22 BULLETIN 426, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
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 pie, but the industry is unique and is an 
interesting 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 into rough shingles. Piles of 
refuse made up of the rougher unusable portions of the tree left 
scattered throughout the forest still 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 drymg, were formerly made to a large 
extent by hand from sugar pine also. Now, however, small shingle 
and tray mills are finding their way mto the mountains and are 
taking 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 im 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 skill, and it is fasemating 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 inches long, 6 mmches wide, and one-fourth 
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 undesirable prac-_ 
tice. The use of dead sugar pines, both standing and down, tor 
shakes is encouraged by foresters, however, since in this way partial 
utilization of merchantable material that would otherwise be wasted 
can be secured. 
