the Middle West began coming to the Pacific Coast.

As cement use increased, California found it economically possible to produce its own cement and become independent of distant sources of srrpply. Posscssing the raw materials, cheap fuel oil, natural gas, abundant hydro-electric potver, the state had everythirrg needful for a cement industry of its own.

Today California constitutes one of the country's important cement-producing districts; of the states its production was exceeded only bv that of Pennsvlvania in 1935. Its plants are equipped to produce 22,7X),W barrels of portlanc cement a year, a capacity far in excess of present demand. Production tvas 257 per cent of capacity in 1935, about 58 per cent in 1936. Roughly, about 9 per cent of the country's cement-manufacturing capacity is within the borders of this state.

Great engineering works require enormous quantities of cement for concrete constructiorr. Nearly 5,000,000 barrels of a special 'formula, low-heating cement were used in the construction of Boulder Dam. The Los Angeles Aqueduct metropolitan water system will require between 4,000,000 and 6,000,000 barrels of cement. Up to July 1 purchases of cement for this project had amounted to 98,700,000. It is estimated that about 6,000,000 barrels of cement will be needed for the great Central Valley Project. Some 1,500,000 barrels went into the construction of Oakland-San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate bridges.

This is big-time cement use, on projects where concrete is mixed by automatic machinery that rveighs and mixes the ingredients and times the operation rvith fool-proof ingenuity. But so universal are the applications of portland cement that any householder can do a backyard job requiring but a single sack and be certain of its performance.

The setting and hardening of concrete are two different things. Concrete sets in a relatively short time, but it hardens or cures over an indefinite period of time due to the physical and chemical changes rvhich take place and which result in the gradual building of strength in the concrete. In other words, concrete adds strength with time.

A comparatively recent development, however, to serve the need of construction jobs where time is a vital factor, is a cement that will harden in a fraction of this time. The trade calls this special cement "high-early-strength portland cement." Its peculiar quality is to acquire a twenty-eight-day degree of hardness in twenty-four hours. Naturally, it sells at a premium. Latest available figures show that forty-seven of the country's cement plants were producing high-early in 1935, among them five plants iT California. Total national production amounted to 2,L09,000 barrels.

Another special cement also being produced in California is high-silica or sulphate-resisting cement. lt is a lowalumina product recommended for use in any construction which comes in contact with sea water, alkaline soils, mine, drainage, or other chemically active solutions.

In addition to these super-cements, other products of the California cement plants are oil-well cements, u'aterproof cements, plastic cements. High-early and high-silica rvere originally sold as waterproof cements, but more recently their other qualities have been stressed. Plastic cements have qualities of plasticity, sand carrying and hardening, finish smoothly, and are much used for stucco.

Headquarters of California's portland cement companies are divided between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Northern California companies include Pacific Portland Cement Co., Santa Cruz Portland Cement Co., Calaveras Cement Company, Henry Cowell Lime & Cement Company, and Yosemite Portland Cement Company.

The Southern California companies are Monolith Portland Cement Company, Riverside Portland Cement Company, California Portland Cement Company and Southwestern Portland Cement Company.

C)perations of Calaveras are centered at San Andreas in Calaveras County. It is a relative rlewcomer in the cement field in California and has the distinction of producing a white cement, one of the three brands on the American market.

Yosemite operates in Merced County, its deposits of limestone being adjacent to the Yosemite Valley Railroad which runs from l\{erced to El Portal. It uses the wet process.

Cowell Lime and Cement uses the dry process and operates in Contra Costa County, its post office being Cowell,

California. It obtains its limerock and clay from quarries along the Mt. Diablo fault, a circumstance which gives rise to its brand name, "Mt. Diablo."

The'Monolith company uses the wet process and operates at Monolith in Kern County just south of the Tehachapi. It uses limestone and clay for raw materials, the rock being hauied by train to the mills.

Riverside Portland Cement Company employs the dry process and has its plant at Crestmore in Riverside County. It recovers limestone by,elaborate mining operations.

California Portland Cement Company also employs the dry process, with a large operation at Colton in San Bernardino County. Its raw material comes from literally a mountain of limestone.

Southwestern Portland Cement Company, on the other hand, uses the wet process at its plant in Victorville, San Bernardino County. Its limerock comes from quarries in the vicinity.

News of Interest

Members of the hardwood industry in Los Angeles handling Southern hardrvoods had a get-to-gether luncheon at the Jonathan Club, Thursd6y, September 2. Follorving the luncheon, there rvas a discussion of matters pertaining to the hardwood industry. W. B. (Bill) Jones presided.

