The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-05-13
SPRUCE GUM SCARCE.
The Maine Woods Have Not Yielded
an Average Supply.

AbOSLOn NTlODe-J }.
This has been an off year for gum in
Maine. Ordinarily the Maine supply of
clear, pink odorous and sweet spruce
gum has been in the tons, and every
ton of it is worth 81, 900 at first hands
This year the supply OF marketable
gum will fall much below the average.
This sad fact is not brought about by
deTth Of gum so much as lack Of
skilful haTvesteTs.
Everybody is going into it, said a
wholesale gum dealer in Bangor, Me-,
the chief gum market of the United
States, land the supply is not so good
this year in consequence. They bring
in all kinds Of stuff, dirty and pitchy,
and full of black spots, and, of course
we can't buy it. We won't get the good
clear gum this winter we cid last year
on that account.
Il remember" went on the gum deal
er, as he leaned over the counter, when
gum gatherers came in here with some
400 or 500 pounds Of gum to the man
to sell after a winter in the woods.
Every pound of il was worth q dollar
and that is just what have for it right
through. This winter I haven't seen
any of the kind Of gum we used to get:
that is, not in quality. Last year 1
sent it out of the state. There is a
good demand for it, especially from
the west, where there are Maine peO-
pie in large numbers ] don't get a big
profit out Of it, for it retails at 10 cents
an ounce, all done up in a neat paste
board box. Then, there is a shrinfage
of 10 per cent on it. and additional loss
from it becoming broken. After I have
sold it to a middleman, say at 81 % a.
III T. IL
who can only get 10 cents an ounce for
If, you viii see there is no great profit
in it for any Of us.
AS for the man who gathers it."
went on the gum dealer, ''he earns his
dollar a pound I wouldn't clean the
stuff for that money. Every piece of it
has to be handled, and most of it scrap
ed with knife to take off the rough
outside. There is a good deal of waste
IN the cleaning. The best guna-gather-
ers are those who know how to get
clean gunl-the kind that does not re-
quire lot of cleaning"
Notwithstanding the difficulty in get
ting together 100 pounds of gum, the
dealer recalled that he bought on one
occasion 99S pounds of gum from two
men. who had gathered ii in a winter
They were SWede farmers from the Vi
ctIity Of New Sweden, in Northern
ArOOstOOk- Work is dull on the potato
farms in winter, and the thrifty Swedes
look around for a chance to make a,
dollar. Many of them go into the
woods as lumbermen. Some trap, while
others gather gum These two farmers
Melted 81 a pound for their gum and
divided the sum equally.
Only men Of greatest patience and
or neyer-ceasing activity can gather
nearly 500 pounds of gum in a. winter.
The task is one calling for almost in
credible work. When one buys a little
box Of the pure amber blood OF the
spruce he little thinks of the patience
that has been put into the work Of
gathering il. The -gatherer begins
his work IN the fall, as soon as the
snow con es ana makes travelling on
foot in the forest easier than when the
ground is bare. and he keeps at his task
day after day, in storm and shine, until
spring. Living IN a rough camp, he
walks forth into the trackless woods
evesy morning at daybreak, and keeps
going until dark. He wears snowshoes,
on which he skins the surface of the
deep white carpet on the ground, max
ing his way from tree to tree. his head
up. scanning the brown trunks for the
little drops Of CONCEALED sap that is
known as spruce gum.
An expert gum gatherer can see gum
on the trunk Of a tree where the novice
could see none He also knows at q
glance whether q "teat' is worth taking
off or not. and that when It is some
times fifteen feet above his head. AS
1t u impossible to reach most Of the