152 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
portion of home supplies find their way to the railway waggon 
shops. The conversion of a fall of oak necessitates, from the 
uneven nature of the sizes, shapes, and qualities of the trees, a 
very careful assortment. The clean and straight trees of small 
dimensions may be more profitably utilised for cleft purposes, 
more particularly spokes for wheelmaking. In some districts of 
the country, field gates are largely manufactured from cleft oak. 
These, being 9 or 10 feet long, must be taken from trees perfectly 
straight in the grain and without knots. The same class of tree 
is generally used for the purposes of cleft spokes for wheels. In 
the selection of trees for cleaving purposes, it frequently happens 
that although externally they bear every indication of straightness 
of grain, and all the appearance of being perfectly adapted to such 
work, they turn out when opened up to have such flawsas entirely 
prevent their profitable manufacture, and a large allowance for 
loss must therefore be calculated upon. In the case of cleaving for 
wheel spokes, the lengths are so very much shorter, namely, from 
1} to 24 feet, that the loss is proportionately less. These 
lengths may also often be cut out of a tree between the knots 
and curled defects, but as a rule only the root cut off a tree is 
at all suitable for any cleft purpose. The favour bestowed on 
cleft spokes by wheelmakers maintains this branch of oak manu- 
facture in undiminished volume, and notwithstanding the intense 
competition which nowadays they experience from sawn spokes, 
and prepared spokes of American finish, they still command a 
price far in excess of either. The size of the spokes in general 
use vary much, particularly in breadth and thickness, according 
to the kind of vehicle for which they are intended. The smallest 
size of carriage spoke is about 2 inches in breadth by about | inch 
in thickness. Other vehicles require heavier wood, so that every 
size is manufactured, gaining half an inch on each kind, up to 
those required for heavy lorries and gun carriages, which are often 
5 inches by 3 inches. In clearing a lot of suitable oak, it is 
therefore not only judicious but necessary that all the sizes be 
manufactured at the same time, in order that a tree may be 
altogether and profitably utilised. Afterwards the sorting of the 
spokes can be easily carried out. In the south a very popular 
description of oak cleft fencing uses up considerable quantities of 
this class of timber. These pales, as they are called, are usually 
about 3 feet high, 3 inches broad, and about half an inch thick. 
Jn cleaving any of the before-mentioned commodities, it not 
