, 1885-12-05
sUMAoA ahrHEatsa NJ MnalNlA


A fr"dlahia Indastry for HARDY Aannt-
alnerrs-crops and r-lces.
NHlwosd ya9 Cor. Chicago Journal
Sumach gathering has grown into an
iaduStry of considerable magnitude in
.he irginia mountains OF late years
The bush IS most abundant on the
rocky and uncultivated mountain side,
where no crop OF grain could be grown.
Providence. it would seem, has es.
pecially designed that tho mountaineor
should not he forgotten in the universal
economy of nature, and that he should
ind subsistence ready at his cabin door.
The season for picking the leaf lasts
n out three months in the year, begin
ming in thu latter part of June. The
first frost renders tho leaves unfit for
use.
The product is hauled sometimes as
far rs nifty miles, often over rough and
stony roads, in the ancient vehicles OF
the mountaineers. to some mill or con
yenicn. shipping point. For the dry
and cured leaf they receive 81 a hun
drel weight At this rate, although it
is smaller, the pickers allege, than the
mill men could with Justice give, tho
gathering Of this wild leaf is much more
profitable than raising grain in the rich
valleys, where drought a lict the farm
ers. The wife and children of the mount
aineer assist him in gathering the leaves.
and "a little girl Of 10 becomes as dexter
GUS in stripping the bushes as a grown
nan of 25. Each can Earn 81 a day.
Expert gatherers have been known to
strip o { leaves, which when cured have
weighed 500 pounds. One man living at
the top of the Blue Ridge, near
Manassas Gap, has picked this season
twenty tons and realized 800. II il
impossible to estimate the amount of
comfort given these poor people by this
source of revenue. Their fathers, in
ignorance of the wealth at their doors,
lived II precarious o ~istence, chiefly by
hunting and fishing, and partly by rails
ing on the thin soil little patches OF
buckwheat.
Most OF the sumach gathered in
\irginia finds a market in the morocco
factories of Wilmington, Del. 1t is used
to retain the rich coloring OF the leather
impaired Ivy the tanning properties Of
the black oak bark. The only rival OF the
irginia sumach is that imported from
Sicily. The American article is richer
in fannie acid than the Sicilian, but the
imported leaf commands the highest
price for the reason that, as yet, tho
irginia mountaineers have not learned
the Importance of keeping their leaves as
free from sand and grit as do the care
full italians. The leather dealer says
that the least speck of dirt or grit makes
a flaw in the leather. The Italian leaf
if used by the print cloths factories of
New England. Print cloths soaked in a
solution of sumach retain their dyes
through all conditions of exposure to
weather.
The bush in the Virginia mountains
is known as the ''staghorn sumach. II
grows in great luxuriance until the
leaves have been stripped of for several
seasons, when the bush will die il let
alone. In this emergency tina mount
aineer bitches his horse to a long,
narrow-pointed shovel pillow called a
"bull-tongue," and plows about the
roots, breaking and tearing them apart.
From the torn roots fresh bushes spring
up, and tho next season a crop OF
leaves thicker and darker than ever
amply rewards his homely toll.