Co., Geissel & Richardson, Frank C. Gillingham & Son Company, E. Guenther, Eli B. Hallowell & Co., Thomas B. Hammer, Harbert, Russell & Co., Henry, Bayard & Co., Henson & Pearson, Janney-Whiting Lumber Company, Robert G. Kay, Kirby & Hawkins Company, W. H. Lear, Robert C. Lippincott, Little River Lumber Company, W. M. Lloyd Company, Long Pole Lumber Company, Jesse Lukens & Co., W. M. McCormick, J. Gibson McIlvain & Co., Watson Malone & Sons, Otter Creek Boom & Lumber Company, Peart, Nields & McCormick Company, Philadelphia Hardwood Lumber Company, Charles S. Riley & Co., Schofield Bros., Smedley Bros. Company, George M. Spiegle & Co., Stonega Coke & Coal Company, James Strong & Co., Albert Thompson, Lewis Thompson & Co., Richard Torpin & Co., Union Railway Supply Company, George Warner, P. Elmer Weitzel & Bros., R. B. Wheeler & Co., William Whitmer & Sons, Wiley, Harker & Camp Company, J. Randall Williams & Co., R. A. & J. J. Williams, Thomas Williams, Jr., & Co., Wistar, Underhill & Co. and Wister, Heberton & Co.

Among Philadelphia lumber institutions which manufacture elsewhere were Charles M. Betts & Co., Cherry River Boom & Lumber Company, Coketon Lumber Company, Condon Lane Boom & Lumber Company, George Craig & Sons, Philadelphia Veneer & Lumber Company and R. M. Smith & Co.

Dealers represented in Philadelphia by offices or branch yards are Barker & Co. and the Rice & Lockwood Lumber Company.

Represented in Philadelphia by offices or yards are the following lumber manufacturers: Boice Lumber Company, Janney-Whiting Lumber Company, Little River Lumber Company, Long Pole Lumber Company, Otter Creek Boom & Lumber Company, Peart, Nields & McCormick Company, John L. Roper Lumber Company and Wiley, Harker & Camp Company.

Leading Philadelphia concerns which operate planing mills, sash and door and box factories, etc., often being lumber dealers as well, are The Alcott-Ross Company, Hall Bros. & Wood, S. S. Keely & Sons, G. W. Kugler & Sons, George Kyle, C. W. Nichols, T. B. Rice & Sons Company, H. H. Sheip Manufacturing Company, Sheip & Vandegrift, Swenk, Benson & Co., S. B. Vrooman Company, Watson & Robinson, A. Wilt & Sons, G. Woolford Wood Tank Manufacturing Company.

Nearly all the dealers, especially at wholesale, handle hardwoods as well as pine, hemlock, spruce, etc., but among the leading lumber dealers mentioned above, the following make hardwoods their specialty: Owen M. Bruner Company, E. Guenther, W. H. Lear, J. Gibson McIlvain & Co., The Rumbarger Lumber Company, R. M. Smith & Co., Philadelphia Hardwood Lumber Company, Philadelphia Veneer & Lumber Company, George

M. Spiegle & Co. and R. A. & J. J. Williams.

CHANGES DUE TO WAR.

The Civil War wrought great changes in the lumber business, as it did in every other industry. The first call for troops saw many of the most prominent dealers enlist in the ranks and march off—some to return to business activity, and some to die. The Government was a heavy buyer of white pine and other lumber while the war lasted and kept the lumber business from becoming stagnant. Up to this time the wholesale dealers were commission merchants. They charged fifty cents a thousand for handling; one-half of 1 percent for insurance, and 5 percent as commission. They also advanced their credit to the manufacturers, to enable them to carry on business with little capital.

The methods of doing business were changed after the war and there came the establishment of offices by the wholesalers, many of whom gave up their expensive yards. Trade increased largely, the city grew and retail yards were put into operation in the outlying districts. Yellow pine began to come into the market in spruce from Maine was introduced. Carolinas also came in as a factor. of this ever-increasing volume and

large quantities from the South, and Lumber from West Virginia and the It was an unsettled period, because variety of lumber arriving.

