The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-10
WOOD FAMINE THREATENED.
OAK WOOD PROMISES TO COMMAND
FANCY PRICES THIS WINTER.

The Great Demand From the SOL
Jicrs Has Led to n Decided short
age in the supply for the Savan-
nah Public-SmalI Dealers Unable
10 GET Wood and Forced to Buv
From Those Who Had Stocked Up
Ahead.
Savannah may be treated to an oak
famine before the winter is over. With
the soldiers consuming twenty-five cords
, day. or 175 cords week, and with the
stocks in the hands of wood dealers being
RAPIDLY diminished, it would not be sur
prisag if the demand wiped out the sup
ply at times during the next few months
As it is, some of the smaller dealers
have not had any oak wood for sale, for a
week or longer, and find themselves I'M
able TO get any in the country. They have
been in the habit of ordering a carload or
TWO to meet their wants, from time to
time and were caught with little wood on
hand when the demand from the soldiers
came They have had no trouble in past
years. and anticipated none this winter.
y
a week or more ago they We're surprised
10 learn that their demands could not be
met The contractors who are supplying
the army with wood had been ahead of
them, cleaned up everything in sight, and
put in orders that took everything that
could he chopped and brought 10 the rail
roads.
As a result, a number of the smaller
dealers either had TO turn customers away
or buy the wood themselves from the
larger dealers, and do with little or no
profit in order to hold their trade.
Two or three large dealers, perhaps more,
we're stocked up for the winter, either
having the wood here or contracted for
ahead. Bringing the wood to the city in
trainload lots they are able to contract for
an entire seasons supply. These dealers
refused to sell any of their stocks to the
soldiers, realizing what was coming, and
desiring to protect the interests of their
regular local patrons
The small dealers in wood are evidently
going to work at a disadvantage this win
ter, as the situation is apt to grow worse
rather than better, so far as securing new
supplies are concerned. With colder
weather the consumption of wood, both
by the soldiers and citizens will be vastly
increased It would not be surprising
then TO see an advance in prices. Already,
it is said, dealers in the country are
demanding better figures and getting them.
One class of dealers In the city are put
ting up prices. They are those who nave
been selling pine at Is to 50 cents load
and oak at $1.00 TO $1.10 load. The large
dealers have strictly adhered to the price
that has ruled for some time, 81 a load
for pine and $l.25 for oak. A load is sup
posed to be a quarter of a cord. When
asked yesterday as to how it is some deal
ers could afford to cut the price Is to %
cents load a large retailer remarked sem
tentiously: "Cut price, cut load. To some
people a loads a load, and the price is
everything, but when you pay Is cents you
get 70 cents worth of wood and when you
pay dollar you get a dollars worth"
The smaller dealers, those who have been
selling at cut figures, are now being forced
in many instances to advance prices
The supplies of pine wood in the city
are said to be larger than of oak, and
there is not so much danger of famine
in regard to It, Pine wood will not be
used much by the soldiers, and the de-
mand will not be so much above the nor
NAL.
If prices should advance to any great
extent, there might be boom in the de-
mand for soft coal for CRATES Nearly all
Savannah houses are furnished with
CRATES. Once the householders get to US
ing soft coal, the tendency to burn fuel
might continue and affect the wood market
in after years.
One of the strange things about the
wood market is that with hundreds of
thousands of acres of wood within reach
of Savannah, people here pay dollar
cord more for wood than is paid in New
York state, for instance, where the forests
are almost gone, and where oak trees are
at a premium. A wood famine, or even 81
a cord for wood in a country of forests
like Georgia seems beyond understanding
to people who have lived in other parts
Of the country.
One dealer said the trouble has been that
owing to the wet and rainy conditions in
the forests during the last two or three
months, 1t has been impracticable, and,