THE CALIFOR}.IIA LUMBERMERCHANT

How Lumber Looks

Lumber shipments of 488 mills reporting to the National Lumber Trade Barometer in the u,eek ended October I were 6.4/o below production; orders were 8.5/o below. Procluction was 3.3/o below the week ended September 24 and 1.2/o below the similar rveek a year ago; shipments rvere 5/o below the previous rveek and off 7.2/o lrom the similar 1954 week; orders were 1.4/o below the preceding week and,2.l/o under the 1954 figure.

West Coast Lumbermen's Association reported for 169 mills (162 operating) in the week ended October 1: production, 123,588,588 feet; shipments, 112,414,509 feet (9.0/o under production) ; orders, 95,975,0ffi feet (22.3/a under production). For the year to date, shipments at 4,712,418,962 feet were 0.5/o and orders at 4,542,370,081 feet were 0.9/o below production of 4,686,465,207 feet.

Western Pine Association reported for 113 mills in the rveek ended September 24: production, 94,803,000 feet ; shipments, 87,296,000 ieet (7.9/o below production) ; orders, 94,977,000 feet (0.2 ,Ao above production and 8.8/o above shipments). Orders were 18.2/o above the previous week. August production in the Western Pine region increased 26/o over July and almost 20/o above the 1954 period; production was 5.5/o above shipments but, despite the increase, gross stocks of lumber at the end of August were below a year ago.

California Redwood Association reported production of 20 mills during August at 65,799,M0 feet, an increase of 10,504,000 over August 1954, and shipments of 71,929,0W feet, an increase of 15,855,000 over last year. Both produc-

ln This lssue

Plywood Olficiols Study Europeon Methods. Boxcqr Shortoge Hits Lumber Shippers. Vogcbond Editoriols My Fcvorite Story

Sterling Opens nemodeled no..uitiu i".a. Lumber Production Highest in 21 Yeffs "lf Lumber Could Tolk" by Jock Dionne Point Deolers Answer Crosby's "$64,000 Question"

Weslern Pine Industry Worns Mill Operotors

NRLDA Honors Tcrrzonq ond Arccdicr Yords

Northern Deqlers in Do-lt-Yourself Show Obituories

August Housing Storts Rise to 123,000

Bqm Lumber Co. Prqciises Sound Business

Fun-Fqcts-Filosophy

25 Yeors Ago ....

Notionol Housing Center Librory Opened

Add-cr-Room Compoign Builds Added Deoler Scrles

Tbe

INDEX will be lound ot Page 72 tion and shipments were up strongly over July 1955 with mill crervs back from vacations and recoveries of shipments from the recent ill-fated tunnel collapse this summer. For the year's first eight months, production was 46,015,000 feet and shipmer.rts rvere 50,534,000 feet greater than 1954's on Page 69)

Plywood Officiols in Europe On Foct-Finding Tour

Three top-level Tacoma plywood executives are on a two-months tour of western Europe and the Scandinavian countries seeking industrial and scientific know-how from more than a dozen nations.

They are headed by W. E. Difford, managing director of Douglas Fir Plywood Association, who was recently quoted to the effect that current methods of fir plywood manufacture are still "not too far removed from the blacksmith shop." Difford, whose field is marketing and promotion, is accompanied by N. S. Perkins, technical director of the association, and Harold Evans, director of the Plywood Research Foundation.

Before leaving, Difford said the project emphasizes the western fir plywood industry's alertness to the tremendous potential of the future through research and automation. The trio is studying new advances in automation in large eastern industrial centers and methods of wood utilization and new wood products abroad, particularly in Germany and the Scandinavian countries.

Describing the purpose of the tour, Difford said:

"Technological improvement, new wood products anrl at least some degree of automation in our manufacturing methods are vital to the continued growth of the fir plywood industry. Without them our industry could withcr away. Our purpose is to find out everything we can that others are doing in this area with a view to placing our own industry in a stronger competitive position for the years ahead."

Perkins, who heads up the fir plywood industry's research and quality control program, is spending most of his time studying the advances in complete utilization of the forest yield in Germany and Sweden, which are reported to be far ahead of the United States in this field.

Evans, an expert in plywood manufacturing techniques, is seeking out ways and means of adapting the fabulous advances in automation in big eastern manufacturing centers to development of new plywood production methods that would make possible better plywood products :rt lower cost.

Difford's special field is in the study of the market possibilities in what nev" wood products he discovers abroad.

Pointing to Stanford Research Institute's prediction that

wErcoMEt

In this issue, we rvelcome these nerv advertisers into the family of California Lumber "Merchant-isers": plyrvood demand r,vill reach 7.5 billion feet annually by 1975, Difford said:

Ace Companies (Page 47).

Cal-Pacific Redwood Sales, Inc. (Pages 36-37).

Cameron Trucking, Inc. (Page 56).

Davis Hardwood Co. (Page 58).

Sunset Floor Coverings Co. (Page 62).

Twin-City Lumber Co. (Page 32).

"In order to meet the anticipated heavy demands for panels in the few short years ahead, we are going to have to find ways to utilize our second growth timber in new panel products. We will have to get more from every log we use and do it in fewer manhours than under present methods."

Fir plywood production, currently running at about 90 million feet a week, is 38/o ahead of a year ago and the industry estimates that the ;r'ear's production will be closc to a billion feet ahead of 1954.

Boxcor Shorroge Hits lumber Shippers

Salem, Ore.-The Oregon Public Utilities Commissioner last month reported that a boxcar shortage in western Oregon reduced supplies close to 5O/o of quotas set for lumber and plywood mill sl-rippers. This figure near the end of September compared to 67/o in the week previous. He said the Southern Pacific was making an attempt to alleviate the shortage by dropping the system quotas from 80/o to 70/o of normal needs so that divisions with more than 70/o supply could ship empty cars to shortage areas.

Commissioner Charles Heltzel said the western Oregon situation reflected a nationwide shortage of boxcars about 3/o below the country's needs. The condition here is aggravated by the need for almost four times as many outbound cars daily carrying lumber and plywood as the normal inbound cars bringing autos, machinery and processed goods.

Shortage Threatens Long-Bell Operation

San Francisco.-A severe shortage of boxcars in the Weed, Calif., area rvas threatening a shutdown of LongBell Lumber Company's sarvmill and box factory there, The San Francisco Examiner reported October 2. "Il relief is not forthcoming very promptly this week, the mill and factory will be forced to close down," stated John Mantle, general manag'er of the Weed division. The shutdown would affect 1200 persons. Inventories were high, sheds were all blocked out with stock accumulated during the past several weeks of the car shortage, Mantle reoorted at the time.

San Francisco.-Appreciable relief was in sight in the current national boxcar shortage plaguing tl-re lumbering industry in Northern California and Oregon, the Southern Pacific Railroad said October 5. The SP said it had moved more than 84,000 empty cars into the Oregon lumber areas from points as far as Texas in its efforts to equalize its car distribution among all operating divisions.