GRADING LUMBER.

It seems almost impossible that so late as the early '70's, when demand for lumber came from a wide extent of densely populated country, there could have prevailed such a primitive and seemingly unprofitable way of cutting, grading and selling lumber. White pine was sold log run, culls out, and then sorted by the dealer into three grades-box, shop and panel. The culls were sold to the box factories. Log run, culls out, in the period from 1872 to 1880, inclusive, was sold at $24 to $26 a thousand.

Lumber was received by the retailer mill run, culls out, so he had all the special value there was in it. The only inspection of lumber after arrival was when the dealer wanted flooring and siding to satisfy the demands of his customers. To get such sorts 1x12 boards were sorted into two lots. The best, or about one-third, was converted into beveled siding, and the balance, or two-thirds, was devoted to flooring. Sometimes the wide clear was laid out for panel stock, which was shipped in the rough. Occasionally, a carload of lumber would be ordered with the direction that two-thirds, of the poorest, be made into flooring at the mill or wholesale point, and the remaining one-third be forwarded in the rough. In any case the inspector had an easy occupation, for all he had to know was the difference between the better one-third and the poorer two-thirds. There is a sharp contrast between the simple division of qualities, which gave the retailer all the "fat," and the multitude of grades into which

white pine is now divided, with the fat mainly on the side of the manufacturer and wholesale dealer. The skill, and even art, that within thirty or thirty-five years has reduced the grading of white pine almost to a science would have staggered the old-time inspector.

In those days when a builder took a contract he sent to his shop an order which ran about as follows: One thousand feet 4-4; 500 feet 5-4; 250 feet 6-4; 200 feet 8-4; 200 feet -inch. That description indicated all that was needed for the entire building, so far as white pine was concerned.

NEW SOURCES OF SUPPLY.

In the '70's Pennsylvania white pine began to be scarce and a new source of supply had to be found. Shipments were made from the Saginaw Valley, which marked the introduction of new grades. The dealers then sorted up their stocks, making common, culls, selects and better. The railroads aided in the movement, but with nothing like the dispatch of later days. Nearly every road had a gauge of its own, which necessitated transshipping at several points before a car of lumber reached its destination. Freight charges were frightfully high, and, until the movement grew, they were almost prohibitive. To Col. Charles M. Betts probably belongs the credit of bringing through the first car of white pine whose bulk was not broken in transit. He went West for a better grade and after much manipulation and cajoling he had the then Blue Line construct special trucks upon broad lines, and succeeded in getting several cars delivered without the pine being rehandled on the way. Only 8,000 or 9,000 feet would be carried in a car, and oftentimes 1,000 feet or more would be stolen while on the way East.

Philadelphia has always been a good market for longleaf pine, the advantage of water competitive rates having had much to do with enlarging the market for this wood. As has been stated, for years nearly all of the spruce came from the forests of Maine, but this has been largely supplanted by the product of West Virginia. In recent years North Carolina pine has been brought into the market in extremely large quantities and has created a market for itself. Many of the concerns, both wholesalers and retailers, have considerable money invested in the southern lumber trade and have done much to advance it.

CHANGES WROUGHT BY TIME.

An old-time Philadelphia lumberman about five years ago, in musing over the changes that had occurred in methods in the previous twentyfive years, commented on the fact that thirty years ago the street salesman had not yet been introduced as a lever to increase the sales of his employer. The "old timer" declared that in his day he would have closed his yard rather than feel obliged to have a salesman on the street soliciting trade. His customers came to him-he did not hunt them. In substance he said:

Twenty-five years ago Philadelphia was headquarters for planing mill work which was known all over the United States for its excellence. Today but a remnant of the mills are left, and these are working on specialities only or for local trade. Country and western competition have been the cause of this change.

Twenty-five years ago white pine was the leading factor. Today the leader is yellow pine.

