Max E. Cook Gains National Distinction as Authority on Modern Farm Design and Construction

Max E. Cook

The story of Max E. Cook, farmstead engineer, is the story of a man who deliberately halted a successful ,career as a San Fran,cisco ar,chite,ct to carry out a long cherished ideal of rendering service to the farmer, and who in his new career has become nationally knorvn and recognized as an authority on the design and construction of all classes of modern farm buildings, accessories and equipment.

His intense interest in the welfare of the farmer, who, he says, is the mainstay of the country and for whom the best is none too good, is natural. Ife was born on a farm in Iowa in 1888. All of his people were farmers. His grandparents were pioneers, and his mother ,came from Michigan at the age of three to live in a sod house. His father farmed, and later went into the buggy, wagon and implement business in Lake City, Iowa, where young Max went to school. Ife moved with his parents to Oakland, California at the age of l3 and attended the Oakland Polytechnic High School, where he specialized in drawing and manual training. Graduating from high school in 1904 he entered the offi,ce of Houghton Sawyer, rvell known San Francisco architect as an apprentice. In those days it was customary to work the first nine months without pay but this young fellow proved himself a salesman by getting a starting wage of $2.50 a week.

Sawyer, a very fine architect and a graduate of Massachusetts School of Technology, liked the way his new apprentice applied himself to his work and practically tutored him, so that with this help supplemented by correspondence courses, night school and independent study, the budding young architect was within three years made chief draftsman. lle was later made a silent partner, sharing in the profits. In the next ten years Mr. Cook as chiefof-staff had from four to ten men in the drafting room at all times, and in addition to his regular duties wrote all specifications, prepared and let contracts and inspected and supervised all construction. The firm specialized in high class residences from $20,000 to $185,000, with occasional city work such asa $250,000 apartment honse, a$125,000 school, hotels and other important structures.

Having specialized in country estates Mr. Cook soon found that he had more than an ordinary interest in farm structures. He spent all his vacations in the country and worked on a ranch in Mendocino County as a refugee after the San Francisco fire, and when the Sawyer firm took on the work of planning farm layouts and farm homes on an ' estate in Madera County he was right in his element. For a period of six months in 1917 he carried on an extensive correspondence with agricultural colleges and experiment stations to find out what literature and information were available on the subject of planning ideal farm homes for the average farmer, and found that not more than four pages of reading matter was available from all sources.

About this time Mr. Sawyer decided to retire and instead of following the natural course of things and opening his own office as an architect Mr. Cook decided to become a specialist in the planning of better farm structures.

In 1918 when the California Land Settlement Board de'cided to develop the Stanford Ranch at Durham, Butte County, Mr. Cook applied to Dr. Elwood Mead, chairman, of the board for the job of planning model farms, and in order to get started and put over his ideas accepted a job as .chainman and rodman at $3.0O a day with the engineering crew that was surveying and subdividing the tract. Within a few weeks he was installed as farmstead engineer for the California State Land Settlement Board and was for six years in charge of all building work for the board at the Durham and Delhi land settlement Colonies, in which position he designed and built more than 300O farm buildings. Included were all farm houses, barns, outbuildings, poultry plants on a commercial scale, and all types of farm stru'ctures, designed and built to meet individual requirements. Included also were individual farmstead layouts, all administration buildings, townsite houses, community buildings, etc., totaling in value about $750,000. This work required not only a complete architectural training but a great knowledge and understanding of the prob. lems and requirements of the farmer.

Mr. Cook joined the California Redwood Association in 1924 to organize an Agricultural Department, later ,called the Redwood Farm Structures Bureau, making plans and a consulting service available to farmers through local lumber dealers. The plans are made available free to the farmer. This service is in use in 41 States and eight foreign ,countries. There,are 1726 subscribers to and users of the service, and dealers have ordered 625,000 of the Bulletin plans for distribution. The material enjoys national recognition as a worthwhile contribution toward bettei and more economical farm structures. Mr. Cook recently resigned his position as head of this department after eight years' service, and while he has not yet announced hib future plans it might be a good guess that these will be connected with the designing and planning of better farm structures.

Mr. Cook is an active member of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, and is on the executive committee of the Pacific Coast section of this body. He was appointed some time ago chairman of a committee of the A. S. A. E. on Standardization of Farm Irrigation Structures' In March 1931 Dr. Elwood Mead, Commissioner of U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, in direct charge of 23 U. S. Reclamation projects arid the Hoover Dam and Boulder Canyon development, appointed him to serve as Farmstead Engineer, in a consulting capacity, to assist the Bureau of Reclamation in getting out a booklet to 'contain farm building plans, suggestions, specifications and recommendations for the settlers on the U. S. Reclamation projects. He has always been active in the Farm Structures Division of the A. S. A. E. and among his many committee appointments he is a member of the Building Committee, Pacific Coast Electrical Bureau (Agricultural Electrification).

If there was any doubt of his interest in the pioneer settlers and farmers in Butte County, Mr. Cook dispelled this by marrying in 1919 one of their daughters, Miss Loretta Deveney, whose father, William Deveney, farmed over 2000 acres in the Glenn County grain country. They live in Oakland and have one child, now almost five, Max Mackinnon, called "Mickey" in recognition of the 100 per cent Irish extraction on his mother's side.

Through his association with the Redwood industry this exceptionally able man has made a large number of friends among the retail lumbermen, and these and his many good friends all over the countrv will watch his future career with much interest.

