198 
AMEEICA^l AGRICULTUEIST. 
[Mat, 
A Double-Latched Gate. 
xn answer to several calls for double-latched 
gates, we present the form shown in the engraving. 
There are two latches fastened to a jointed lever, 
so that when the upper end or handle is pushed 
backward or forward, the latches both move in the 
same direction. The construction of the gate, and 
the form and arrangement of the latches and lever, 
A GATE FOR ALX, LIVE STOCK. 
are plainly shown. The importance of a double¬ 
latch to a gate is understood by all those who wish a 
secure barrier to both large and small farm animals. 
Horses and pigs, cattle and sheep, are alike kept 
within bounds by this method of fastening a gate. 
Lumbering in California. 
M. E. BAMFORD. 
In riding through the coast range of hills east of 
Oakland, one sometimes sees by the roadside piles 
of wood ready cut and waiting for the Portuguese 
wood-chopper to bring it on his wagon down the 
long, dusty road to town. These men are met 
every little while, in the road, driving their carts to 
their daily labor, often carrying with them two or 
more dark-eyed children.—These Portuguese are 
very proud of their small, brown, two-roomed 
houses with their queer gardens of hollyhocks and 
marigolds seen once in awhile away down in some 
little nook shut in by hills. Many of them, who 
knew what poverty meant in their native country, 
feel rich as a king in the possession of a little gar¬ 
den-patch and a regular income from wood-chop¬ 
ping. What these are doing in miniature here is 
done on a much larger scale throughout the great 
forests of the northern half of California.—One of 
the most extensive lumbering regions is Humboldt 
County. Another lies between Truekee and Au¬ 
burn. Along the Sacramento and its branches and 
the Pit River and its tributaries there are thousands 
of acres of fine wooded land yet untouched, and 
the Sierras themselves are an inexhaustible source 
of lumber, as the forests of the western slope cut 
down thirty years ago are already replaced by new 
trees.—The chief kinds of lumber in California are 
the redwood, the cedar, and the sugar and yellow 
pines of the Sierras. The redwoods are mainly 
found near the ocean, between thirty-seven and 
forty-two degrees. Those north of forty degrees 
are mingled with cedar forests.—The redwoods of 
Humboldt County are large to handle, and there 
have been different inventions for reducing them 
to lumber. Many logs are nine feet through, 
sometimes twice that, and of course much too large 
for an ordinary circular saw, which is never over 
six feet in diameter. Such logs are often first 
halved by wedges or powder. Those seven feet or 
more in diameter are divided by a “ triple circular 
saw,” as it is called, in reality there are four saws. 
Two of these take off a top slice, while the double 
circulars are cutting through the rest, the whole 
being done by one motion of the saw. This is pe¬ 
culiarly a Californian invention, necessitated by 
the great size of the trees.—Steam logging-ma¬ 
chines are used in Humboldt County, the invention 
of John Dolbeer, of San Francisco, and are a great 
improvement on the former long ox trains.—A 
queer contrivance is used in loading redvvood lum¬ 
ber on vessels when there are no harbors. Vessels 
are fastened off the sliore by buoys, and a long 
wooden lumber-chute is stretched to them from 
the shore, the land-end being somewhat elevated 
above the other. Down this the boards and rail¬ 
road-ties fly with great velocity, but a strong brake 
is arranged to check the speed near the vessel, and 
the lumber is let quietly down. 
In the Sierras the sugar-pine is most highly 
esteemed for lumber, and is sent down the moun¬ 
tains in slides. Drives are used wherever there are 
streams, but in certain regions would be almost 
impossible without the V-flume, invented by James 
Haines, a Nevada man. He had expended all his 
capital on a square flume for transporting wood 
from the mountains, but, to his utter dismay, the 
wood stuck fast in places, and the water running 
over washed out the foundations of the flume. 
Not utterly disheartened, he mended the flume, 
but only to fail again ; and others had a similar ex¬ 
perience. Haines studied over the matter a long 
time with no success, until finally his little children 
helped him out. He noticed them throwing cobs 
and chips into a small V-shaped trough used in 
irrigating his garden, and that however many were 
thrown in there was no clogging. He changed his 
square flume to the V-shape by putting in boards 
to form a right angle at the bottom, flaring out¬ 
ward at the top. It was a success, he regained his 
money and this form has been in general use ever 
since in the Sierra Nevadas. They usually cost 
about three thousand dollars a mile, but in some 
steep, ditlicult places have run up to twenty thou¬ 
sand dollars a mile.—A great deal of the sugar-pine 
is made into doors, sashes, cornices, etc., and 
shipped to Central America, Mexico and Australia. 
The sugar-pine is much more durable than the 
white, is but littie heavier, and is easily polished. 
It grows at an elevation of five or six thousand 
feet.—Though many thousand men are employed 
as wood-choppers the demand for more laborers is 
constant, and frequent notices in the mountain 
newspapers call for wood-choppers. Truekee, in 
Nevada County, on the Central Pacific Railroad, 
in the midst of a forest, carries on a large lumber- 
trade, and much charcoal is made here. All the 
snow-sheds of the Sierra Nevadas were construct¬ 
ed of lumber furnished by this town, as were also 
the railroad-ties and bridges of the Central Pacific. 
