The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1886-09-09
PIONEER RANCHING.
MAKING A HOME IN THE WOODS
NEAR PUGET SOUND.
Clearing Away the Undergrowth-Felling
1s.g Cedar - Splitting Boards for .
Cabin-Cetting the Land Ready for the
Plow-Burning Trees.

B:g Cedar - Splitting Boards for o
Plow-Burning Trees.
Well, young man, we will suppose you
have gone west and have located a quarter
section-l6O acres-of bottom land in Puget
sound valley. The first thing you will prob
ably do after locating Is - erect your cabin.
There Is no road tn your ranch; you are for
tunate il there is a horse trail; and the river
Is too swift to navigate with heavy load, so
you cannot get sawed lumber to build it
with You gaze in wonder at the mighty
trunks uprearing around you, and conclude
that you are not sufficiently skilled i'm wood
craft to build house out of them The wisest
course Is to engage an OLD resident to help
YOU
You go together to the ground; and, your
building site being selected, he sets you to
work cutting underwood, while he shoulder
ing Ito YOU strange looking implement-a
board about six feet in length by about eight
inches in width, slightly narrowed and
rounded at one end, upon which Is securely
bolfesl ON the upper side plate of steel with
a fiared edge-and an AK, disappears in the
underground, leaving you to struggle with
Semaple-a growth peculiar to the Pacific
- 1t seldom exceeds six inches in diane
ter, but grows tall that bending with its
IL,
ing severed, straightens with a vicious kick,
sometimes severely injuring the unwary ak
man
THE WOODS
After you have been working for two or
three hours, and have perhaps stopped to
look in amnzement at q hazel bush with a
trunk as thick as your thigh, you hear a loud,
prolonged Look out below" and a mighty
cedar cracks, sways and falls with q crash,
nd
meath 1t. The earth trembles as from an
earthquake, and for several minutes the
hnis Keep dropping from trees that have
been grazcd. Making your way to the spot,
you Chamber upon the trunk-no easy thing
To 10, for it is six or eight feet in diameter
The hrst thing that attracts your attention Is
the height at which the stump is cut-ten feet
or more from the gruund-with that strange
looking board sticking in a notch at a con-
venient height for chopping what, did
you stand on that thing to cut the tree
down" The old resident smiles: ave call
that a chopping board; you the timber is
all swell butted, So we are obliged to climb
to get above the bulge. When you get used
To 1t, you will prefer standing ON IA board to
cutting from the ground"
SPLITTING BOARDS
Your next task is to saw a length from your
tree and split it into pieces of the required
size. Taking n frow somewhat longer and
heavier than is commonly used for splitting
shingles, the old resident proceeds ,iexterously
to rive these pieces into insh boards; and by
nightfall you have almost enough lumber to
make "A l2xl4 foot cabin. Owing to the diff
Guilty of transporting lumber, nearly all farm
buildings are built OF sI,aft lumber, except in
the immediate vicinity OF mill. Fir and
spruce are also split as well cedar With a
little care in dressing a tolerably comfortable
and respectable looking house can be made Of
split lumber, Not long ago assisted in build
ing a house 24X34 feet We felled a single fir
tree, six feet i'll diameter; from this we built
all, besides furniture. From the waste there
was about four months firewood, while more
than loo feet of the top remained.
CLEARING THE GROUND.
When you have your cabin completed, with
good clay fireplace-no house IS comfosS-
able in such a moist climate without one-and
a couple of months supplies brought either
IN canoe or packed on n cayuse Indian
pony you are ready To commence clearing.
The underwood and smaller trees are easily
cut and piled ready for burning; then you
must fell the immense spruces and frs. These
may Ire either chopped, sawn or burned down.
When burned, a horizontal hole is bored
about eighteen inches in depth and two feet
from the ground, with another hole bored
from above to intersect it; hive Goals are then
dropped into the upper hole, and famed to
flame through the lower or draught hole
The interior OF the tree soon becomes like q
furnace; and in few DAYS burns down; the
stump often having burned several feet below
the surface Now you have the enormous
trunk-between auo and 800 feet in length
to dispose OF; this is done by boring and fir
ing-as was done in the standing tree-at in
tervals Of few feet. You find the clearing
Ny sous; and are not long in discover
ing that it costs from $50 to $75 an acre to
get the land ready for the plow; but this
acre viii produce on an average, $50 bushels
OF potatoes, seventy five of oats, or four tons
Of hay, and other things in proportion.
Snohomish City Cor Detroit Free Press.
An audacious physician Of the Quaker city