The gum king of the Moosehead region is a rather cranky old chap, who has been at the business ever since he was a youth. He roams all over that region and has reduced the thing to a science.
At regular intervals he makes a trip through some remote district and wounds the spruces with his ax and chisel. Then after a few years he travels around that way and gathers the gum.
It is only in Maine that the great gum nuggets with centres like the red of a dying coal are obtained, and the folks that chew gum say that for yanking qualities this gum beats the world.
The Maine hoop pole man makes even better wages than his brother the gum picker. The hoop pole man follows along in the wake of the loggers.
He barbers the face of the hillsides of stuff that no one else wants. He is after the second growth, as the young birch and ash are called. These spring up around the rotting stumps.
The hoop pole man takes a horse with him in 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 sucking at his black pipe.
Sometimes the poles are sold round, but the harvester who trims his own stuff and shaves the hoops receives two or three cents each for the finished products, and that pays. The hoop pole business is pretty steady work, but the evenings are pleasant, after all, with the slish of shaves, the crackle of the fire and the rumble of story telling. Even the rabbit, up-ending outside, looks in through the windows at the light and warmth, waggles his ears and wishes he might join the group.
As soon as the hoop poles are sold each is marked across with red chalk a little way from the end. For some time in certain parts of Maine persons did a snug business by stealing poles, but nowadays no dealer will buy any that have been thus marked. Yet sometimes the canny thief cuts off the ends that bear the chalk mark.
A while ago one man sold his hoop poles to a dealer, who marked them and laid them in his sled. Then the seller came around by night, stole the poles, cut them off and sold them to another dealer as hoops for half barrels. It may be seen, therefore, that the city man doesn't know all the tricks. If this enterprising hoop pole man could have got the hoops once more he could have trimmed them down and disposed of them as hoops for nail kegs.