Possible Fuel Shortage Spurs Sales of Firewood at Harvard

Companies selling firewood to Harvard students are enjoying higher sales and higher prices as a result of the threatened heating fuel shortage this winter.

The T&B Wood Co. of Revere is the only company with a vendor's license to sell wood at Harvard. The company's sales in the Harvard community have risen 50 per cent over a year ago, Barry P. Caswell, manager of the firm, said yesterday.

"This year I can bring a truck over to Harvard full of wood and sell the whole thing in one night without as much as snapping my fingers," he said. "I used to have to hustle; it's kind of nice to have people come to me."

Two Dollars a Bushel

So many people are coming to buy wood that the price of a two-bushel basket of firewood which sold for $3 last year now sells for $4--a 33-per-cent increase.

Caswell said most of the wood sold by T&B comes from farmers in New Hampshire who cut down tall trees from their lands. The farmers sell the timber to lumber companies and sell the top sections of the trees to firewood distributors.

Because of this year's increased demand, a shortage of firewood now exists. Caswell said that T&B may have to go as far north as Montreal to find supplies of wood for the winter.

The only other legal firewood vendor at Harvard is the Lowell House Committee. The committee sells wood to Lowell House residents by the armload, at cost.

James A. Misseau, chairman of the Lowell House Committee, said yesterday: "We have sold a lot of wood, but I can't see how students can expect to heat their rooms with their fireplaces."

He said rooms in the Houses do not allow for free circulation of heat from a fireplace into all the rooms of a suite.