The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-12-29
USES OF THE PALMETTO.
a HITHERTO UNUSED PRODUCT
TO BECOME A GREAT FACTOR.

The Fiber as a Comp titor of Jute
) for Cotton Bagging and Paper
/ Manufacture and of Horse Hair for
Upholstery and Commercial Pur.
poses-The Heart Of the Tree as a
Food and the Berry as Medicine
The Root Used for Brushes-Tannic
Acid the Latest Discovery and One
OF the Most Valuable Products Of the
Tree.
Palms have ever been considered the
emblems of triumph and victory. When
the Savior entered Jerusalem palm leaves
were strewn in his path.
The whole palm family, from the royal
palm, growing often to the hight of more
than one hundred feet. to Its humble little
relative, the saw palmetto, which never
leaves its recumbent position, are all in
habitants Of tropical OF semi-tropical eli
mates. The most terrific storms only cause
the palms TO bend, and on account Of their
suppleuess they bold up their heads again.
as soon as 1t is over, hence the palm was
taken as an emblem of triumph. Not alone
does it face hurricanes and tornadoes with
IMMUNITY, but nature has SO organized it
that it is proof against the darts of light
ming, and although palms and palmettoes
are often found on the desert and on the
coast, where they are the highest and most
prominent objects, they are never struck by
| lightning.
There are over a thousand varieties of
palm, which afford fruits, oil. milk. -four,
| wine, wax, sugar, thread cordage, utensils,
m things. brushes, bedding. bats, fans,
| pickles, roofing materials and wharf tim
bers. In fact, there is hardly a species in
which some useful property is not found.
THE FRUIT OF THE PALM.
The royal palm yields the date; the cocoa
nut, another fruit of the palm, Yields a
most delicious milk. later, when ripe, the
well known cccoanut, which contains, be-
sides the meat, some delicious juice The
outside hull is often made into drinking
cup or dipper. Tapioca and sage are OBJ
tanned from the pith of the trunk of the
| sage palm, which Is often grown here as an
| or amental plant. The Juice of still an
other variety yields the palm wine. The
wax palm has its trunk covered with a
thick secretion, which is two-thirds gum or
rosln and one-third wax.
The fruit Of several varieties Yields the
well known palm oil, which is an extensive
article OF commerce. and is largely used in
the manufacture of soap and candles, as it
| is very rich in palmitine, " hich is anal
ogous to stearine. The Picaba palm fur
| nishes the street-sweeping machines and
street-brooms with bristles, which are OBJ
tanned from the thick part of the stems of
tie leaves. and are largely imported from
| Brazil to this country.
A small variety OF palms growing in
China furnishes the well-known palmetto
fan. The ropes used by coasting vessels
In the East Indies and on Chinese junks are
the product of the Mora palm.
COCOA MATING.
Cocoa mating is made from the fiber of
the hull of the cocoanut. 1t is spun in the
East Indies by hand. The weaving and dye
ing alone are done in this country. On the
Mediterranean coast of North Africa is a
growth of dwarf palm, about half the size
OF the saw-palmetto, growing as thick as
grass. The French government employs IT'S
convict labor to gather the leaves, which
| are shredded fine and then spun into rope
about an inch thick, in order to
curl it. 1t is then baled, and largely
| imported north under the name of African
| fiber, where it is much used as a bedding
material In the United States there are
| three or four different varieties of pal
metto-the sabal palmetto or cabbage pal
| metto, sabal dansonii or blue palmetto,
| sabal serratnla or saw palmetto.
The cabbage palmetto is the only kind
to get at the edible part the tree has to be
killed, as it is only the bleached shoots of the
| heart that are eaten. The tree furnishes a
vegetable resembling cabbage. with pecu-
| liar flavor 1t is used more extensively and
tastes far better if prep red as pickle.
THE PALMETTO BERRY AS MEDICINE
DIR. j. b. Read recommends the berry of
OF the saw palmetto or rather an extract
from the berry. for lung diseases.
During the war the blal ched shoots of
the cabbage palmetto were braided into
hats. The root furnishes an excellent
| ready-made scrubbing brush, which will
last lifetime without wearing out
The trunk furnishes an excellent wharf
| material, as it is absolutely worm proof.
| II put horizontally in crib, it
will last over 100 years. 1t is not
So lasting If driven vertically as a ptling.
he part above water will decay in ten or
fifteen years. CRIB wharfs built over 100
years ago in Charleston are good to-day,
the logs being sound. Until lately these
were about the only uses to
which palmettoes were put, and
| besides giving the southern scenery
semi-tropical look and furnishing South
Carolina with its typical coat of arms, they
were considered useless, and the saw pal
metto not alone useless but was even con-
sldered nuisance.
A few years ago parties in Florida
commenced to utilize the stems of the
leaves of the cabbage palmetto to make a
II er for the manufacture of brushes. The
leaves were also used to make fiber which
Is used in lieu Of plastering hair and
is known rs Nassau fiber. An attempt was
made III Savannah to make paper out Of it,
but 1T was no successful. In the north the
leaves we're also tried as a paper material,
aud very fine bank note paper was made
but the expenses Of bleaching were very
great and its manufacture was dicontinued
Mr.. wARRAND's RESEARCHES.
About IS months ago Mr.. G. B. Warrand
OF Savannah conceived the idea that the
saw palmetto could be manufactured into a
fiber which would make a good bagging
material for cotton, as substitute for iute.
he succeeded in producing a fiper which |
in color is the same as jute, but |
which is a great deal stronger. 1t |
is not by any means as infiammable |
as jute, and is free from all |
coloring matter. After Mr.. Warrand had |
accomplished the production of fiber he |
abandoned the idea of manufacturing on a |
large scale on account of the cost. In ex-
perimenting, however, he discovered another
process BIZ which he could make the leaf of |
the palmetto springy and tough producing an
excellent bedding material. He esta lished
n eVparimanfal nlant or al 4