A. Melville Dollar

A. Melville Dollar, Pacific Coast shipping man and son of the late Captain Robert Dollar; died at his home in Vancouver, B. C., on the evening of May 31, following a heart attack. He was 52 years of age. lle was the president of the Canadian-American Shipping Company with headquarters in Vancouver, operators of a fleet of ocean vessels and one of the largest shipping firms in the Northwest. He was also prominent in Vancouver business circles.

He is survived by his widow and seven children, his mother, Mrs. Robert Dollar, of San Rafael, Calif., and two brothers, R. Stanley and J. Harold Dollar, of San Francisco, president and vice-president of the Dollar S. S. Lines, Inc., Ltd. His father, Captain Robert Dollar, died at San Rafael, Calif., on May 16.

FISCHER LUMBER CO. RETIRES ALL ITS BONDS

With the recent payment into the sinking fund, Fischer Lumber Company of Marcola, Ore., has paid off all of its $1m,000 in bonds two years before the final due date, according to Smith, Camp & Riley, Ltd. This is considered an exceptional record in view of business conditions and especially in the lumber industry.

TI. A. DURFEE WITH HOME INSULATION COMPANY

H. A. Durfee is now connected with the Home Insulation Company of Los Angeles, approved agents for the JohnsManville "Home fnsulation". Mr. Durfee was formerly representative for the Creo-Dipt Company in the Southern California territory.

When You Sell

Siructurit

Booth-Kelly Douglaa Fir, the Association grade and trade mark certify to your customers the quality of the stock you handle. Builders quit guessing about what they're buying, and buy where they know what they're getting.

LUMBE9?

Creneral Saler Ofice: Eugene, Ore. Mills: Wendling, Ore., Springfield' Ore.

CALIFORN IA REPRESENTATIVES Northcrn €rlifornir Hill & Morton, Inc. Denniron St. Wharf Oaklend

CO \THOLESALE

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California Sales Agcntr for

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Andenon a Middl*on Lumber Co. Aberdceor Varh.

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Operating Steamerc

V. R. Chemberlin, Jr. - Stanrvood ' Phyllir ' Blrben C' Cric&et Dan F. I{mlon

LOS ANGELES HEAD OFFICE OAKL/\ND

Dinner

(From Owen Meredith's ,,Lucile',)

Oh hour of all hours, the most blest upon earth, Blessed hour of our dinners. The land of his birth, The face of his first love, the bills that he owes, The twaddle of friends and the venom of foes, The sermon he heard when to church he last went, The money he borrowed, the money he spent; And these things, I believe, a man may forget And not be the wo,rse for forgetting. But yetNever, never, Oh never, earth's luckiest sinner Hath unpunished forgotten the hour of his dinner. Indigestion, that conscience of every bad stomach Will relentlessly gnaw and pursue him with some ache Or pain, and trouble, remorseless, his best ease, As the furies once troubled the sleep of Orestes.

We may live without poetry, music, and art, We may live without conscience and live without heart, We may live without friends, we may live without books, But civilized men cannot live without cooks.

We may live without books; what is knowledge but grieving?

We may live without hope; what is hope but deceiving? We may live without love; what is passion but pining? But where is the man who can live without dining?

HADN'T EARNED IT

The train pulled up to the station, and the veteran traveling man looked at it in arnazernent, and therr at his watch. The train was on time to a split second. He hastened down the platform until he found the train conductor just alighting, and addressed him.

"Mr. Conductor," he said, "permit me to extend my congratulations. I've been traveling this road for fifteen years, and this is the first time in my experience that f ever saw this train come in on tinie. ft's a miracle. Have this good cigar."

The conductor pushed away the proffered smoke.

"Keep it," he said. "f haven't earned it. This is yesterday's train."

No Foundation

A great part of the mischief in the world arises from the fact that men doy'ot sufficiently understand their own aims. They undertaky'to build a tower and spend no more labor on the foundation than would be necessary to build a hut. -Goethe.

The Easy Roads

The easy roads are crowded, And the level roads are jammed; The pleasant little rivers

With the drifting folks are crammed. But off yonder where it's rocky, Where you get a better view, You will find the ranks are thinning And the travelers are few. Where the going's smooth and pleasant You will always find the throng, For the m:rny, more's the pity, Seem to like to drift along, But the steps that tall for courage And the task that's hard to do, In the end results in glory

For the never-wavering few.

Telling The Truth In Advsrtising

The auctioneer was trying to sell a box of cigars,,and.!/ was putting plenty of pressure on.

"You can't get better, gents,,' he bellowed; ,,fifty of these beauties in a box, and you can't get better at any price.r' "He's right," called out a voice from the back of the crowd. "f smoked one of them day before yesterday and f'm not better yet."

rake one '..,.,",-tol',tHt:::1T or tr*ee a'V* "r whoopee water, and mix the two with a high powered mo_ tor car. After the fool is thoroughly soaked, place his foot on the gas and remove brake. Remove chump from wreckage, place in black, satin-lined box, and garnish well wittr flowers.

Government In Business

A miqimum of government in business may be unavoid_ able in this complex political and economic era, but as we seem on our way toward the maximum, let us at least pause long enough to recognize that government control and ownership where private initiative should operate, is in the last analysis a species of communism, and communism by elimin3ting the spirit of competition and free enterprise does not release but penalizes the natural powers of man_ kind.-Albert C. Ritchie, Governor of Maryland.