Note 3 — Chapter I · INTRODUCTORY

"It has been said that the snow-shoe and canoe as made by the Indians could never be improved. To these might be added the split birch broom, or splinter broom, also the invention of the Indians, but made in every country household in New England in Colonial days. The branch of a large birch tree was cut eight feet long. An inch-wide band of the bark was left about eighteen inches from one end, and the shorter and lower end was cut in fine pliable slivers up to the restraining bark band. A row of slivers was cut from the upper end downward, turned down over the band, and tied firmly down. Then the remainder of the stick was smoothed into a handle. These brooms were pliable, cleanly, and enduring, and as broom-corn was not grown here until the latter part of the past century, they were, in fact, the only brooms of those days. They were made by boys on New England farms for six cents apiece, and bought by the country storekeepers in large numbers for the cities' use."—The Chautauquan.