THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 265 



usually are. Laborers are not aware how much unnecessary 

 hard pounding they perform when the entering wedge is very 

 dull and the sides uneven and rough ; and they will not believe 

 that there is really any difference, after all, in driving rough 

 and smooth wedges, until they have some ocular proof of the 

 fact. But let the beginner, or any one else, rest assured that 

 it will abundantly remunerate him, in saving hard labor, to 

 polish the sides of iron wedges, and to keep them smooth and 

 the entering edge sharp. 



349. Is it suggested that if well polished and sharp they will 

 not stick as well as if left rough and uneven ? I know, and any 

 one can try the experiment, that a polished and sharp wedge will 

 not recoil when splitting green or frozen timber, half as often as 

 a dull and rough wedge ; and with sharp and well-polished wedges 

 a laborer would be able to split frozen timber many times when 

 it would be impracticable to do anything with it if the wedges 

 were dull and rough. Iron wedges should never be driven with 

 an instrument of iron, because it would soon batter and spread 

 the heads, and destroy their proper shape. When wedges are 

 driven with an iron beetle, they soon become in shape like Fig. 

 119, with the head spread so that the sides are not of a true 

 taper. When it is almost impossible to make a wedge stick in 

 green or frozen timber, by having the wedge quite warm, or by 

 driving a little wedge made of dry wood into the check, and 

 then driving the iron wedge into the dry wedge, it will usually 

 stick. Some laborers drive a little flat stone into the check where 

 the wedge is started, and then drive the wedge into the stone in 

 order to make it stick ; but stone will usually make the sides of a 

 wedge rough, so that it will drive hard. 



GLUTS 



350. Are large wooden wedges, and are not to be driven into 

 the solid timber like ^an iron wedge, but into the checks which 

 have been formed by the iron wedges. They are usually made 

 of round sticks of timber, with two sides flattened at about tho 

 same angle of iron wedges. A lot of sticks ought to be sawed 



