Graham guardian., 1909-04-16
LUMBER PRICES COMPILED
Government Extends Work With
Wholesale Lumber Price Rec
Ofds 10 Southwest

ALBUQUERQUE, N. M, April To-
The wholesale lumber price record
work for Forest Service District No.
8, including Arizona, Arkansas, New
Mexico and Oklahoma which form
erly has been handled by the district
headquarters at Denver has been
transferred to the headquarters in
this city. Form letters have been
sent out to co-operators for the first
time, and returns up to the present
indicate that the work in the South
west will be put on just as salts
factory basis as it is in other Sec
tions of the United States.
During the past ten months the
Forest Service has been compiling a
monthly record of wholesale prices
of the principal grades of lumber in
the leading markets of the country.
In making a compilation of con-
tinuous record of the selling prices
of lumber the government is filling
a distinct gap in the information
available upon the lumber industry
"a gap which does not exist in any
other great industry. In all i'm
portant fields of business and COM
merce where raw materials are pro-
duced and handled, with the ex-
ception of the lumber industry, there
are detailed statistics upon produc-
ton, consumption and prices. In
almost any leading newspaper, there
are quoted the current selling prices
of live stock, cereals, cotton and
other agricultural products; of pig
iron, copper, silver, petroleum and
other mineral products.
The lumber industry, ranking
fourth among the industries of the
country, has not even had annual
statistics of production until the last
three years. Up to the present time,
neither the producers nor consumers
of lumber could get any authentic
and general statement of the prices
for which the leading grades have
recently sold in the great centers of
distribution.
Prices asked for lumber are not
compiled by the Forest Service. All
that it does is to compile as best it
can, through the help of cooper
ators in every section of the coun-
try, a record of what lumber has
actually sold for. Several repre-
wholesalers in each mar
ket report to the service at the end
of each month the average high and
low prices received by them during
the month. These reports are COM
bined in a single statement for each
market.
In the selection of grades upon
and of the firms from which reports
are received. every effort is made
and caution exercised to get sales
that are representative. The CO.
operators upon whose reports the
record is based, voluntarily report
their actual sales in the same man.
ner that the lumber manufacturers
voluntarily report their annual pro-
duction to the Bureau of the Census |
and the Forest Service. The manu-
facturers report their information
promptly and accurately and few
pieces of cooperative work done by
the government are more appre-
ciated by them than this.
The success of the work in other
markets of the country is sure to
nave similar results in the South
west. Heretofore, reports on whole
sale lumber prices have been avail
able for only few markets of States
n this section. Officers of the For
,st Service at Albuquerque think that
his Territory is an excellent field
'or the work and with the voluntary
of operators in this
district, it promises many future
,enefts to all who take part in it.