New California Enterprise

A new and important addition to the manufacturing facilities of the Boorman Lumber Company, 10035 East l4th St., Oakland, specialists in the pr.oduction of Port Orford Cedar mouldings and trim, is a department devoted to the manufacture of yard sticks.

B. J. Boorman, head of this progressive concern discov- ered some months ago that with one exception there were no yard stick measures manufactured and printed west of Michigan. This knowledge seemed to be a challenge for a new enterprise, and early in March contracts were let for the construction of a printing press for this purpose, which has recently been put into operation.

The wood used in the production of these yard sticks is Port Orford Cedar, "the wood with the porcelain finish," that is acknowledged to be one of the finest woods in existence. It mills perfectly, paints and stains beautifully, especially when stained an orange color with Tartazine dye as popularly used in the manufacture of yard sticks. This attractive color with the firm, even texture of the wood, makes the printed matter and figured scale stand .out boldly. Before printing, the sticks are processed by being carefully kiln dried, and manufactured on automatically fed, electrically driven, ballbearing machines, specially dyed and then taken to the printing press that has a capacity of 2,000 sticks per hour. The sticks are then packed 500 in a corrugated carton, sealed and shipped.

Heretofore all yard sticks have been manufactured east of Chicago, most of them in New York state. The freight rate from the eastern manufacturers to the Pacific coast is quite high, while the freight rate from Oakland to the zone paralleling the Pacific is very reasonable indeed, thus resulting in a big saving to the consumer.

Mr. Boorman says he knows of no other advertising medium of the same investment that will give the advertiser a more attractive and permanent reminder of the donor than this useful and practical household commodity. This kind of advertising is not seasonal as the yard stick is an indispensable household article at all times.; which is kept around the homes for years, or indefinitely.

"While this department has only been in operation a short time, we recentlv made substantial shipments of yard sticks to five western states in one day. This indicates the welcome and encouragement with which the users of yard sticks have greeted this new enterprise. After examining the product, one large firm of San Francisco jobbers placed orders for 200,000 sticks, which included the order of one western firm for 100,000 sticks for use in their various branches," Mr. Boorman said.