The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-11
FLORIDA MOSS.
Freeze of Past winter VIII Make Fu-
ture Crop Scarce

From the Scientific American.
The freeze of this year killeu the Florida
moss. People who do not recognize what
this means must think that this somber
gray drapery of the Southern forests gives
100 bales a week OF moss hair" 10 the
Northern upholsterers from the little VII
lage of Micanopy Fla, alone, and other
factories in the state yield many times az
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 a mistaken idea as to how the
outer portion of the moss is removed Il
is generally supposed that the covering Is
removed by chemicals or by passing
through some ingenious stripping machine
The latter would be too expensive and the
former open to the danger of injuring the
natural elasticity OF the fiber.
The moss when first gathered is green
ish-gray. When killed by frost or lack of
proper sustenance, 1t is easily distinguish
ed from the live moss 1t turns gray, ana
If bitten feels soft, while the live moss
"crunches" 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 1t soon begins to ferment
The temperature of the interior of the
heap rises to a point zoo hot for the hand
to bear, and, II not checked, II keeps heat
Ing till too hot to walk over. But this
stage means damage to the interior hair
and must be avoided. Properly conducted
the fermentation means the complete de-
struction of the outer skin, and the moss
Is left duly "colored' I. e., showing the
dark brown color of the hair.
II reaches this stage in the hands OF the
DipkArA W dal In
loads, like hay, to the gins There are
about fifty of these ginning establishments
In the state-very simple affairs. The
building is. constructed as cheaply as
possible, and, costing from 800 to $780,
no insurance is obtainable. The floor Is
six feet from the ground and made of
Stats one and one-half inches apart. so
that short fbers. sticks and dirt will sift
out In the building is nothing but
cheap modification of a cotton gina
cylinder two feet long and of the same
diameter, with two-inch teeth, which beat
the mess against similar stationary teeth
taking out sticks and rubbing off most
of the adhering remains of the outer COW
ering of the moss. The machine is cheap
and very inefficient. The resulting moss
is either ''2-cent moss, or "3-cent moss"
the price per pound after glnning-ac-
cording 20 the care with which the picker
The writer was surprised to learn that
this is the only preparation the moss
receives. 1t is shipped In bales direct
to the wholesaler. who generally distrib-
utes them unopened to the uphosterers.
The freeze will not interfere with this
years crop. The dead moss Is treated
just as before the freeze. But the out
look for next year is bad. The crop win
be small. Usually, where a tree has been
picked clean. plenty or small bits are
left, so that I'm a favorable locality the
tree will be fun again in two or three
years. This was shown by the practice
IN moss localities of cleaning it from the
orange trees every two years. But when
the temperature fell to degrees in the
center of the state last February the moss
was quite generally killed, and its devel-
opment so checked that the yield will be
smaller for several years. South OF Ocala
little harm was done