136 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



♦ 



this article, was taken, a woodsman was cutting shingle 

 bolts out of this oldtimer and these bolts were just as 

 sound as the day when the log was in its prime. 



There is one special case of an old home which now 

 stands near Tacoma, ^^'ashington. The roof of this 



Copyrighted photograph by Darius Kinsey. 



TUNNEL THROUGH A WESTERN RED CEDAR 



This gives an excellent idea of the size of these trees, and also of the shaggy bark 

 which renders their identification so easy. The tree stands along a roadside in 

 the State of Washington. 



home, built of sawed red cedar shingles, is 30 years 

 old and never has been painted. This roof is still in 

 perfect condition, with the exception of a few loose shin- 

 gles, the result of the nails having rusted off. The owner 

 of this place says that had the proper nails been used 

 the roof would be good for ten or fifteen years 

 more. It is this exceptionally remarkable dtira- 

 bility, together with the lightness and the ease 

 with which the timber is worked, that makes red 

 cedar unequaled anywhere for shingle material. 

 Nature has done all she can on the raw material 

 and has left the manufacturing to the mortal. 



POLES, PILING, FENCE POSTS AND LUMBER 



Cedar is employed for tises where lightness 

 and durability are required rather than strength. 

 The combined assets of size and durability make 

 cedar exceptionally adaptable for telephone poles, 

 some kinds of piling, and fence posts. It is 

 almost impossible to put any kind of, timber in 

 the ground without its decaying in a very, very 

 short time at the ground line. This is due to 

 the fact that you have at this point light, heat, 

 and alternate wetting and drying, which are the 

 essential qualifications to promote decay. The 

 suitable taper of the tree and the pole lengths 

 obtainable, together with the durability, have 

 caused western red cedar to become the standard 

 pole timber. 



Red cedar is used to some certain extent in 

 lumber. This refers particularly to the red 

 cedar siding. Again is found a use where dura- 

 bility and lightness are the essential features. 

 There are also two other characteristics of the 

 red cedar which make it particularly adaptable 

 for this use. These are the slight shrinkage and 

 expansion due to dift'erent moisture conditions 

 of the wood ; also the ease with which this tim- 

 ber will take nails without splitting. Only a 

 small percentage of cedar used goes for these 

 combined purposes. The big majority is used in 

 cedar shingles. 



Any product which is furnished by nature is 

 necessarily produced in different grades ; apples, 

 berries, nuts, vegetables come in different stages 

 of perfection. It is no dift'erent with cedar. The 

 raw material develops in different grades due to 

 dift'erent localities, dift'erent climatic conditions, 

 dift'erent altitudes and various other agencies, 

 and there are defects such as knots, poor grain, 

 inferior growth, etc. In order to put the manu- 

 facture of shingles on a practical basis, it is 

 necessary to make grades which include some of 

 these defects, the percentage of high and low 

 grades depending very much upon the timber. 

 There is a market for each and every grade of 

 shingles. Temporary buildings, such as sheds, 

 play houses, tool houses and any and all tem- 

 porary structures, should logically use the cheap 

 or poorer grade of shingles. Permanent 



