How Lumber Looks

One of the trert poded lumberrnen in Southern Califonda, and one who har proved in the part trhat hL opinionr are bred upon rnany thing! berider empty air, rayr thet the month of July ie going to be a good one from a wholerale lumber rnarket viewpoint in Southern Cdifornia, and ttat the volume of burines done tfiir month will fu rwparr tfiat of June. He giver many good relsonr why thir rhould be a fact.

June har not bcen an inrpiring mondr to the hmrbernrcn of California, and e turn for the better would bc almort ar wclcome right now, er it war a ycrr ago at thir tinc.

But thcre M a changc in right, and mort of thc lumbcr folk erc fccling it drcady.

May Had Good Building Record

May building permits in 208 representative cities reached a-total_of $348,445,242, accordinglo F. W. Dodge Corpora- tion. ft was thc second successive month showing a build- ing gain o_v_er the corresponding month of last -year, the gain over May, 1924, beirig 12 pir cent. There d"" a "."- sonal drop from the high record of April. During the past five months the gain in total construition volumi ovei the first five months of 1924 has been 4 per cent. Outside of the -city- of New York the gain has bien 16 per cent; New York-City'_s total permit viluations have deireased 2l per cent from last. year. There were l3l cities showing gains over. the previous May; and 77 showing losses fr6m the previous May.

Considering the special list of 20 representative cities tabulated on this page, their May total $211,989,589, shows a,h per cent drop from the previous month, but at the same time an increase of 12 per cent over May 1924. The New York record continues io weight this toial so heavily that the figure for the first five months of this year is stitt a little behind the first five months of last yeir. However. at the end of April the loss was $50,000,000 and bv the end of May this loss had been reduced to 927,000,000. New York City's record for the past two months has shown a considerable pickup from the earlier months of the year. At present there are still 10 of these cities ahead of last year and l0 behind. Baltimore was ahead on May I and has dropped behind. At the same time Boston's May record put this city ahead. Los Angeles has verv nearly caught up with its l9Z4 record. Chicago, Kansas City. St. Louis and Pittsburgh continue well ahead ol their 1924 records.

The 20 cities in this special list are chosen as being representative of the sections in which they are located. There are a number of other important cities which had substantial increases in building volume last month. Among them were Bridgeport. Washington. Miami, Louisville, Springfield, Camden, Jersey City, Portland (Ore.), and Houston.

fn general, building seems to be proceeding at a most satisfactory rate with little evidence in sight of any appreciable curtailment of activity, except the usual seasonal falling off.

Figuree from San Pedro Harbor rhow ttat up to the night of Jrme 25th, 125,fl)O,0OO feet of Fir and Redwood had been received, and the totdr for Jrure rhould bc right around 14Q(DOrOO0 feet. There are ten or twelve million feet on the dockr at San Pedro, a mighty improvement over tte volume of a few wcekr ago, and the clearing up ir continuing. With no more boatr in rcrrricc than there har bcen for the put montt, and an increared demend, the dock rituation will fart bccomc normal.

Rccciptr for thc yclr up to and including Junc 25th for ell the portr of Southett Celifornia, totallcd 733'(X)O,OOO fcct.

For thc ranc pcriod of lart ycar thc totrh wcrc 766r0O0,(XX) fcct.

Red Cedar Shingle Production Increases

According to the estimate furnished The California Lumber Merchant by the Shingle Branch of the West Coast Lumbermen's Association especially for this issue, the production of Red Cedar Shingles for the year beginning June First, 1924, and ending June First, 1925, is- approximately TEN BILLION SHINGLES.

This they estimate.to be 9 per cent greater than the production for the previous year.

The estimates cover Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia.

The past twelve months has been a better year for Red Cedar Shingles than the past two or three years, due undoubtedly to the increased and improved effort being made nearly all over the country to better merchandise shingles, and interest the public in better shingles, and therefore in more shingles.