Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 124, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 May 1911 — Growing Umbrella Handies. [ARTICLE]

Growing Umbrella Handies.

At Maule, a small village near Paris, is carried on a singular industry which is little known. It re a nursery for the cultivation of trees suitable for use as umbrella handles, walking sticks and alpenstocks. Nearly 500 acres of ground are given over to ash, oak, chestnut and maple saplings. One year after planting these are cut off near the root so as to make them grow several branches, which are then kept free from secondary stems. The most curious part of the Industry comes the following year. Incisions are made in the bark, thus engraving upon it various designs. When the bark is stripped these designs are found traced on the wood. At the end of the third year the branches are cut, stripped of their bark, bent into various shapes and sent to the manufacturers. Certain forms of handles are shaped while the branches are still growing.—Popular Magazine.