The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1892-08-20
Basket Makers of Delaware.

ware, which producesa great abundance of
small fruits, also produces the sweet gum.
Now the sweet gum is not an article adapted
to the wants of seminaries for young women,
but large and extremely useful tree. The
peculiar wisdom of Providence in associ-
ciating small fruits and the sweet gum is
not apparent to persons unacquainted with
the properties of the latter The sweet
gnm is to lower Delaware what the palm
is to West indies and the bamboo to Japan.
Nature as clearly designed the sweet gum
to furnish berry baskets as the bamboo to
afford dwelling and household utensils and
the palm to yield not only food, but cloth
idg, shelter and dozen other necessaries
Of life
The sweet gum loves to stand with its
feet in the tan-eolored waters of a mosquito
haunted Sussex county swamp and just
grow. By this process it comes to have a
diameter of two, three and four feet A
boiled gum log is one of the marvels of the
vegetable creation. Il can be turned into
almost anything that ingenuity may sug-
gest, but chiefly it is turned into baskets
for strawberries, blackberries ,huckleberries,
cherries and grapes There is nothing
cleaner, sweeter, neater or better adapted
to the purpose for which it was designed
than sweet gum fruit basket. The bas-
ket factories of Delaware are provided with
watts for boiling the logs, saws for saving
them lathes for turning them, and great
variety of special machinery for various
purposes. The gum log, cut 10 suitable
length, comes from the watts steaming and
odorOus, and is then so placed upon spind-
les that it may be revolved in contact with
broad, clean, sharp-edged instruments that
act as great planebits. As fast as the log
is revolved broad long ribbons of the wood,
perhaps an eighth of an inch thick, slip
out over the bits. These hot and smoking
ribbons sometimes reach length of many
yards before breaking They are folded
upon themselves snatched away from the
machines by attendants, and laid in long
piles on the floor. In few minutes log
two feet in dismeter is thus drawn out into
ribbons until there remains revolving upon
; the spindle core only six inches in diam
eter. This is thrown into pile with
others, and all are subsequently sawn into
scantllng and made up into Slated boxes
or crates for packing the empty or the full
basket for shipment by rail
Before the ribbons have time to dry
they are passed under saw that cuts them
transversely into little boards from three
to four inches wide and as long as the
width of the ribbons. These are the boards
of which the baskets are made As they
come from under the saw they are saturat-
ed with the hot aud sugary sap which gives
the sweet gum its adjective, that when
laid in piles for few minutes they are
black with hungry flies.
All the work of preparing the sweet gum
for basket making is done by men, but the
material is put together by women and girs-
The plant little boards, still damp and
sweet, are turned over to the girls, whose
duty it is to sort out the defective ones.
The girls shuttle the boards as if they were
cards and throw out defective pieces with
the utmost swiftness. Each board is bent
at two points indicated by transverse marks
made by the saw. The girls that fit and
back the pieces together bend over a long
bench, provided with a heavy iron casting
the size and shape Of the interior of the
basket TO be made. Each basket requires
from two to three boards according to its
size and shape. The boards are bent over
the iron casting and the edges are bound
with narrow, plant strips of sweet gum.
Small tacks are driven in at half dozen
points, the finished basket is removed from
the casting and another is begun.
The basket makers work with astonish-
ing energy, precision and speed. A skill
ful girl can make from 600 to l 400 small
berry baskets in single day. One young
woman at Frankford, Del, is the cham
pion, with record of LOO baskets in a
single day. The girls are paid 8 cents per
hundred for small berry baskets, and 10
cents per hundred for grape baskets.
An ingenious machine so cuts the rib
bons designed for strawberry baskets that
the berries shall have ventilation upon all
sides, but fashions the material from which
huckleberry baskets are made so that not
even the smallest huckleberry can escape.
Other machines press the warm, sweet,
plant wood into various shapes for butter
plates, fruit saucers and the like The
wood is also turned into beautiful ladies
aud spoons while it is peculiarly suitable
for salad forks
The berry basket trade is large and
constantly growing. One factory in Del
aware will make 100000 grape baskets
this year, besides millions of baskets for
native small fruits. Half dozen other
factories in the same county will turn out
many millions more
Bananas Instead of Meat.