The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-04
THE WONDERFUL SAW PALMETTO.

/ THE WONDERFUL SAW PALMETTO.
! After reading an article by MIR. W. T.
/ French, of Jacksonville, Fla. in a recent
number Of the Tradesman on the saw
| palmetto and its products, every appre-
/ ciative tide-water Southerner. from the
CaTolinas round the coast TO Louisiana
ought to feel like taking off his hat to
the hitherto despised little scrub. For.
as Mr.. French shows, It is a storehouse
of good and useful things, and a source
of wealth to the sections in which it
grows. The trouble is that we have not
only failed TO discover the virtues OF our
humble friend and make the most of
them, but we have actually regarded that
friend as a cumberer of the ground and
oftentimes cut it down and cast It into
the furnace.
The fibre may be considered first, be-
cause it is the largest product of the saw
palmetto This fibre can be produced
for half the cost of excelsior, and is
twice as good. For mattress making 1t
Is equal to hair or wool in comfort, costs
much less and lasts longer. Hair and
wool mattresses must be made over" at
intervals; the fibre mattress needs no
such attention. Hair and wool mattresses
retain disease germs; the fibre mattress
does not Hair and wool mattresses be-
come infected with vermin; bedbugs can
not exist where there IS saw palmetto
fibre This one consideration ought to
make the fibre mattresses immensely
popular. There is nothing in the world
which a neat housewife despises so much
as a bedbug. and one and all of them
will no doubt welcome the bugless mat
tress.
As a lining or padding for fine carpets
the palmetto fibre is unsurpassed. It
lasts a lifetime ana retains its elasticity
As packing for glass, bric-a-brac, pot
terry, bricks, tile, earthenware and sim
liar breakable articles it is better than
straw, corrugated paper or corked pa
per, because it. is stronger and more
elastic; then, after it has been used as
packing it can be sold as mattress filing
or for other purposes. The fibre can be
used with advantage as a substitute for
hair i'm Dlastering. Lime does not in
jure, but rather preserves st. Iron
moulders have found that the fibre makes
an excellent large core. These are mere
ly few of the uses of the fibre. Ma
chimes for making it are comparatively
cheap. Five tons of green palmetto will
make three tons of fibre, which is worth
about SIS per ton, in bales.
From the fruit Of the plant is extracted
an excellent glue, a starch, tanuin, aka
Ii, stomachic and an astringent. From
the undeveloped flower stalk there is OBJ
tanned palm wine, the distilation maxi
ing arrack. From the flowers the
bees collect quantities of good honey. The
berries make an excellent preserve and
the juice of them good jelly. Every
wild beast of the forest it is said, eats
the berries in preference to corn. The
berry, technically called the drupe, con-
tains sugar, glucose, gum, starch, a sa-
line matter, resin, potash, a volatile oil
and a fixed oil. Good beer can be made
from the ripe drupe, which is a stlmu-
liant to the stomach and is exhilarating to
the nerves. The product of distillation
1 OA tHlS Deer Is an excellent brandy. Burn
the seed, and the ashes may be used in
| place of salt Roasted, the drupe is a
| fair substitute for coffee, which it re-
| sembles in smell. The starch and gum
are very fattening, and will increase the
flow of milk. The berries when eaten ripe
have distinct medicinal properties in ad-
dtion to their food value. When green
they make an excellent substitute for
| olives. Several proprietary medicines are
made from the saw palmetto and several
valuable tinctures have their base in the
sabal serulata, which is the little scrub 8
Latin name. In addition to all this, if
the plant is grubbed up and permitted to
rot on the ground 1t makes an excellent
| fertilizer. Its usefulness doesn't end
even with its death.
There is no harder plant than the saw
palmetto. All that it asks is a living
chance, and it will produce two crops
of leaves a year. The branches and
leaves can be gathered at cost of about
81 to SIS a ton delivered. The fibre from
that ton is worth approximately $lO.5O.