Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-11-12

There are thousands of people who wander
through the woods in autumn, picking the
beautiful scarlet and yellow leaves of the SUI
mac bush to decorate their rooms without
knowing that there is any other use for the
plant. Yet the importation of sumac into
this country this year will amount to about
IL 900 tons, costing about 81, 100, 600. The
leaves of the sumac, dried and ground, are
largely used in tanning and dyeing, and in
Sicily and other parts of Italy the plant is
carefully cultivated and treated In view of
the fact that the American sumac contains
from six to eight per cent. more fannie acid
than the Italian. and remembering that the
plant grows wild in profuson throughout this
country it seems reasonable TO believe that
it might be made very profitable crop. At
the present time the amount of native sumac
brought into market does not exceed about
5000 tons yearly and its market price is only
$50 per ton-just half the price of the Ital-
ian product This large difference in the
market value of the foreign and the domestic
article is due to the fact that the American
sumac, as at present prepared. is not suitable
for making the finer white feathers so much
used for gloves and fancy shoes, owing to its
giving disagreeable yellow or dirty color.
The many attempts that have been made to
avoid this difficulty, by care in collecting aud
grinding the leaves, have not resulted in sue
cess, and it has long been supposed that this
Objectionable quality was Inherent in the Am
erican plant but Mr.. VIM. McMurtrie, in
report to the United States commissioner of
agriculture, shows that this difficulty can be
surmounted, and the American product made
even superior to the foreign.
Mr.. McMurtrie made q number of tests to
learn the relative amounts of fannie acid
found in the leaves at different periods of
their development, and, while the amount
was found to be greatest in the leaves gather
ed in July, he found that those gathered in
full development in June were even then more
than equal to the best foreign leaves in this
respect But, further, he found that the del
eterious colorng matter (due to the presence
of quercitrin and quercetin) was not yet fully
developed and that therefore the American
leaves gathered in June were superior to the
italian for all purposes. The importance of
this discovery may be seen by the fact that
| the cultivation of the plant may be carried on
most proftably in this country az soon as
manufacturers and dealers recognize the i'm
provement thus obtained in the domestic ar
ticle, and, by classifying it according to its
percentage of fannie acid and its relative free
dom from coloring matter, advance the price
of that which is early picked and carefully
treated.
In Italy the sumac is planted in shoots in
| the spring in rows, and is cultivated in the
same way and to about the same extent as
corn. 1t gives a crop the second year after
setting out, and regularly thereafter. The
sumac gathered in this country is taken most
ly from wild plants growing on waste land,
but there is no reason why it should not be
utilized and cultivated on land not valuable
for other crops. Scientific american.