60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
sides of houses. The villager buys his oak logs from the state or 
communal forest, paying about $50 a thousand feet for good grade 
material. He dissects the logs into suitable lengths and then splits 
them by hand with a sharp, straight blade to which is attached at 
right angles a wooden handle. The work is facilitated by the use 
of a heavy beech mallet. The villager engaged in this occupation 
sells the shingles for $8.10 a thousand shingles 3 by Io inches, and 
can cut about 700 shingles a day. It is claimed by them that they can 
cut 4500 shingles from 36 cubic feet of oak, which would be equiva- 
lent to 1000 shingles from every 50 feet board measure. One may 
well doubt this unless the material is uniformly perfect, which 
did not seem to be always the case. Five hundred shingles from 
every 50 feet board measure seems a better estimate, but even at 
this they make excellent returns if they are able to cut 700 shingles 
a day. 
Another home industry is the manufacture of split hoops. Thin- 
nings of oak, beech, hazel etc., three-fourths of an inch to an inch 
in diameter and 6 feet long, are used, being purchased by the vil- 
lager from the forest for about $2.25 a cord, the price varying 
slightly according to the species and quality. The strips are steamed 
and then split into halves by the use of a draw shave, tied into 
bundles containing 600 linear feet each and sold for an average price 
of 50 cents each. They are used very largely for boxes and slack 
cooperage. The refuse and cut ends supply the family with fuel. 
The manufacture of these hoops, while on a small scale, is profitable 
as a side issue to these agricultural people. 
A visit to the Odenwald region is scarcely complete without 
seeing the arboretum on the private estate of the Count von Berg- 
heim at Weinheim, the northernmost town of Baden. The climate 
of most of Europe, and in particular that of the Rhine valley, 
seems to be especially adapted to the growth of the Pacific coast 
conifers. Many forest gardens and botanic gardens of Europe 
contain a large variety of trees but none of them have so many 
foreign trees in large sized plantations as in the estate of Count 
von Bergheim. These steep hillsides were at one time devoted 
largely to vineyards, but about 60 years ago the cultivation of the 
grape was considered a failure here, either from changes in the 
climate or soil, so that the vineyards were abandoned and the estate 
planted to trees, in small compartments from one-eighth to one- 
fourth of an acre each. On each compartment was planted a 
different species, and in some cases a mixture was used, as, for 
example, with the Sequoia washingtoniana (plate 9) 
