Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1911 — The Hoop Pole Man. [ARTICLE]

The Hoop Pole Man.

The Maine hoop pole man makes even better wages that his brother, the gum picker. The hoop pole man follows along the wake of the loggers. He barbers the face of the hillside of stuff that no one else wants. He is after the second growth, as the young birch and ash are called which spring up around the rotting stumps of great trees. The hoop pole man takes a horse with him on his tours. He cuts the poles and the horse hauls them to camp by daylight. Evenings the pole man fashions the hoops with a draw shave, sitting beside a roaring fire and pulling at his black pipe. Sometimes the poles are sold round, but the harvester who trims his own stuff and shA7es the hoops receives two or throe cents each for the- finished product, and that pays.—Belfast Republican Journal.