Wonderful New Mill at Fresno

By MR. T2HN P. HEMPHILL Asst. Gen. Mgr. Ma:dera Sugar Pine Co. Before the San Joaquin Valley Lumbermen's Association

I have been asked to tell you something concerning our new plant at Fresno. Am sure that those who know Mr. E. H. Cox, and I recognize many of his friends here, will appreciate what is mea.nt when I say that thd Supr Pi:re Lumber Co.'s plant is a reflection of his personality. It is said that all big businesses are a reflection of the personality of some big n-ran. In my opinion, the Fresno plant is a reflection of Mr. Cox' personality.

Not so very long ago, Mr. Cox was successful in acquiring not only the White & Friant timber holdings, but considerable government timber adjacent threreto. Have no hesitancy whatever in saying that the body of timber which now constitutes the sugar Pine Lumber Co.'s holdings i-" the finest body of Pine timber that ever grew anywhere. It is'comprised largely of Sugar Pine, and in all there is in the neighborhood of three billion feet. Cutting 'at the -rate of one hundred million fee,t per year, this stand will last for thirty years, and at the end of this time, other govg-rqment timber adjacent thereto w,ill undoubtedly still be available. Those of us who are here, therefore, need feel no concern whatever about lumber being available to us from the Sugar Pine Lumber Co.'s plant so long as we are engaged in the lumber business.

It will probably be of still further interest to some of you to know that the White & Friant timber was first acquired by an eastern man, named Thomas Friant, who had as his partner a man named White, whose son Stewart Edward White, popular writer of lumber jack stories, is perhaps better known than he. White & Friant 'in coming west sought out the very best timber at that time available, their idea being to provide an operation in this section after their eastern timber holdings were cut off. Those for whose future they planned did not take to their line of endeavor and so the tim er has stood untouched over a long period of years-Mr. Friant being now well past eiglity years of age. When the character of our operation was described to him by Mr. Cox and myself long since, he placed his hand upon my shoulder and said rather sadly, but not without enthusiasm, "Young man, I envy.you,-you are to be ofiorded an opportunity to live my dream. It is perhaps well, however, that the task has passed into younger hands."

Having acquired so magnificient a body of timber, Mr' Cox' next thought was to build a plant whiCn was thoroughly modern and up-to-date in every particular. Those of you who know him are acquaintbd with his thoroughness and orderly method of procedure in all matters' In searching about for a sawmill engineer, he was fortunate in securing the services of Mr. F. W. Horstkotte of Spokane' I feel quite safe in saying that Mr. Horstkotte, although still a young man, has had to do with the building of m'ore sawmills than any other man in the United States' His father was engaged in this work before him, so that it is a case of a tra4e havi.ng passed over into a second genera- tion. iVIr. Horstkotte had the {urther advantage, or being associated lor many years with a very well known sawmill construction engineer named Wilkinson, to whose business he succeeded at the time of the latttr's death. Not wislhing to draw solely upon Mr. Horstkotte's experience in the matter of sawm,ill building, Mr. Cox arranged that Mr. Horstkotte should take an extended trip, which included all the large soft pine lumbering operations on this coast. The speaker, who has been with Mr. Cox since 1910 and who is more or less versed in Mr. Cox' policies and methods of manufacture, was asked to accompany Mr. Horstkotte on this trip. Together we went from plant to plant, studying the general layout, the machinery in use, and the lu'mber handling methods followed, reporting to Mr. Cox fully as we went. In all, fifteen large plants were covered in detail. At the corclusion of this trip, which lasted nearly two monihs, a report was made up for Mr. Cox, in which were made recommendations covering plant installations in detail. Mr. Cox, who has always been a keen observer and who has had over thirty-five years experience in the lumber business, after calling into consultation, many of the superintendents in his employ, made such changes as to him appeared beneficial. The plant as it stands, therefore, represents the very best thought of Mr. Cox, of whose success I need not speak, and of Mr. Horstkotte, generally conceded to be the best sawmill engineer available anywhere.

The sawmill is wfhat is known as a four band mill. It is electrically driven throug'irout and will have a capacity of six hundred thousand feet per day. We expect to prG duce with this mill one hundred million feet annually. The balance of the plant is designed to take care of an output of this size, and the general layout is w,ithout egception the finest and best to be found anywhere on this coast. The yard, for example, is eighty acres in extent and designed in such a way as to assure the very best drying cond;itions possible. T,ire storage sheds, of which there are four, will house better than ten million feet of lumber, and forty carloads of lumben per day can easily be loaded out over the loading platform.

A talk upon the Fresno plant would not be confplete without directing attention to the railroad which has been cornstructed to serve the mill. Those who are pell acquainted with Mr. Cox know that he started out in life as a brakeman on a train. In aranging to build his railroad and in selecting his equipment, Mr. Cox planned every bit as carefully as in the construction of iris plant. Mr. T. O. Russell, well known to most of you, was selected as Chief Engineer. I am pleased to see that he is present because he is much better acquainted with railroad m'atters than L ' \{r. Russell will tell you about this phase of our work.

Editor's Note :

Mr. Russell's speech uill appear )n o bter i sue.