Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-06
RANDOM TALES.
Eddington Man Growing Boot
jacks for Western Markets.
Quaint and Curious Yarns by Down
East Scribes.
RecoIIections of Staging Days and
Fierce Maine Politics.

Five years ago. when Asa Penney re.
turned from Boston to the old farm in
| East Eddington, he found the place
badly run out and the fields grown uI
to a thick crop of gray birches. which
were too small for fire-wood and wholly
united for anything else.
| As soon as he had cleared a garden
spot and made a few repairs on the old
buildings he began to look about to find
a use for the birches. The trees were
| from ten to twenty feet high and none
of them was more than four inches in
diameter at the butt.
| There was not man in town who
would take the job to cut off the trees
for the wood they would yield, so Pen
ney made up his mind to convert his
abandoned farm into a nursery for
growing bootjacks.
Four years ago last spring when the
leaves were sprouting he went to the
| fields and selecting the most thrifty
birches, cut off the tops at point
where two limbs branched out from
either side, and having made pollards
of all trees that produced good forks,
h thialpd out the underground, Civ
ing I'LL, bcotjacks a better chance to
grow
The removal of the tops threw all the
sap in the trees into the two limbs,
which grew rapidly, forming a double
to-, oGc branch shooting aloft by the
side Of the other and both forming the
groundwork of the bootjack that was
to be.
Aided by sunlight and rain the
nj n MT n han hot
this winter Penney has been able to cut
the larger trees and mould them for
market. To do this he cut the tops off
about two feet below theipoint where
the limbs separated and then severing
the limbs q few inches from the fork,
took the pronged sticks home and
whitfield them into shape by the eve-l
ming fire.
When the bark was taken off from a
stick and the ends were squared and
trimmed, a small piece of hardwood
was nailed crosswise just below the
fork, so as to give the mechanism a
proper tilt, and as soon as the finished
product had been coated with raw oil to .
prevent the wood from checking. Penny |
had n new bootjack ready for market.
Penney hauled his bootjacks to the |
nearest railroad station by sled and |
shipped two carloads to Chicago. The |
first carload yielded him an average |
price of % cents for every bootjack in |
the lot For the second shipment the |
receipts were two cents less, a fact |
which was due to overcrowding the |
market.
The next load will be sent to Mime
apolis, where there is said to be a /
brisk demand for boot jacks. AS Pen |
ney's bootjacks are made from the |
natural forks of trees, instead of being |
sawed from a board by Jig saw, they |
will not only endure a heavier strain, |
but will get firmer grip on the heels of |
boots that need pulling.
This raising of natural bootjacks is a |
new industry for Maine, and promises |
to yield a large profit to those who en-
gage in the business. Mr.. Penney says
his runout farm will yield about 2000 |
bootjacks to the acre, and when they |
are gone the limbs and trunks which he |
has cut down will make excellent fire
wood.