Estate Record





AND    BUILDERS'    GUIDE





Vol. XIL                    NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1873.                        No. 285





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■ Published Weekly by

lUh   ESTATE  mm ASS0ri4TI0N.

TERMS.

One year, in advance......................$6 00

All communications should he addressed to
O. TV. ©AVEET,
Whiting Building, Mo and 347 Broadway.





SPECIAL NOTICE.

The attention of capitalists and others desirous of
securing a fine, highly-cultivated country-seat, is direct¬
ed to Mr. James M. Constable's advertisement in an¬
other column. The reason that this gentleman at all
thinks of disposing of that particular property is, simply
because be has purchased that of Mr. Craighead's ad¬
joining, where he intends to reside in future, and
is now looking for a neighbor worthy of occupying
grounds that have cost years of care and cultivation.





NOTICE TO STTBSCErBERS.

After Septomber 1st, all subscription bills
clue the Real Estate Recoed, north of
Cautil Street, will be pay:ible at the ofRce,Nos.
345 and 347 Broadway. We are compelled to
adopt this system in consequence of the high
percentage of cost of collection where only six
dollars is involved, as in hundreds of cases a
collector is compelled to call three or four
times on parties before receiving the amount
due, thus involving a great loss of time. Here¬
after, a bill of subscription (due invariably iu
advance) will be sent by mail to each sub¬
scriber, upon receipt of which a prompt re-
. mittance is respectfully requested, or a note
to the effect that the paper will not be requir¬
ed for the coming year. As but a limited sup¬
ply of back numbers are kept on hand, sub¬
scribers will understand that in case of a
break for a single week it will be a matter of
great uncertainty whether their files can be
completed. For advertising bills, exceeding
in amount twenty-five dollars, a collector will
be sent as usual.





MADISON AVENUE EXTENSION.





As now progressing, nearly, if not quite,
tw'O years will elapse before the completion
of the Madison Avenue extension, from Eigh¬
ty-sixth Street to Harlem River. The rock
cutting between One Hundred and Sixteenth
and One Hundred and Twentieth streets will
require eighteen months to finish ; and the
grade will fall from that point easily in oppo¬
site directions to One Hundred and Tenth
Street and to the river. There are, however,
objections to the grade established between
Isinety-fourth and One Hundred and Fifth





streets, where the contractors are filling in
upon the profile adopted by the Department
of Public Works, We greatly doubt if the
avenue upon completion at this point Avill meet
the requirements of necessity or of good taste.
The grade will be so steep as to present a
serious obstacle to travel southwardl}', and the
street cars, which are expected to traverse the
length of the avenue, will require additional
if not double horse power to reach the summit
of the incline. Tlie precipitous descent will
prejudice the locality for building purposes,
and will detract in manj' ways Irom the ap¬
pearance of a slreet which it is properly ex¬
pected will be remarkable for its gencraliy ele¬
gant architectural character. It has been
rumored that the Department of Public Works
has become awakened to the necessity for
changing the grade as now established. We
cannot but hope that the rumor is true, and
we ask Commissioner Van Nort to give the
subject his attention while the work is in prog¬
ress, suggesting that an e.asier descent can be
secured by prolongation to One Hundred and
Tenth Street.

Incidental to this subject, as a matter of
remark, lots located on Madison Avenue, near
One Hundred aud Eighteenth Street, will be,
upon the completion of the street, thirty-five
feet above the grade.





THE BOULEVARDS, ROADS,  AND AVENUES.





Mr. Van Nort, in a communication to the
Board of Estimate and Apportionment, states,
that an additional sum of $25,000 will be re¬
quired for the proper maintenance of the
boulevards, roads, and avenues, until the 1st
of January, 1874. Of the $40,000 appropriated
for the year 1873, $84,896.97 had been expend-
ed on the 10th iust, while the balance will
have been paid out by Sept, 10, Last year the
amount appropriated was $35,000 for six and
one-half months, and this was only for the
maintenance of 251,039 square yards, while
this year the surface to be maintained is 568,-
078 square yards.





THE WESTERN LUMBER TRADE.

We append extended remarks upon the
" Lumber Out-look" as seen from a peint of
view which commands a generally thorough
and accurate knowledge of the lumber trade
at one of the principal sources of supplJ^
These articles from the Saginaw (Mich,) Cou¬
rier are remarkable in that they expose a
;greater feeling of depression than we supposed
existed, although we have noticed that an un¬
usual dullness has peiwaded the western lum¬
ber trade, and that there have been greater
complaints on this score tLian for any previous
season............





The Courier of August 21st says :—

OVEK-STOCKS AND TUE INSPECTION LAW.

In the Courier of Wednesday our readers
could not have failed to notice the action of
a number, embracing, in the aggregate, a ma¬
jority of the lumbermen interested in operations
on tlie Tittabawassee River, The statements
set forth in the document, and the queries
propounded, would, perhnps, to the casual oh-
server, be possessed of no extraordinary sig¬
nificance, but to the observing and interested
reader contain the germs of serious thotight
and reflection, 250,000,000 feet of logs hung
up on the Tittabawassee sounds large in itself,
but add to this 65,000,000 on the Cass, 40,000,-
000 on the Rifle and Au Gres, and at least
150,000,000 (HI the other streams, and we have
an aggregate of 500,000,000, or five-sevenths of
a full suppiy for another year's sawing. In
view of this fact, tlie figures reveal to us that
but little lumbering can be profitably under¬
taken during the coming winter, for if the logs
be put in, the immense quantities below tbe
banking grounds will preclude the possibility
of realizing on them during the season of 1874,
and the money invested must la}-^ as so much
dead stock uuiil the succeeding, season. Oper¬
ators in logs and lumber have experienced too
much difficulty in money matters during the
past and present season to willingly and blind-
\y place themselves in the same position for
another year, and with five-sevenths of a full
stock already ahead of them, which will be
brought up to the full supply by inland mills,
which are sure to operate from the necessities
and peculiarities of their situation, our oper¬
ators are too farseeing and careful lo invest
ineans where it is sure to be tied up for an
indefinite length of time, while it is a recog¬
nized fact that in the present condition of
things the standing pine is of more value than
the logs in stream or lumber on dock. While
the large over-supply of logs (being well known
all over the land) cannot fail to have exerted
a large influence in the depression of the mar¬
ket, we are constrained to the opinion that this
of itself has not been all that has contributed
to the extraordinary condition of things v;hich
now exist in, our valley, and the true mission
of the daily journalist is to endeavor to sift
the causes to their origin.

We have for a long time entertained the
opinion that local causes might be ojierating,
and if so be that our present difficulties are the
result of action which is permanently prejudi¬
cial to our trade, it would seem to be the part
of wisdom to look tlie matter square in the
face, and endeavor to overcome the trouble.
As we sift the lumber trade of the country, we
find that while sales are dull, and money con¬
sequently close in our own locality, ourdocks
full of stock and trade languishing, that yet
stocks are accumulating in other markets.
These stocks are obtained from some source,
and the question " where" is of interest. We
find that at Port Huron and the mills of St.
Clair River and along the shore of Lake Hu¬
ron the docks are empty, v\-\\\\e the manufacture
is crowded to its full extent. We find huge
rafts of short logs are being towed from our
own river to supply these mills—logs whicli
could as quickly and more cheaply besawed at
our own mills. Why are they taken abroad ?
From Georgian Bay we find the shipments of
lumber to far exceed those of any other year,
and trade stimulated to the utmost, in the face
of a tariff on importation of,- we believe,- 20 per