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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 12, no. 285: August 30, 1873

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Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE Vol. XIL NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1873. No. 285 m ■ 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