600 INDUSTRIAL USES OF WOOD. 



there are large factories at Miinden, Hanover, etc., for making 

 margarine barrels. Smaller barrels are made of papier-mache' 

 with wooden headings. 



4. Barrel-Hoops. 



Hoops for barrels are nowadays made increasingly of iron, 

 but a large quantity of wooden hooping is still used. Coppice 

 poles of oak, chestnut, birch and hazel and in America of 

 hickory are used, also of willows for the smaller casks. They 

 should be felled before the leaves are out. The coppice-shoots 

 are cut with billhooks, trimmed of all twigs and knots, and 

 then split in half. When green they can be bent easily 

 to the requisite shape, but if dry, must be soaked first in water. 

 In the case of slack barrels, the hoops are made chiefly of 

 pieces of the stem of ash, spruce, or willow, 2 inches broad, 

 and Jrd to f rds of an inch thick. They are cut smooth with 

 a knife, plunged into boiling water and bent over a round 

 piece of wood. 



SECTION XI. SUNDRY USES OF SPLIT WOOD. 



Some other articles besides casks and barrels are made of 

 split wood, or of wood treated in a somewhat similar manner. 



1. Shingles for Roofing or to Cover Walls. 



Shingles are used either for roofs, or to cover masonry 

 or cement walls, which otherwise do not exclude atmospheric 

 moisture sufficiently. The most durable shingles are made 

 of oak or larch, but owing to the abundance of spruce and 

 Scots pine, wood of these species chiefly is used, and less 

 frequently silver-fir wood ; beech and aspen also are employed 

 sometimes. The butts to be split must contain sound, light, 

 and straight-grained wood without knots, and, therefore, chiefly 

 the lower part of stems is employed. Wood of inferior grain, 

 and less fissile may, however, be split by means of machines. 



Shingles are prepared of very different sizes, according 

 to the manner in which they are to be used. Roofs are covered 

 usually with shingles three deep, i.e., only a third part of each 

 shingle being exposed (Fig. 342), and such roofs are very durable 



