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Utilization of Hardwoods 



ARTICLE FIFTY-NINE 

 WOODEN PAILS AND SHOE PEGS 



Perhaps r.o single article of woodenware is in more general use 

 in this country than the water bucket. It was once more unduly 

 used than it now is, in proportion to the population of the country. 

 It has not been long since town water works, with net works of 

 delivery pipes, and kitchen, bathroom, and laundry spigots, came 

 into general use. Before that time, villages, towns, and even cities, 

 depended upon wells, and every house carried its own water. In 

 the country, the windmill, the hydraulic ram, and hydrostatic ap- 

 paratus for putting water indoors, were much less in evidence than 

 at present. The water pail was indispensable and it was every- 

 where. 



The selection of wood for pail making was an important matter. 

 Light weight and long service were desirable. Buckets made of 

 zinc, galvanized iron, and fiber are of recent introduction. "Wooden 

 pails were once the only kind in use, and in most localities they 

 were manufactured by local coopers in numbers adequate to meet 

 the demands of the immediate neighborhood. They selected soft- 

 woods which split nicely and work easily. In early times sawed 

 bucket staves were unknown. The frow and the drawing knife, 

 with a tool for cutting the groove in which to insert the bottom, 

 were the principal apparatus in a primitive pail shop. Every 

 ounce in weight that could be saved, without sacrificing efficiency, 

 was considered worth looking after. Some woods weigh twice as 

 much as others, and no cooper would select the heavier when the 

 lighter would answer. While well buckets were often of oak, the 

 water pail seldom or never was of that wood. It was too heavy. 

 The best soft, light wood to be had in a region was made use of. 

 The region had much to do with it. The New Englander did. not 

 make pails of cypress, neither was white pine a pail material in 

 Louisiana. 



Six or more very good pail woods abound in the United States. 

 There are, of course, several others which give good service, but 

 in New England white pine is unexcelled; in New .Tersey the south- 

 ern white cedar is used; in Tennessee there is no wood better than 

 red cedar; the cypress is choice material where it abounds; in Cali- 

 fornia the choice falls on redwood; and in Oregon and Washington, 

 western red cedar has no competitor, though some others are very 

 good. 



There was a time when a pail was supposed to be purely a water 

 pail. Demand for other uses had not yet developed. At the pres- 

 ent time, however, the wooden water bucket holds a comparatively 

 minor place in the trade. Pails of metal or fiber hold most of that 

 field. As the wooden water pail has withdrawn from the com- 

 manding position which it once held, other uses have been found 

 for wooden buckets. They are made by machinery, in many sizes, 

 for many commodities, and the list of available woods has largely 

 increased. The material, however, is not selected at haphazard. 

 The bucket maker must study the demands of his trade. If he 

 makes vessels in which to pack plug tobacco, the wood must not 

 impart a disagreeable taste to the contents; if he manufactures 

 lard buckets, tlie wood must not exude a colored sap to stain or 

 taint the lard; and when the cooper selects basswood for butter 

 pails, he does it because experience has shown that this wood con- 

 tains no injurious ingredients. 



It is not apparent that the employment of substitutes, such as 

 tin, zinc, iron and fiber, has lessened the number or the kinds of 

 wooden pails in use. The expansion of trade is so great, that 

 many kinds of containers are called for, and in this growth the 

 wooden bucket holds a very prominent position. Candy makers 

 are large users of wooden pails, and pine is popular with them, but 

 is by no means the only wood. .Telly, fruit, butters, preserves, 

 olives, and pickles of various kinds are sent to market in wooden 

 buckets. Basswood, spruce, yellow poplar, paper birch, sweet birch, 



—38— 



and sycamore met a large demand in this line. In the Mississippi 

 valley Cottonwood is available for many purposes. 



Long before the Revolution a class of manufacturers centered in 

 Philadelphia known as ' ' cedar coopers. ' ' Individuals and small 

 companies carried on the business of manufacturing pails, tubs, 

 firkins, keelers, piggins, noggins, churns, and kegs from the south- 

 ern white cedar which was obtained at that time in great abund- 

 ance in the swamps of New Jerse\'. After supplying the local de- 

 mand, the surplus was put on the general market, and the ware 

 became known, not only in neighboring states but in foreign coun- 

 tries, especially the West Indies. It is of interest because this 

 cedar w^are was one of the earliest manufactured commodities to 

 be shipped from this country. 



An industry somewhat similar later grew up in Tennessee where 

 abundance of excellent red cedar timber grew. The pails and 

 other ware were sold from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. The selec- 

 tion of that wood for stave ware, when other woods were every- 

 where abundant, indicates the high esteem in which it was held. 

 It was commonly said that a cedar pail was good until it wore 

 out; and, if good care was given it, a period of service extending 

 over many years was assured. The red cedar well buckets of Ten- 

 nessee enjoyed an enviable reputation. Some of them, attached 

 to chains, and operated by the old-fashioned sweep, lifted water 

 generation after generation. Such a well bucket of red cedar, 

 made in Tennessee in 1767 was exhibited at the St. Louis World's 

 Fair in 1903. The wood was still sound and the brass hoops were 

 bright. 



SHOE PEGS 



More paper birch goes into shoe pegs than any other wood, prob- 

 ably more than all other woods combined. About eleven thousand 

 cords a year are required for pegs and the shanks that are fitted 

 botween the soles of shoes, under the arch of the foot. The ease 

 with which birch is worked, together with its cheapness, is the 

 reason for its prevailing employment in this industry. Although 

 it is hard, it has the peculiar property of dulling tools very slowly. 

 Spoolmakers like it for the same reason. The paper birch for 

 pegs costs nearly double that which the spoolmaker uses, because it 

 must be of a better grade. 



Pegs are cut wholly by machinerj-, from the slicing of the veneer 

 to the pointing of the finished article, and the machines are de- 

 signed for the particular work. The waste is necessarily large, for 

 tliough a .shoe peg is about the smallest commodity made of woods, 

 it can not be made from small blocks and scraps, but must go to 

 the machines in slices and sheets. The principal waste is due to 

 the rejection of defective logs, and to the throwing out of all 

 colored heartwood. The contrast between tlie sap-wood and the 

 heart of this birch is greater than in most woods, and when trees 

 attain considerable size, the heart-wood occupies a large part of 

 the trunk, and the peg maker rejects it all. Unless it can be em- 

 ployed for some other purpose, it is a dead loss. Most industries 

 which specialize on paper birch do not want the heart-wood, and 

 the waste is necessarily large, though some manufacturers, notably 

 brush makers and the makers of small tool handles, can turn it to 

 account. 



Slioe pegs are a comparatively recent invention, and Joseph 

 Walker of Massachusetts is credited with the invention in 1818. 

 Soles were sewed on before that time, though the heels, which were 

 of wood until about the year 1800, had to be fastened on with 

 nails or rivets. For a long time pegs were made by hand, and 

 the "invention" would seem to refer more to the way to use 

 them than to the manner of making them, for any man with a 

 pocket knife could whittle out shoepegs. That is the way they 

 were made at first, and probably in some rural communities a few 

 may be so made yet, though their very low cost brings them within 



