420 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[November, 
see in fig. 1, -when it is rolled off the little car 
to make room for another load. The logs are 
next sawed into lengths, as seen in fig. 2, ahorse 
being the motive power again. These lengths 
are about twenty inches, and have to be split 
the soaking trough (fig. 4), which is filled with 
water, kept as hot as possible by a fire under¬ 
neath, and arc thus fitted for the cutting opera¬ 
tion. This is performed by a machine some¬ 
what on the principle of the guillotine, mas- 
remainder of the block under the knife, now 
raised again, and the motion is repeated until it 
is entirely cut up. Two men, accustomed to 
the work, go on very rapidly, and are able to 
keep a couple of boys busy in bunching, or 
-HAULING UP SHINGLE-LOGS. 
•SAWING LOGS INTO LENGTHS. 
into sections before they can be steamed or 
boiled, as they must be, in order to prevent their 
splitting under the knife while being finally cut 
in shingle shape, thin at one end. Instead of 
much as it has a descending knife, under which 
the block is thrust, as far as the guides will 
allow. The knife does not fall by a weight, 
however, but is drawn down by lever power 
packing in bundles (fig. 6), such as the ordinary 
sawn shingles are put up in. Each bundle is 
intended to contain two hundred and fifty, fast¬ 
ened together by cross-bars with a stick running 
Fig. 3.— SPLITTING THE LOGS. 
the ordinary iron wedges used by rail-makers, 
two ax-heads (see fig. 3), driven in with a 
heavy wooden maul, are preferred, because, the 
blades being wider, they arc less liable to split 
(fig. 5), one man being required to hold the 
wood to the knife, and another to bear down 
on the lever when it is in position. The cut is 
instantaneous, and as the shingle is severed from 
Fig. 4.— STEAMING THE BLOCKS. 
through them, and prevented from slipping out 
by pins through the ends. 
These poplar hand-made or cut shingles are 
not so large or so even as sawed pine shingles. 
Fig, 5.— CUTTING THE SHINGLES. 
Fig. 6.—PACKING THE SHINGLES. 
the wood out of line and waste the material. 
When a number of logs have thus been re¬ 
duced to chunks of an average width of ten 
inches at the broadest point, they are put into 
the block, the workman lifts it from the frame 
with his right hand and tosses it on the heap at 
his right or left, as it proves sound and of the 
lull size or not, when he instantly replaces the 
nor do they command so good a price, and al¬ 
though they serve every purpose for which they 
are intended, are not likely to remain in use- 
much longer, even in the South. 
