60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



sides of houses. The villager buys his oak logs from the state or 

 communal forest, paying about $50 a thousand feet for good grade 

 material. He dissects the logs into suitable lengths and then splits 

 them by hand with a sharp, straight blade to which is attached at 

 right angles a wooden handle. The work is facilitated by the use 

 of a heavy beech mallet. The villager engaged in this occupation 

 sells the shingles for $8.10 a thousand shingles 3 by 10 inches, and 

 can cut about 700 shingles a day. It is claimed by them that they can 

 cut 4500 shingles from 36 cubic feet of oak, which would be equiva- 

 lent to 1000 shingles from every 50 feet board measure. One may 

 well doubt this unless the material is uniformly perfect, which 

 did not seem to be always the case. Five hundred shingles from 

 every 50 feet board measure seems a better estimate, but even at 

 this they make excellent returns if they are able to cut 700 shingles 

 a day. 



Another home industry is the manufacture of split hoops. Thin- 

 nings of oak, beech, hazel etc., three-fourths of an inch to an inch 

 in diameter and 6 feet long, are used, being purchased by the vil- 

 lager from the forest for about $2.25 a cord, the price varying 

 slightly according to the species and quality. The strips are steamed 

 and then split into halves by the use of a draw shave, tied into 

 bundles containing 600 linear feet each and sold for an average price 

 of 50 cents each. They are used very largely for boxes and slack 

 cooperage. The refuse and cut ends supply the family with fuel. 

 The manufacture of these hoops, while on a small scale, is profitable 

 as a side issue to these agricultural people. 



A visit to the Odenwald region is scarcely complete • without 

 seeing the arboretum on the private estate of the Count von Berg- 

 heim at Weinheim, the northernmost town of Baden. The climate 

 of most of Europe, and in particular that of the Rhine valley, 

 seems to be especially adapted to the growth of the Pacific coast 

 conifers. Many forest gardens and botanic gardens of Europe 

 contain a large variety of trees but none of them have so many 

 foreign trees in large sized plantations as in the estate of Count 

 von Bergheim. These steep hillsides were at one time devoted 

 largely to vineyards, but about 60 years ago the cultivation of the 

 grape was considered a failure here, either from changes in the 

 climate or soil, so that the vineyards were abandoned and the estate 

 planted to trees, in small compartments from one-eighth to one- 

 fourth of an acre each. On each compartment was planted a 

 different species, and in some cases a mixture was used, as, for 

 example, with the Sequoia washingtoniana (plate 9) 