Twenty-five years ago the "lumber district" was, in the wholesale as well as retail way, centered along the Delaware front extending from Noble Street to Girard Avenue. Today but four or five firms find it worth while to be located in the old wharfage district. The exhaustion of Pennsylvania forests and the use of the railroads for transportation have caused this state of affairs. Where formerly all lumber went to Philadelphia by water, now a bare 25 percent of it, and this all yellow pine, goes that way—the rest goes by rail. This change has also lessened the volume of the city's distributing trade. North Carolina pine was an almost unknown lumber in the Philadelphia market twenty-five years ago. Owing to the diminution of the supply of white pine and the desire for a cheaper substitute, North Carolina pine, the use of which was due to a struggle for recognition fostered and encouraged by the pioneers, has almost superseded the white pine except for special purposes where only the latter will answer.

Twenty-five years ago Philadelphia was noted for the superiority of its manufactured furniture. It has lost much of its volume of business in that line (but none of its good reputation) and the furniture stores are filled with cheaper lines of western manufacture with which Philadelphia makers find it impossible profitably to compete; but the increased demand for house trim and wainscoting of this kind of wood has more than made up the loss, and the sales of such lumber have kept up wonderfully. During the last twenty-five years the profits of the retailer have been steadily decreasing, owing in great measure to modern competition and estimating. The oldfashioned bond of sympathy formerly existing between the carpenter or builder and his favorite lumberman has been largely broken. The lowest bidder makes the sale. Another source of loss of profits to the retailer has been the increased expense of office equipment and maintenance and this has been considerable.

In yellow pine flooring, side boards were bought and worked into flooring locally. Taking it altogether, with reduction of profit, the life of the retailer is not as happy a one as it was twenty-five years ago.

Continuing the comparison of the two periods of time referred to in the above, it may be stated that the Philadelphia business directory for 1877 gives the names of 127 firms and individuals engaged in the lumber trade, of whom thirty-one are classified as "commission brokers" and the rest as wholesalers and retailers. There are in the same publication for 1902 the names of 162 lumber dealers. Of these sixty-seven may be put down as retailers, eighty-four as wholesalers, and the balance as millwork dealers and planing mill men, selling lumber upon opportunity. In 1907 there were in the city 188 wholesale, retail and commission lumber dealers and fifty-seven planing mill, sash, door and blind, box, millwork, etc., establishments.

There are no statistics of the receipts of lumber at Philadelphia beyond the last eleven years, but they are now averaging nearly 450,000,000 feet per annum. This is practically all for "consumption." In the last ten

years the localities of retail yards have materially changed, all striving to locate on railroads in the outskirts, to secure sidings.

Philadelphia is still a great wholesale lumber market. While the larger portion of the lumber going into distribution and use in this market is sold by Philadelphia wholesalers, but a comparatively small portion of this lumber is actually yarded in a wholesale way at Philadelphia. A large number of individuals, firms and corporations, making up the wholesale contingent of the market, are also manufacturers in various parts of the country, and, while the sales are made from the Philadelphia offices, the lumber is shipped direct to the retail and large consuming trade from the mills. Philadelphia capital controls the larger portion of the spruce and hemlock operations of West Virginia; others have timber lands and sawmill operations in Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania and various states of the Union.

RECEIPTS OF LUMBER.

The receipts and consumption of lumber in Philadelphia have ever shown a steady tendency to increase. It must be remembered that in scanning the figures they deal almost entirely with the lumber consumed, as comparatively little is reshipped. Philadelphia is by no means a distributing center, and the figures that are given below can be considered all the more remarkable in illustrating the growth of the trade. Up until about fourteen years ago there was no record of shipments kept. The following table is given through the courtesy of Major A. T. Goodman, secretary of the Lumbermen's Exchange:

RECEIPTS OF LUMBER AT PHILADELPHIA,

Early in the '80's the need of an association of lumbermen to protect the trade and promote some regularity became apparent, and this resulted in the formation of the Retail Lumber Association. This was not well supported by the trade and in consequence it did not flourish. It was not until 1886 that a stronger organization-now the Lumbermen's Exchange