WOODEN SHINGLES OR SUBSTITUTES 



BY ARTHUR NEWTON PACK 



WHAT shall I use for roofing on my house? It is 

 a question asked several hundred times a day 

 from Maine to California. Down in his. heart 

 every man is at least a prospective home builder, and 

 with the great housing problem, which confronts our 

 country, this subject assumes tremendous importance. 



Fifteen or twenty years ago wooden shingles were three 

 times out of four the choice of the home builder. The 

 comparative expense and difficulty of procuring and lay- 

 ing slate put it out of the reach of most men ; ready roof- 



THE SHINGLE TREE 



Cutting the western red cedar from which the shingles are made, 

 size is typical of the growth in British Columbia. 



Thii 



ing, the modern asbestos or asphalt, as well as tile roofing, 

 were but little exploited ; shingles made of paper, asbestos 

 and asphalt were not widely known until 1909 or 1910. 

 At the beginning of the European War, however, this 

 country was producing an amount of tile, slate, metal and 

 various kinds of patented shingle roofing almost half 

 again as great as the total wooden shingle production of 

 the country ; but as we exported some patented roofings 

 and imported a large amount of wooden shingles, the 

 probable truth is that we actually used wooden shingles 

 and substitutes in about equal proportion. Since 1914 

 this ratio has probably been maintained with gains in 

 some sections for the improved types of patent shingles. 

 Primarily the cause of this change has been the deple- 

 tion of our National Forest resources reflected in the in- 



creased cost of wood shingles. Where formerly the 

 shingles on our roofs were manufactured only a few 

 hundred miles away at most, and shipped to the builder 

 with but small extra charge for freight, we now secure 

 our best grades from as far away as Louisiana, California, 

 Washington, Oregon, and even British Columbia. Again, 

 good shingle woods, such as white and red cedar, pine 

 and hemlock, used to be found in comparatively flat and 

 easily traversed country. The felled trunks were sawed 

 up into bolts about three or four feet long, loaded on 

 sleds later on temporary railways and conveyed to a 

 point of manufacture convenient to the intended market. 

 A visit to a typical western red cedar or California red- 

 wood logging operation of today gives a fair idea of 

 the different topographical features now prevailing, and 

 with it an appreciation of some of the items other than 

 transcontinental freight charges which enter into the in- 

 creased cost of production. 



The modern logging railroad of the west is itself a 

 wonderful piece of engineering, threading as it does 

 rough mountainous country, doubling back and forth to 

 ascend the grade to those areas where the great forests 

 still remain, crossing a canyon on a high trestle, and 



GROUP OF RED CEDAR 



Close together, high and clear, the red cedar is a magnificent forest tree 

 used mostly in the manufacture of wooden shingles. 



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