Those attending were: A. C. Pascoe, E. U. Wheelock, Art Harff, W. H. Whiteside, James Ryan, Roy James, W. A. Banta, C. B. Smith, Les Forest, Jack Brush, Bob Taenzer, Milton Taenzer, Frank Connolly, E. G. Reel, Roy Stanton, Clarence Bohnhoff, C. B. Smith, Jr., R. P. Kratz, John Clugston, and Bill Jones.

The next luncheon meeting will be on October 7.

On and after October 1,1937, the Vineland Builders Supply Co. will be known as the North Hollyrvood Lumber Co. There is no change in management.

C. P. Henry, Los Angeles wholesale lumberman, is back from a trip to the Northwest where he visited the mills in the Portland. Seattle and Grays Harbor districts.

J. H. Heick the Hammond Mr. Heick was years.

has succeeded W. H. Enlow as manager of Lumber Company's yard at Watsonville: assistant to the manager for the past several

The Thoroughbred

When we say a man or a woman we know is a thoroughbred, we pay to him or her the greatest compliment of which we are capable. There is not in the vocabulary or pleasant terms a stronger word.

Visit a stock farm, the home of high-grade horses or cattle, and you will see that the physical signs of the thoroughbred are fine eyes and an erect bearing. These are the symbols of a high generous spirit.

The keeper of the stock farm will tell you that a thoroughbred 'never whines. One illustrated this to me by swinging a dog around by the tail. The creature was in pain, but no sound escaped him. "You see," said the keeper, "they never complain. It ain't in 'em. Same way when a stable burns. It ain't the best horses that scream when they're burnin'. Itls the worst."

All this is quite as true of the human thoroughbred. The visible signs of the invisible spirit are the eyes that are steady and shoulders that are straight. No burden except possibly the weight of many years bends his shoulders, and his eyes meet yours in honest fashion, because he neither fears, nor has been shamed, at the bar of his own soul.

He never complains. He keeps his troubles to himself, having discovered, as thoroughbreds do, that to tell troubles is to multiply than, and to lock tfiem in the breast is to diminish and finally end them. He never talks about what Fate has done to him. He knows he is master of his own destiny. He never bewails the treatment he has received from another, for he knows no one can do him lasting harm but himself.

-Ada Patterson.

The Word Miser

Newspaper Item: Mrs. Lottie Prim was granted a divorce when she testified that since she and her husband were married he had spoken to her but three times. She was awarded the custody of their three children.

BEIIEVE IT, OR NOT

A dear old lady was shocked at the lurid language of two electricians who were working in her house, and complained to the company. In due course the two men were sent for and asked for an explanation.

"Well, sir," said one, "it was like this. I was up the ladder and I let the hot lead fall on BiU. It went down Bill's neck. And Bill, he said to me, 'You really will have to be rnore careful, Jack."'

Laws were not made for the good.-Socrates.

The Lord Was More Lenient

The local church was making a drive for funds, and two colored sisters were bearing down hard on Uncle Rastus.

"I cain't give nothin'," exclaimed the old Negro. "I owes nearly ewybody in this heah ole town already."

"But," said the collectors, "doan't you think you owes the Lord somethin' too?"

"I does, sister, indeed," said the old man, "but he ain't pushin' me like my other creditors is."

The cynic is the one who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.-Oscar Wilde.

Ode To A Duck

No wonder the little duckling

Wears on his face a frown, For it has just discovered, Its first pair of pants are down.

The Age of Romance has not ceased; it never ceases; it does not, if we will think of it, so much as very sensibly decline-Carlyle.

Abraham Lincoln was as just and generous to the rich and well-born as to the poor and humble-a thing rare among politicians.-John Hay.

Going and Coming

George C. Cornitius, of the George C. Cornitius Hardwood Company, hardlr.ood importers, San Francisco, made a round trip by air to New York early last month, his third trip to New York this year. He traveled by United Air Lines and enjoyed the 15 hour, 20 minute trip by which cne can leave San Francisco after dinner in the evening and be in New York at 1:40 p.m. next day.

Mr. Cornitius reports that his firm is doing a large business in the Atlantic Coast States, particularly in Philippine Mahogany.

Jas. E. "Jimmy" Atkinson, of Atkinson-Stutz Company, 'rvholesale lumber dealers, San Francisco, has returned from a 10-day tour of the mills in the Northwest.

Sherman L. Bishop, manager of the Union Lumber Company's Chicago office, was a recent visitor to the company's head office in San Francisco and the mill at Fort Bragg.

Robert Soldini, sales manager for Cement Company, of Los Angeles, trip to the North by motor.