1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



337 



the flat faces on the trees. The diffi- 

 culty in using the cornering ax recom- 

 mended in Bulletin 40, on the hard 

 timber near the Gulf coast in south 

 Florida, led to the suggestion by Mr. 

 R. M. Radford, of Braidentown, Fla., 

 that the broadax be used for making 

 the faces. The experiment was tried, 

 and the result was faster and better 

 work and a good surface for begin- 

 ning chipping. Later, Mr. H. H. El- 

 larbee, of Ellarbee, Fla., suggested 

 that the usual setting of the broadax 

 on the handle be reversed, so that in 

 hewing the beveled side would be next 





Fig. 1. Making the first half of a face 



to the tree. This change greatly in- 

 creased the speed of the work, as the 

 chip could be promptly slit off after 

 the full width of the face had been 

 obtained. 



The next step was to have one man 

 make both incisions for the gutters in- 

 stead of employing a right-handed 

 and a left-handed axman for making 

 the two. At the outset the laborers 

 usually insist that one man cannot 

 make both cuts, but a little practice 

 gives perfect facility in cutting each 

 with equal ease. 



These changes have made it easily 



possible to double the speed of a 

 squad, and many laborers have become 

 very skillful in this use of the broadax. 

 One laborer during the past winter 

 prepared in one day 1,700 faces. In- 

 spection of the work shows that it was 

 well done in every respect. 



Directions for using the broadax. 

 The ax should weigh from 8 to 9 

 pounds and have a perfectly straight 

 edge. The handle should be straight 

 and not longer than 30 inches. Each 

 laborer sets his ax on the handle so 

 that its edge is parallel to the handle 

 and the beveled side lies next to the 

 tree in hewing. 



By almost vertical strokes of the ax 

 a flat surface is hewn one-half the 

 width of the "face" which is to be 

 chipped later (fig. i). When the ax 

 first catches the wocd the chip is prized 

 outward slightly, thus facilitating the 

 easy entrance of the ax in the same 

 cut on the second stroke and also keep- 

 ing the surface smooth. On the third 

 stroke it usually is possible to partly 

 cut and partly break off the chip, thus 

 avoiding useless mutilation of the tree. 

 This is done by a twist of the ax, given 

 just as it falls into the previous cut, 

 the eye of the ax being thrown against 

 the tree and the edge outward. The 

 laborer then steps either forward or 

 backward and hews the second side of 

 the angular face (fig. 2), taking care 

 to leave no rounded surface in the 

 center where the two sides join. 



On these flat surfaces the incisions 

 for the gutters are then made, one a 

 right-handed and the other a left- 

 handed cut (fig. 3). In making these 

 cuts the ax is held so that the outer 

 point of the edge is lower than the 

 inner point, while the eye of the ax 

 is lower than the edge. By a single 

 blow a cut is made the full width of 

 one side of the face, this cut being 

 about one-quarter of an inch deep at 

 the outer edge of the face and a little 

 deeper at the center. The cuts should 

 be at least one inch apart at the center 

 of the face, to prevent choking be- 

 tween the two gutters by chips and 

 "scrape," and for convenience in clean- 



