The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1914-11-14
WOODS OUTLOOK
IS NOT GOOD
A NUMBER OF JOBBERS ARE NOT
GOING TO DO ANY WORK
LOG PRICES ARE VERY LOW
Stumpage Prices are Kept up and
Everyone Fears the Scale More
Than the Price This Winter

Not since the panic of 1898 has the
| logging outlook i'm the vicinity OF
! Crystal Falls been so dark There i,
absolutely no interest In woods work,
although there are hundreds Of men
anxious TO get to the woods for the
winter
The reason for this is the apathy OF
the log buyers The lumber companies
clam that their yards are piled full of
unsold lumber and that they do not
wish TO assume any further burden
than they can help in the way of new
stock. The most of them are cutting
their own timber in small way and
waiting until later in the winter with
the hope that they may be able TO tell
which way the eat is going to jump
before they make any prices on logs TO
jobbers
Money seems TO be hinderiag the
lumber industry more than any other
industry OF this section. The man.
ufacture Of timber into lumber is a
long drawn out operation that requires
lot of financing. There are the
camps TO fit up, the roads and general
preparatory work of the early fall.
over twelve months before there is any
prospect of getting cash out OF the
product. Then there is the logging.
the railing, the yarding and saving
in the spring and summer and then
the lumber must lie in pile several
months and be sold on a 90 day time
at the best. 1t takes lot of money
and milling companies find IL hard to
get the money to stock up with. Many
of the companies have been under the
necessity of renewing their paper
q couple of times this year given last
winter for logs.
Under such condition it is not to
be expected that the lumber industry
would be brisk, not to speak OF the
interruption to building operations
throughout the county.
The Sawyer Goodman Company
closed one camp a couple IF months
ago but are keeping the Alpha camp
going steadily They are employing
about half the number of men they
usually do The Kiel people are not
operating heavily They have arranged
10 cut a small tract Of timber that they
own west Of the Bristol. the contract
having been let to Mr. lBlixt who in
turn sub-let portion TO Poulsen q
Dahms The Menasha Go. representative
WAS in Crystal Falls last week and
bought come timber but letters re-.
ceived from him since don't indicate
that his company is keen for any more
timber just now
Holmes ~ Co. who have been the
biggest local operators are not going
to do any logging at all this winter.
Andrew Nelson will get in a fair sized
stock for his mill He purchased a
small tract west Of Alpha IN con-
junction with q. 7. Olson who viii
log it this winter, loading on cars
near Alpha.
p. f. Boyle q Go. will cut only
cord wood this winter ut Balsam. They
expect TO get ont a couple of thousand
cords and will employ about 100 men
when they get going, Poulsen q
Dahms have logging job of their
own west Of the Bristol as well as
the work they sub.let from Bhxt and
will be busy with a fair sized crew
all winter
The mining companies who have
been pretty good customers OF the
loggers are buying almost nothing and
this curtails woods operations very
materially. What is true OF the mines
in this section is true all over the
peninsula and thus big market for a
lot OF timber and an agency that EN-
ploys lots OF men is cut OFT.