THE AMERICAN FORESTS 856 



he finds one that he feels sure will split freely, cuts 

 this down, saws off a section four feet long, splits 

 it, and from this first cut, perhaps seven feet in 

 diameter, he gets shakes enough for a cabin and 

 its furniture, — walls, roof, door, bedstead, table, 

 and stool. Besides his labor, only a few pounds 

 of nails are required. Sapling poles form the 

 frame of the airy building, usually about six feet 

 by eight in size, on which the shakes are nailed, 

 with the edges overlapping. A few bolts from the 

 same section that the shakes were made from are 

 split into square sticks and built up to form a 

 chimney, the inside and interspaces being plas- 

 tered and filled in with mud. Thus, with abun- 

 dance of fuel, shelter and comfort by his own 

 fireside are secured. Then he goes to work saw- 

 ing and splitting for the market, tying the shakes 

 in bundles of fifty or a hundred. They are four 

 feet long, four inches wide, and about one fourth 

 of an inch thick. The first few thousands he 

 sells or trades at the nearest mill or store, getting 

 provisions in exchange. Then he advertises, in 

 whatever way he can, that he has excellent sugar- 

 pine shakes for sale, easy of access and cheap. 



Only the lower, perfectly clear, free-splitting 

 portions of the giant pines are used, — perhaps 

 ten to twenty feet from a tree two hundred and 

 fifty in height; all the rest is left a mass of 

 ruins, to rot or to feed the forest fires, while thou- 

 sands are hacked deeply and rejected in proving 



