The Republican., 1899-06-29
FLORIDA MOSS.
A Peculiar Growth That Is in Great
Demand Among Northern
UphOISterers.

The freeze of this year ki!Ie5 tFe
Florida moss. People who do not
recognize what this means rlIISt be told
that this somber gray drapery Of tee
southern forests gives 100 bales a week
of ''moss hair" to the northern Urhols-
canopy, Fla, alone, and other factories
in the state yield many times as much,
and this is only about one-half of the
weight of the moss when taken from
the trees. The other half is the useless
envelope to the inner and valuable hair.
There is mistaken idea as to how the
outer portion of the moss is removed
1t is generally supposed that the cover
ing is removed by chemicals or by pass
ing through some ingenious stripping
machine. The latter would be too eX-
pensive and the former open to the dan
ger of iniuring the natural elasticity of
the fiber.
The moss when first gathered is
greenish-gray. When killed by frost or
lack of proper sustenance. it is easily
distinguished from the live moss. 1t
turns gray, and if bitten feels soft.
while the live moss ''crunchcs' between
THE teeth. But the outer covering will
remain on either the dead or fresh moss
for months. If the moss, either alive or
killed, is simply piled in heaps in a
moist place and covered with muck or
sand, it soon begins to fermept, The
temperature of the interior of the heap
rises to a point too hot for the hand to
bear, and, if not checked. ii keeps heat
ing till too hot to walk over. But THIS
stage means damage to the interior
conducted, the fermentation means the
complete destruction of the outer skin.
and the moss is left duly "colorcd. ." /. e..
showing the dark brown color of the
hair.
1t reaches this stage in the hands of
the pickers, who then deliver il in loose
wagon loads, like hay, TO the gins.
There are about 50 of these ginning es-
adjustments in the statc-yery simple
affairs. The building is constructed as
cheaply as possible and costing from
$500 to S300-no insurance is ubtaua-
bic. The floor is six feet from the
ground and made of slabs ~ inches
apart, so that short fbcrs. sticks. and
dirt will sift out. In the building is
nothing but a cheap modification of a
cotton gina cylinder two feet long.
and of the same diameter. with two
inch teeth. which beat the moss against
similar stationary teeth. taking ont
sticks and rubbing off most of the adj
herring remains of the outer covering of
the moss. The machine is cheap and
very inefficient. The resulting moss is
either "two-cent moss" or "three-cent
moss'-the price per pound after GIN
ming, according TO the care with which
the picker delivered it.
The writer was surprised to learn that
this is the only preparation the moss re-
ceives. 1t is shipped in bales direct to
| the .Sssisolesaler. who generally dis
l'ff1Uates them unopened TO the up
holsterers.
The freeze will not interfere with
this years crop. The dead moss is
treated just as before the freeze. But
the outlook for next year is bad. The
crop will be small. Usually where a
tree has been picked clean. plenty of
small bits are left, so that in a favora-
BILE locality the tree will be fun again
in two or three years. This was shown
by the practice in moss localities of
cleaning il from the ora =, ,ra tros- ,,,.,,,.,,
two years. But when the temperature
fell to eight degrees in the center of the
state last February, the moss was quite
generally killed and its development so
checked that the yield viii be smaller
for several years. South of Ocala little
harm was done.-Scientiic American.