22 BULLETIN 426, V. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUEE. 



In addition to the above, sugar pine is used for drainboards, elevator 

 floors, brushes (brush blocks), apiary supplies, machine parts, saddles 

 (saddle trees), shade and map rollers, wood carvings of all kinds, oars, 

 slack cooperage, woodenware, bakers' work boards and troughs, 

 dresser brackets, and small turnings and fencing. A large quantity is 

 made into matches. 



SHAKE MAKING. 



The manufacture of shakes (hand-split shingles) consumes only a 

 small amount of sugar pine, but the industry is unique and is an 

 interestmg survival of pioneer methods. In the days of the forty- 

 niners shingles and other modern roof coverings were, of course, not 

 available. The early settlers, however, soon discovered that the 

 straight-grained sugar pine closely resembled the white pine with 

 which many of them had been familiar in the East or Middle West 

 and could readily be split by hand mto rough shingles. Piles of 

 refuse made up of the rougher unusable portions of the tree left 

 scattered throughout the forest stiU testify to their activity, although 

 the industry has diminished with the coming of transportation and 

 the sawed shingle until now it is only practiced by a few old, skilled 

 workmen, or in localities still remote where other roof coverings are 

 prohibitive in price. Tray boards, used in the manufacture of 

 frames or ''^ trays" for fruit drying, were formerly made to a large 

 extent by hand from sugar pine also. Now, however, small shingle 

 and tray mills are fmding their way into the mountams and are 

 takmg the place of the hand workman. 



The shake or tray maker demands the best straight-grained trees. 

 A number are generally tested by chipping before a suitable indi- 

 vidual is found. After felling, the tree is sawed into blocks gen- 

 erally 32 inches long for roof shakes and 24 inches long for tray 

 shakes. The blocks are split into bolts, and these are again divided 

 into sections which will allow of splitting out shakes of the width 

 desired. These sections are then placed in a frame, which holds 

 them firmly, while the workman rives the thin shakes with a heavy 

 wide-bladed knife called a "frow," driven by a hand maul. This 

 process requires much skiU, and it is fascinating to watch a skilled 

 workman engaged in it. Roof shakes are usually 32 inches long, 

 5 inches wide, and three-sixteenths of an inch thick on the mner 

 edge; tray shakes are 24 mches long, 6 niches wide, and one-foiu-th 

 inch thick. 



The making of shakes from green timber results in the waste of 

 about 25 per cent of the tree, and is therefore an imdesirable prac- 

 tice. The use of dead sugar pines, both standing and down, f'or 

 shakes is encouraged by foresters, however, since in this way partial 

 utilization of merchantable material that would otherwise be wasted 

 can be secured. 



