Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-30
SPRUCE GUM GETTING DEAR.
A Source of Boston Intellectually AT.
fected by the Pulp Mills.

Il
fected by the Pulp Mills.
From the New York Sun.
The woods of Maine yield more than one
half of the five tons Of genuine spruce
chewing gum consumed In this country
every year. Though the city factories turn
out large quantities of artificial gum made
from bitumen. pitch and paratfine and fla
vored with many beguiling essences, and
sell their products so cheapiy that the poor
est citizen can afford to buy all the gum
he wants to chew, the clean, amber tinted
life blood of the black spruce tree is get
ting to be an expensive luxury.
Before the pulp mills came to Maine
crystal pure gum was sold by the jubbers
for from 40 to 60 cents a pound Most of
It was selected from newly chopped trees
by the lumbermen. The advent Of the
pulp mills and the rapid transportation of
the cut timber by rail from the stump to
the factory brought about change of
method. Old growth spruce timber, from
which the best quality of gum Is obtained,
is now SO rare that an active lumberman
will not secure more than pound Of gum
in a winter.
The demand continuing constant prices
doubled in a few years, giving birth to
new industry, which gives profitable en-
ployment to more than 200 men for a
month in every year. 1t has taken about
twenty years to complete the evolution of
gum picking from a crude art to science
The men who engage in the business
have regular routes, which they travel for
year after year. The territory is leased
from the land owners. Before coming down
from tree the hunter makes deep hori-
zontal gashes on the sunny side Of the
trunk. forming wounds from which pitch
will exude during the summer and later
harden into gum for the next harvest.
Little gum of last seasons ripening has
come to market and the rates charged
are from 81 so to 81 a pound. In April,
when the pickers come in with their packs
the price will fall to 81 %, below which
figure no gum will be bought this year.
1t is asserted that the habit of gum
chewing gives one clear brain, and that
the chewer can think quickly and act wise
ly in conducting the affairs of life. More
than two-thirds of the gum gathered in
Maine is sold in Boston, and most of this
is retailed to local customers, a fact which
may account for the high intellectual con-
dition of Boston.
Persons who visit the backwoods towns
Of Maine hear many stories about enter
prising citizens who have gained sudden
wealth by cornering the gum supply. In
1886 Mr.. Brown, a Boston druggist, went
to Bangor to purchase lumber for a group
OF cottages he was about to put up near
Cottage City. He sold spruce gum in his
| store, buying It from the jobbers at an
average rate of 81 a pound. Finding that
he could buy 1t in Bangor for 20 cents a
pound, he purchased all he could get WIS.,
iting the camps in order 10 secure as much
as possible.
He bought nearly two tons, which he
packed in boxes and stored away to await
the opening of the river so that 1t could
| be taken to Boston by boat. The Ice was
| late in going out of the Penobscot that year
and before the druggist received his gum
the price had gone up to 50 a pound. He
| made profit of more than 5000 on an
| investment of less than 81. 900.