A single Truekee firm has contracted to supply ten 
thousand cords of wood annually for the next ten 
years. Then, too, the Southern Pacific Railroad is 
canying enormous quantities of Truekee lumber to 
the treeless districts of Arizona and New Mexico, 
for use in the mines, on railroads and in building 
little towns springing up everywhere. In fact, 
about all the lumber used along the whole country 
traversed by the Southern Railroad comes from 
California, and there is a large demand for our 
lumber from South America and China.—Little 
narrow-guage railroads are being built in several 
northern parts of the State to bring timber down 
to the main railroad lines. On Lake Tahoe is a 
steamboat specially made for towing rafts across 
the lake, whence the lumber is taken by a rail¬ 
road to the top of the mountains and sent through 
a flume to Carson. A great deal of this timber is 
used in Virginia City and in the mines.—The first 
lumber ever prepared for sale in California was cut 
in Sonoma County, in 1838, by a Mr. Dawson, who 
prepared it with a whip-saw. The first saw-mill 
in the State was started, in 1843, at Bodega Bay, in 
the southwestern corner of this county ; and this 
was the oniy saw-mill in the State until after the 
Americans took possession of it. The second one 
was begun in San Mateo County, and the third was 
Sutter’s saw-mill at Coloma, but it did nothing 
with lumber, for it was while excavating the tail- 
bed of the mill that gold was found, and Califor¬ 
nia was soon filled with an excited crowd too eager 
for gold to bother with lumber.—There are now 
seventy-nine manufactories of lumber in San Fran¬ 
cisco alone, and the lumber stevedores there have 
quite an association, the “Lumberman’s Protec¬ 
tive Union,” which spends several thousand dol¬ 
lars yearly in caring for their sick.—There is a 
good deal of interest just now in buying up the 
timber lands ; the Government price being the same 
as that for mineral land, $2.50 per acre in divisions 
of one hundred and sixty acres. This interest dates 
from last summer, when a Buffalo, N. Y., syndi¬ 
cate purchased the finest lumber tracts in the 
State. Now the newspapers are teeming with ad¬ 
vertisements of timber lands, and there is every 
prospect that many places yet left undisturbed be¬ 
cause too far from any railroad transportation, will 
soon be opened.—But though there is so much 
lumber in the State, the production being about 
three hundred billion feet annually, yet we have no 
hard-wood suitable for making plows, casks, etc., 
and are obliged to import about three million feet 
of hard-wood annually from the Mississippi Valley. 
Wild Vines About the House. 
EBEN E. BBXFORD. 
While admitting that many foreign plants are all 
that is claimed for them, 1 like our own native 
ones best, because I see great merit in them. I 
never have understood why persons of excellent 
taste should neglect them, unless it is because they 
are not familiar with them. There is no finer vine 
for use about the house than the Virginia Creeper, 
(Amj)elopsis quinquefolia). It is found almost 
everywhere at the North and is hardy. It grows 
rapidly, is easily transplanted, has beautiful foliage, 
and is a miracle of gorgeous coloring in autumn. 
After the leaves have fallen its purple berries are 
more ornamental than the flowers of many plants. 
It is, or should be, to us Americans, what the Ivy 
is to the Englishman. If you want something to 
drape the veranda, you can select nothing better. 
If you wish a vine to climb up to, and all along, 
the eaves and around the second-stoiy windows, 
this is the very plant to get. The Virginia creeper 
is a robust, self-reliant vine, and will take care of 
itself and delight all with its luxuriance if it is 
given half a chance. 
Another very desirable vine is the Bittersweet 
{Celastrus scuTidens). It has beautiful, bright foliage, 
which is seldom infested with insects. During the 
later part of the season its clusters of scarlet ber¬ 
ries, enclosed in orange husks, which part and dis¬ 
close the fruit within, are showy enough to suit 
any one. These berries hang on all winter if the j 
birds let them alone. For verandas and porches 
the Bittersweet or Wax-work is quite equal to the 
Virginia creeper, and that is high praise. | 
Another most beautiful plant for those who do 
not consider that beauty depends on bright and 
vivid color, is our native Clematis, or Virgin’s 
Bower. This vine has fine and vigorous foliage, I, 
and in July is covered with thousands of delicate, 
white flowers, of delicious fragrance. One of the | 
finest effects that I have ever seen produced by ij 
growing two plants together on a trellis, was made ( 
by training a Clematis among climbing roses. The i 
contrast of the pink and white flowers was simply i’ 
exquisite, and the dainty grace of the Clematis 
added a greater charm to the roses. For use in 
vases in the house, the long sprays of Clematis, j- 
when in bloom, are finer to my mind than anything 
else to combine with flowers of vivid color. It is 't 
easily transplanted and, like the other two native '; 
climbers, will take care of itself. ! 
A Grind-Stone Eest. 
The accompanying engraving shows an attach- , I; 
ment to a grind-stone, upon which tools may rest ■ ; 
A GRIND-STONE TOOL REST. 
while being sharpened. It consists of twe small I t 
upright pieces, firmly fastened to the sides a, a, of , j 
the grind-stone frame, and bearing a cross-bar, 5, j 
at their upper ends. One of these rests can be ^ ! 
made in a short time, and will add greatly to the ! j 
comfort and convenience in grinding various tools, j 4 
