Tray Mills in California National Forests. 389 



able species, sugar pine, and only the best and straightest grained 

 trees will rive, the shake-maker constantly lowered the value of 

 the stand by skimming out the best trees. Consequently, Forest 

 officers have long been desirous of substituting some similar op- 

 eration for shake-making. This desire seems to be met to a cer- 

 tain extent in the small mill manufacturing tray boards. 



In order to admit comparison of the two operations a brief 

 description of each will be given. The first step in shake-mak- 

 ing is the selection of the trees. Only straight grained trees 

 which will split easily can be used, and the experienced shake- 

 maker searches through the woods until he sights a tree which 

 in his judgment will work. He then chops a six-inch block from 

 it to determine the splitting quality of the wood. This procedure 

 is continued until a suitable tree is found. With an experienced 

 man usually one or two trials are sufficient. 



The tree is felled and trimmed in the same manner as in log- 

 ging operations. After trimming the trunk is sawed, as far up 

 as it will work, into blocks the length of the shakes. These blocks 

 are then turned on end for bolting. First, circles are marked with 

 crayon at intervals equal to the width of the shakes- Next, the 

 bolts are outlined by marking intersection of radii on these 

 circles. This operation is not so simple as it seems, because all 

 bolts must be marked parallel to the medullary rays and also all 

 knots must be left out of the bolts. After the bolts are marked 

 out they are split from the block by means of a maul and wedges. 



The next step after bolting is riving, which consists of split- 

 ting the shakes from the bolts. This is done by hand with a 

 "froe" which is an instrument peculiar to shake makers. It 

 consists of a steel blade, six or seven inches long, with a wooden 

 handle at right angles to the blade. The shakemaker places one 

 end of the bolt in a wooden frame on the ground and using the 

 froe and a wooden maul splits it into four quarters. Each quar- 

 ter is then split into two pieces and each piece into two halves. 

 Thus four shakes are rived from each quarter and sixteen from 

 each bolt. After riving the shakes are piled by fours in crib 

 fashion for drying and when dried sufficiently for hauling, they 

 are bailed with wire in bundles of a size convenient for handling. 



Roof shakes are 32 inches in length, 5 inches wide and are 

 usually 3/16 of an inch thick upon the thinner edge. Tray 



