The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-12-11
Sumac Hunting In Virginia.


Anybody visiting the Valley of Vir
ginia in the autumn will be sure to no.
tice, after sunset, all along the slopes
of the Blue Ridge Mountains, little
glimmering lights like stars. These are
the fires in front of the small tents OF
the sumac hunters, who. after gather
ing sumac all day long, are laughing
and talking with their wives and chill
dren as they eat their supper before
lying down to sleep.
Sumac is a very pretty plant or shrub
which grows q few feet high only and
has beautiful blood-red leaves springing
from a delicate shoot OF, Dough. The
stalk is smooth and the leaves are al
mond-shaped, only more pointed. On
the top of the plant and its larger
boughs grow punches of red berries in
the shape of grape punches; and the
leaves and berries are of such a deep,
rich crimson in the late autumn that
they sometimes make the slopes of the
hills appear as if they were on fire. II
any little girl would like to dress the
vases on the parlor mantel-piece pref
tily, she could not do better than collect
a handful of these delicate tendrils with
their scarlet leaves and use them as a
background to the lovely little autumn
fOwers-late primroses, stars-of Beth
lehem, wild honey-suckles and fringed
ferns-whieh grow in the woods and
fields at this time of the year.
But the honest country people who
take so much pains about collecting
sumac are not thinking about dressin Q
vases with it. They gather it to self.
and are paid from one cent to cent
and half a pound for it at the sumac
mills. This may not seem much, but
then the ocean is made up of drops and
with poor people little money goes a
long way. AS little children can pull
sumac just as well as grown people, a
whole family may gather in a day sew
eral dollars worth.
1t is used for dyeing, and is said to be
better for that purpose than anything
else to color fair leather and certain
other fabrics. Great quantities of it are
employed in printing calicoes in rich
patterns and the dresses worn by ladies
and girls often owe their bright colors
to the leaves of the sumac. The way
in which it is collected and prepared tor
use is very simple. As soon as the
leaves turn red, which is toward the
end of summer the sumac hunters be-
gin their work. They scatter through
the fields, or along the sides of the
and break off the twips on
which the leaves are growing; for these
twigs do not make the leaves less yalua-
BILE. Then. when they have collected
an armful, they put it in pile or into
bags, and as night comes on the whole
IS taken to one spot, from which it is
hauled home in wagons. Here it is
aid on the floor of the barn or any.out-
house, in the shade, so that it may dry
very gradually and keep the Juices
which afford the coloring matter. When
his process of drying is gone through
With and the leaves are in a proper
tate, it is loaded on carts or wagons.
n bags and taken to the sumac mills
where it is weighed and paid for by the
'wner of the mills at the rate as have
aid, of from one cent to a cent and a |
lalf pound. The largest mills in Vir-
,inia, where the finest sumac grows
n at least very fine articleSare at .
but at Winchester, in the
over part of the Shenandoah VaIlev
' Uma.u sue osoinac' mere is a Big mill
nd nrenared for the nse % Pun
The leaves and small tw;o :. = .au uyers;
nd rednced IN . f;ne dnst a." NC ,Inuea
J ready to be sent away Whn aon ~ ~
caches tho ',,anmssotnr;os "ne! IL
= no nsed o. dsa g. Ss.. ~nero !! Is
t. If ia m;xed with wh u".nea ca1co;
,ordouts cart.;r s,hstann. arc caiiea
b;ye ;,' &c 81 TIC , woud ,~noes mat make
,st hold Of the % matar;n ,1a ~ ana take
nd then there is tbe nrstt ~ oa Je ayea;
r;cht colors which oa.nof Iaico WIN
ut ' NC washed
To-,
!. oniy oi la'e years tnat much at
,nslon mas Deen palo 70 II In Virginia.
e3Pie snougn. more ABOUT raising corn
~ a wheat lnan Oh gatnering sumac; but
.weney years tney nave learned a
lcdL uedl anu now Dcg1n TO UNDERSTAND