168 WOOD AND GARDEN 



shoulder, nips the hoop as the weight of the stroke 

 comes upon it; the least lifting of the bar releases 

 the hoop, which is quickly shifted onwards for a new 

 stroke. The shaving tool is a strong two-handled 

 draw-knife, much like the tool used by wheelwrights. 

 It is hard work, " wunnerful tryin' across the chest." 



The hoops are in several standard lengths, from 

 fourteen to two and a half feet. The longest go to 

 the West Indies for sugar hogsheads, and some of the 

 next are for tacking round pipes of wine. The wine 

 is in weU-made iron-hooped barrels, but the wooden 

 hoops are added to protect them from the jarring 

 and bumping when rolled on board ship, and generally 

 to save them during storage and transit. These hoops 

 are in two sizes, called large and small pipes. A 

 thirteen-foot size go to foreign countries for training 

 vines on. A large quantity that measure five feet six 

 inches, and called " long pinks," are for cement barrels. 

 Lengths of seven feet six inches are used for herring 

 barrels, and are called kilderkins, after the name of 

 the size of tub. Smaller sizes go for gunpowder barrels, 

 and for tacking round packing-cases and tea-chests. 



The men want to make all the time they can in 

 the short winter dayhght, and often the work is some 

 mUes from home, so if the weather is not very cold 

 they make huts of the bundles of rods and chips, and 

 sleep out on the job. I always admire the neatness 

 with which the bundles are fastened up, and the 

 strength of the withe-rope that binds them, for sixty 



