Arizona republican., 1909-04-14
LUMBER PRICE RECORD
 LITTLE KNOWN 0F II
FORESTRY SERVICE IS AT WORK
 ON IT.
To Fill a Gap in Available Informa
 ton.

Albuquerque, N. M., April 9.-(Spe- cial Correspondence of The Republic an.)-The wholesale lumber price rec ord work for forest service district No. 8, including Arizona, Arkansas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, which for merly 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 the co-operators for the first time and returns up to the present time in dicate that the work in the southwest will be put on just as satisfactory a basis as it is in other sections of the United States.
 During the past ten months the for est service has been compiling monthly record of wholesale prices of the principal grades of lumber in the leading markets of the country In making a compilation of a continuous record of the selling prices of lumber the government is filling distinct gap in the information available upon the lumber industry-a gap which does not exist in any other great industry. In all important fields of business and commerce where raw materials are dIlu Mlln the eA- ception of the lumber industry, there are detailed statistics upon production. consumption and prices. In almost any leading newspaper there are quoted the selling prices of live stock, | cereals. cotton and other agricultural products, of pig iron, copper. silver. l petroleum and other mineral products l
 The lumber industry ranking fourth | tt has not even had annual statistics of l production until the last three years. | Up to the present time, neither the [ producers nor the consumers of lum- | Der could get any authentic and gen | eral 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 co-operators in every section of the country, rec ord of what lumber has actually sold for. Several representative whole salers in each market report to the service at the end of each month the average high and low prices received by them during the month. These re- poIlo d l ment for each market
 In the selection of grades reported upon and of the firms from which re- ports are received. every effort is made and caution exercised to get sales that are representative. The CO., operators upon whose reports the rec ord is based voluntarily report their actual sales in the same manner that the lumber manufacturers voluntarily report their annual production to the bureau of the census and the forest service. The manufacturers report their information promptly and accur- ately and few pieces of cooperative work done by the government are more appreciated by them than this.
 The success of the work in other markets of the country is sure to have similar results in the southwest Here tofore reports on wholesale lumber prices have been available for only few markets of states in this section Officers of the forest service at Albu- querque think that this territory offers an excellent field for the work. and with the voluntary cooperation of op- orators in this district it promises many future benefits to all who take part in it.