Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-02-11
VERMONT SPRUCE GUM.
How 1t Is Produced and What Becomas

How 1t Is Produced and What Becomes of
1t All.
In November, when the cold wealth
er has fairly set in, the gathering of
spruce gum begins in Vermont. saws q
Bennington letter. Genuine spruce
gum has almost entirely disappeared
from the Bennington market as a reou-
lar article of merchandise. Formerly
the supply was abundant, the price low.
and the quality frst-class. But the
supply now largely depends on chance.
the gum plckers not being so numerous
or industrious as in former years. as
u, 1nere Is little money in the business.
Inc sawmlll, pulpmill, and forest fires
nave wrought such devastation among
the pig tracts OF spruce trees which for
merly clothed the Green Mountains that
the occupation of the gum picker is al
most gone. Sometimes a lumberman or
mountalner in Woodford, town ad-
joining bennington Oh the east, discovers
tree that will yield several pounds of
marketable gum, which is brought to
bennington, where it findsa ready mar
ket at good prices. The price depends
entirely upon the qualify, ranging all
the way from 80 cents to $3.50 a pound.
Gum OF poor quality is readily distin-
guished by It's opaqueness and by it's in
innate admixture of minute bits of
park, which became entangled with the
gum when it exuded from the tree in a
seml-liquid state. Poor gum is further
distinguished as being too heavy or too
iight, bitter, and permanently sticky to
the teeth in some cases, and hard and
crumbly in other specimens. Gum of
the finest grade is either translucent or
transparent of a light amber color,
filled more or less with minute bubbles
OF air, breaking with short, shining
fracture, and having sweet, peculiar,
and balsamlc odor and taste. The word
"gum," however, is popularity misap-
piled, as the substance is q resinous
matter.
A considerable portion of the gum
offered Tor sale in Bennington is sent
West in small packages by mail. The
reason for this is that large numbers of
Eastern people who have gone West
send back to their old home for small
supplies at time. In this way, too.
quarter-pound packages ofgum are sent
across the continent to California.
where the article is valued almost be-
yond price. The Ohio and Michigan
branches of the DIN family, that re-
Bennington, "cornered" about all the
spruce gum stocks in town.
Several years ago an enterprising
young man, Fl. w. Martin, of Benning
ton, worked up a large trade in this
commodity. Tons of gum by mail, ex-
press, and freight were sent by him to
remote sections Of the country, and the
demand was often greater than the sup
ply. The gum, however, which was of
extra fine quality, was obtained in New
York State. Mr.. Martin was sub
sequently appointed postmaster at
Bennington, and the gum business
was abandoned.
Perhaps the most famous gum-picker
in Vermont is Alinzok Bishop, of Wood
ford. He is professional. Bishop
poses as a farmer and Yankee-notion
peddler, but when cold weather sets in,
Lin" as he is Familiarity called in all
the region round about, penetrates the
deep forests Of the mountains in pursuit
of his favorlte calling, which he has toll
lowed all his life. With bag slung over
his shoulder and carrying long slend-
er pole, armed at one end with sharp
chisel, with which gum may be detached
from tree at a considerable distance
from the ground, this man roams the
mountains, often several days at time,
alone, and miles from any human hab-
itation. When deep snow comes and
the air is bitter cold, Bishop puts
on his snow shoes and treads undaunt-
edly the deep gorges and narrow passes
of the Green Mountains in quest of
gum.
Bishop takes the gum to his humble
home, where it is cleaned of all adher-
ing bark and dirt and sorted into three
grades, which Bishop designates as
Hgood, bad and Indifferent. The gum
is then put in small bags and generally
brought to Bennington, where the full
grades find ready market Tor cash, but
the other grades are generally battered
for any small wares that may be wanted
fo &c r,ilu 11lo