312 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
The length of the log depends upon the kind of lumber wanted. 
Posts are seven feet long; fence-rails ten or twelve feet; 
pickets from five to seven feet; rafters, joists, and boards from 
twelve to twenty feet. The work of splitting usually com- 
mences at tlie end nearest the root of the tree. The lumber- 
man draws a straight lme with a pencil across the end of the 
log, and through the centre, avoiding any knot or curl appa- 
rent in the wood. He then sets his axe in this line and drives 
it with a stroke or two of the maul half an inch into the wood, 
takes it out, and moves a little further along till he has opened 
the line across the log. Then he sets the axe in the log near 
the centre, and drives it in with the maul several inches deep; 
then takes another axe and drives it in on the other side of 
the centre, and when the second axe has entered two inches, 
the log, if a good one, will split across the end. He introduces 
iron wedges in the end and drives them in, and takes out the 
axes; and then uses wooden wedges or gluts, first at the end, 
and then at the side of the log. In subdividing the log, he 
always tries to have as much wood on one side of the wedge 
as on the other; for if there be nore than an equal share of 
wood on one side of the wedge, the split will not run straight 
with the grain, but will gradually approach the weaker side, 
so that the piece split off will be smaller at one end than at 
the other. The redwood when well managed splits so beauti- 
fully, that boards are frequently made twelve feet long, a foot 
wide and an inch thick, and almost as smooth as if sawn. One 
of the most important places in the state for the manufacture 
of split lumber is Lexington, on the Santa Cruz mountain, fif- 
teen miles southwestward from San José. Fence-posts made 
four inches thick, six inches wide, and seven feet long; fence- 
rails ten or twelve feet long, two or three inches thick, and 
six inches wide ; pickets six and a half feet long, three inches 
square; and shingles eighteen inches long. The posts and 
rails are sold at eight cents apiece; the pickets at twenty-five 
dotlars per thousand; and the shingles at four dollars and fifty 
cents per thousand. 
