[* Shingles are made either of pine or cedar. I prefer the white pine,
because it is less liable to gutter with the rain, and makes an evener
roof. Every settler in the bush should know how to make shingles, and
how to choose a tree fit for that purpose, or much labour may be thrown
uselessly away. I do not know anything more annoying than, after
cutting down a tree, perhaps more than four feet in diameter, and
sawing a block eighteen inches long out of the centre, to find that it
will not split fair, or (if it does) that the wood eats, which means,
that the grain, though straight in the length of the shingle, makes
short deep curves, which render it bad to split, and cause holes to
appear in the shingle when you come to shave them. The grain of most
trees naturally inclines towards the sun, or the same way round the
tree as the sun's course. Consequently, a tree may be perfectly
straight in the grain, where you chop it down, yet, ten or twelve feet
up, it may wind so much as to be totally useless. To obviate this
difficulty, attend to the following hints.:--First, select a good-sized
tree, the larger the better, perfectly clear of outside knots for fifty
or sixty feet. The head should be luxuriant, and the large limbs
drooping downwards. Peel off with your axe a stripe of bark as high as
you can reach. If, on examination, the grain is the least inclined
towards the sun, reject it. If, on the contrary, it curves slightly in
the opposite direction, or against the sun, you may proceed to try it
by cutting out a piece a foot long, and three or four inches deep.
Place your axe in the centre, and split it open. Continue to do so till
you have reduced the piece to the thickness of two shingles, which
again divide neatly in the middle. If the timber is good and fit for
your purpose, the pieces will fly apart with a sudden snap, and will be
perfectly clear in the grain on both sides, while, if the timber be not
good, the grain of the one piece will eat into the other, or run off