Curtailment Should Boom Situation

By Jack

Every man intererted in the wholerale lunib€r market rhould teep hir weather eyc on the lituatio-n every hour^of the day from now on, because ttrere are $lnsr lappening that arl abrolutely bound to have a tremeudous effect on the national hmrber situttion.

Curtailment ir the thing that it doing the work, hugp crntailrnent that should have a mo* bullirh effect on the situa' tion

In the west ttereir a whole lot of vohmtary curtailmeot beins practiced that war beginning to have a ve-ry excellent cfiect -on the weak coftwood lumber market" when over in the couth the tremendous floodr of the Miseirsippi and its tributaries suddenly plunged under water several hundred rawmills, in many carer warhing away the etocks and damaging the mills, and in all cases dircontinuing pPerationr and cauring the bitgest involrmtary curtailment the lumber market has known within a full decade, degrading and dec' troying the lumber rtockc with mud and wate-r, and cauring an imrnediate situation ttat muct be reckoned with.

The hardwood lumber indurtry in the South is crippled ar never before. Nearly two hundred hardwood millr are in the path of the great flood. Some of them will be down for weeks, ot'herc for months. The hardwood market ir boombg rtronger every day ar a reault, and there can be not the dightett doubt but tihat the hardwood situation for the en' tire remainder of thir year will be the rtrongest in the hietory of the South. Elsewhere in thic irrue will be fourd ttre bert factr and figurel so far available concerning the rituation.

In addition to the rurparalleled hardwood situation, there are also tcoreE of Southern Pine mills in the flood arear all of them down. No man can say what the effect on ttem will be, but that all mills in the flood area are cl,ored for many weeks, with plants damaged, lumber warhed away and mud damaged, etc., ir a certeinty.

Already the effect is seen in a rush of orders for Southern har. dwoods and Souttern Pine, and both markets are riring rapidly, witfi new busine$ far in excess of production" ln the Lor Angeles market there ir a largc vohmre of Fir lumber moving. During the month of April' the cargo receiptr at San Pedro totaled 136r2q) M. feet. Thir lumber har been readily abrorbed as there is lers than tcn million feet of tmsold lumber, which is conridered about the nonml rupply, at San Pedro.

In the Pacific Northwest they have been curtailing to good advantage for some time, and the recent reportr show new businesr considerably in exceu of production.

In California the Pine mills are continuing their rtrong curtailment, the reported production for the first four montts thir year being lOS million feet as compared with 198 million for tte rame period of last year.

With the open seaton dweloping ve4r rapidly in dl partr of the courtry, rpeeding up building, end with a numerout reries of aeriititins storrir degtroiing town'r and wiping out building! by the-hundredr in many partr of thc countr5r' all thingr 6"-io be working togethcr lo boom tle^general lumber-markel Of coune it-wiftake rome time before the repairing of the damage in the Mireirsippi,4ood area-will begio, but there are tcns of thou:andr of brril-dinsr $at--hev-e teln iryarhd awayr dertroyed, or darnaged durhg the floodt ttat murt and will be replaced and repaired.

IT LOOKS TO TIIE WRTTER AS TIIOUGH EVERYTHING IS CONSPIRING TO BRING ABOUT A TRE.. MENDOUS DEMAND FOR LUMBER AND BUILDING MATERIALS IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE RE MAINDER OF THIS YEAR.

The California market has ghown very little change in the pact two weekr.

BuiUing perrnits in Los Angeles during tte month of April totaled $10,558,891.

The Los Angeler market har not relponded to any gen' eral increase in pricet, dthough the millr are etanding finn for better pricer. No. 3 comnrons are firm and moving read' ily, with the market on commonr and upperr rmchan-ged.-

- A telegraphic report from San Frrncirco states that the cargo maikel is not quite as rtrong ar two weekr ago due -to utt"old lumber arriving which has had bearilh effect on the market. Lath is bringing $3.25 lor lr/z inch and $3.5O for l'/s inch which was practically the going price two weekr ago.

- The Celifornia White and Sugar Pine market ir rtill strong on all low grader, witfi upperr moving dowly. Curtailm€nt is still in evidence at the millr.

The Redwood market continuee rtrong, the volume ir good and pricec are firrn All marketr are buying molc tumber than last year and orders received at tte millr are far ahead of production. Redwood commonr are scarce and many of the millr arG ov€f-lold on thir item. Upperr are moving better, erpecially siding.