312 EESOUKCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



The length of the log depends npon the kind of lumber wanted. 

 Posts are seven feet long ; fence-rails ten or twelve feet ; 

 pickets from five to seven feet ; rafters, joists, and boards from 

 twelve to twenty feet. The work of splitting usually com- 

 mences at the end nearest the root of the tree. The lumber- 

 man draws a straight line with a pencil across the end of the 

 log, and through the centre, avoiding any knot or curl appa- 

 rent in the wood. He then sets his axe in this line and drives 

 it with a stroke or tw^o of the maul half an inch into the wood, 

 takes it out, and moves a little further along till he has opened 

 the line across the log. Then he sets the axe in the log near 

 the centre, and drives it in with the maul several inches deep ; 

 then takes another axe and drives it in on the other side of 

 the centre, and when the second axe has entered two inches, 

 the log, if a good one, will split across the end. He introduces 

 iron Avedges in the end and drives them in, and takes out the 

 axes ; and then uses w^ooden wedges or gluts, first at the end, 

 and then at the side of the log. In subdividing the log, he 

 always tries to have as much wood on one side of the wedge 

 as on the other ; for if there be more than an equal share of 

 wood on one side of the wedge, the split will not run straight 

 with the grain, but will gradually approach the weaker side, 

 so that the piece split off will be smaller at one end than at 

 the other. The redw^ood when well managed splits so beauti- 

 fully, that boards are frequently made twelve feet long, a foot 

 wide and an inch thick, and almost as smooth as if sawn. One 

 of the most important places in the state for the manufacture 

 of split lumber is Lexington, on the Santa Cruz mountain, fif- 

 teen miles south westward from San Jose. Fence-posts made 

 four inches thick, six inches wide, and seven feet long ; fence- 

 rails ten or twelve feet long, tw^o or three inches thick, and 

 six inches wide ; pickets six and a half feet long, three inches 

 square ; and shingles eighteen inches long. The posts and 

 rails are sold at eight cents apiece ; the pickets at twenty five 

 dollars per thousand ; and the shingles at four dollars and fifty 

 cents per thousand. 



