Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-10-02
OUR SPRUCE TIMBER
ELOQUENT TRIBUTE TO ONE OF
JOUR- LEADING PRODUCTS.

The Effort Should Be to Find q Market
for the Latter as Such A Few Words for
fiemIock-Freisht Rates Should Be Adjust
ed 50 As to Give Both these Timbers. as
Well as Low Grade Fir. an Eastern Market.
The semi.annual meeting OF the Pa.
cific Coast Lumber Manufacturer As.
sociation which met at Tacoma last
month, was q most successful one.
The busy men who control the saw
mills of the State took few days oil,
swapped stories, told experiences and
made speeches. Among the best
speeches was one by Mr.. Emerson of
Hoquiam. The subject assigned him
was the "Spruce Outlook" and his
address was as follows:
"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen OF
the Association: think perhaps you
would all be better pleased if I had
been with the majority and submitted
to the Secretary letter to read, stat
ing that could not be present to-day.
1T has been assigned to me to talk
to you upon the subject Of spruce. A
representative body of lnmbermen,
such as I see before me, needs no in
PRODUCTION to spruce. They have met
with it from Maine to Alaska. They
chewed its gum when boys, possibly
presented some Of its choice morsels |
to their best girls to chew. They have
slept on its fragrant boughs, and look
ing through the trees above them,
have seen the stars twiukling down,
and they have awakened in the morn
ing with the suns first ray spr eading
across the stream or lake before them
and coming in among tho spruce to
rouse them to energy with the previous
days fatigue past and gone and every
faculty ready for the exigencies Of the
day to come.
1--WE have listened to spruce in the
violin and in the sounding board Of
the piano. We have watched it in the
spar Of our yacht a. it bent to the
breeze, and today the champions of
America and England are contesting
for the cup which they prize 90 highly
With their clouds Of canvas stretched
to spruce spars-largely to spruce
spars built from spruce shipped them
from Gray's Harbor.
1--WE find spruce trees in all stages
of development in different portions OF
the country, but nowhere, gentlemen.
does it grow to such perfection % in
the extreme west adjacent to the wa.
ters OF the Pacific. While the trees Of
the east figure 90 many 10 the thou
sand, the trees Of the west figure 60
many thousand to the tree. The
trees Of six, seven and eight feet in di.
ameter, one hundred feet to the first
limb, round as il turned in q lathe,
beautiful as if depicted ON canvas, are
the trees that We are manufacturing
into lumber here in the west. You
are familiar with spruce in its various
forms OF manufactured product. You
have all admired its smooth, white
surface, you have admired it as the
finish of the white building when
manufactured into doors or windows
and in the finish Of the outside OF the
house when used in bowel siding.
Wherever it has gone it has made for
itself . friend and firm admirer.
"But it is not all clear, gentlemen
il is possessed Of the same defects as
other trees of our forests. A large per
cent. of our best spruce trees must 60
into our low grade material, and it is
for that material that we seek mar
ket. The higher grades market them.
selves, they are wanted everywhere,
but the low grades require q market,
as do the markets OF our low grade fir.
The extension of our markets for that
grade of material is one Of the things
that this association should deal with.
Spruce gets but little thought and
but few words from the association az
whole. There are but few of its
members who are dealing with it to
any great extent. Nevertheless, the
low grades must be manufactured and
they must be marketed or the high
grades cannot be produced. The low
grades in the first place must be man.
factured into boxes. fruit packages,
butter packages and packages OF all
kinds, and the markets for those low
grades need extension.