The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-12
SPRUCE GUM.
The Real Gum of the FOrest-HOw
Gathered and Where Used-A Gum
Town.
From the New York Sun.

TOWns
From the New York Sun.
Nearly every one has heard of the inn
mense fortunes made in the manufacture
of pepsin and rubber gums but there are
few people who know of the enormous
traffic done in spruce gum, and how great
ana industry it has become. One of the
wealthiest men in Portland, Me-. is the
possessor of lands, herds and steamboat
lines, and has made nearly all his for
tune in spruce gum. THE people of New
York. he said a few days ago, ARE not
spruce gum chewers, and for that reason
they do not realize what an enterprise
the getting and marketing of this gum has
! become, yet many hundred tons of spruce
gum are consumed in the United States
every year"
Mr.. Curtis, the man referred to, prob
abby knows more in regard to the spruce
gum history and growth than any other
man, for he was the pioneer in the enter
prise. II prepared and sold the first bit
of spruce gum ever put upon the market
in this country" he said THAT was in
1850. 1 am no longer young man, you
see, for I am now 66 years old. Yet" he
added, laughingly, II take a still youth
full interest in spruce gum. | began first,
way back in 1850, by going about the
country with a cart and bedding gum
from house to house. In this way l went
all through New England, and the first
year L collected $bOUU IN money. 1nen /
grew ambitious, and wanted to make the
whole United States my field. It's just
as good an ambition, that of subduing i
nation to good, healthy spruce gum chew
ing, as subduing il to tobaccos moking.
Well, / have personally visited almost ev-
cry city in the United States and Mexico
in the interests of this business. My first
st. Louis firm. / sold them $4,000 boxes,
varying from one to two pounds in each
box and delivered them all during the
xFna WI have AGENTS
the country. One of our men is to-day in
Butte, Mon, another out on the Pacific
coast. OF course we have scores of COM
petitors, but there is business enough to
warrant many more.
When asked where the market for this
gum was found Mr. Curtis went TO "A large
map of the United States which hung on
the wall of his private Office, and drew
his finger across it from east to west,
starting with . New York city as II. the
above the line through the northern states
and up and down the Pacific slope" he
said Probably Michigan, according to
any other state in the union. Chicago and
st. Louis are great spruce gum cities.
New York city? No; New Workers chew
pepsin Do you know" he added, this
taste for spruce gum seems to be almost
an hereditary one. The people living
among the spruce forests, as in Maine,
New Hampshire, Northern New York and
Michigan, love the spruce gum; so also
do their descendants. The southern mar
ket is small, and there the taste is an ac-
quired one, like that for olives and cell
cry"
Another firm in Portland mas on hand
at the present time about 10000 pounds
of spruce gum. which is being made ready
for the market. The large wholesale
houses buy a certain part of their gum
prepared. ready for sending out again,
but most of It they get in the rough state,
and then put i through a steaming or
manufacturing" process in their own es-
Establishments. This, so-called ''manufac-
tured" gum is pure spruce, but gets its
name from the fact that 1t has been re-
duced from it's original state.
At this time of the year. and all through
the winter months, the spruce gum in
dustry gives employment to hundreds Of
men in the forests of Maine, New Hamp-
shire, Northern New York and Canada
For many of the farmers it forms an
only source of income during the late
fall and winter season. An experienced
"gufnmeF" makes on an average $3.50 a
day His outlay is small a1d the work
is considered particularly healthy. He
first equipps himself with a coarse meal
bag, sewed up at the open end, and with
q hole cut out of the center large enough
TO permit of its being drawn over his
head The large opening is usually bound