The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-07-31
BUTTONS ON BUSHES.
Nuts Furnish Many of these Needfui
 Articles for Wearing Apparel.

Nuts Furnish Many of these Needfui
 Articles for Wearing Apparel.
 E No. the ivory buttons you wear do not represent the death of an elephant in the Wilds of Africa; your pear buttons were probably never nearer than you took them to the shell of a bivalve mollusk, and the probabilities are that no rubber tree was ever tapped to pro- duce the hard rubber buttons that adorn your overcoat. Down in Central America there Is a fruit-producing palm that has quite metarnorphosed the but ton business and formed the nucleus for one of the most important industries in the United States. The, seed of this is sweet to the taste and relished by the natives. The milk when allowed to re- main in the nut long enough becomes indurated and turns into substance as brittle and hard as the ivory from the elephants tusk. The plant that pro- duces these nuts is called the ivory plant. Most of the buttons now used in America, whether termed ivory, pearl, rubber. horn or bone, come from this ivory plant. Thus the probabilities are that their buttons are made from a vegetable milk, and they grow on bushes. +.,.-s s
 The ivory plant is one of the marvels of the age, and is rewarding It's growers with vast fortunes. The nuts are brought to the United States by the shipload and hauled across the corti- nent to the big button factories, from which they issue forth in very con- ceivable design. color, grade and classification of button. r .7. 5}
 The ivory plant has recently been dis- covered in California, but the nut it pro- duces in it's state is of inferior quality and will not make good buttons. It is believed, though, that with the proper cultivation the fruit would be as valu- able as the Central American. If so the growing of buttons in America would become an industry of importance second only to the growing of corn. wheat and cotton, for everybody wears buttons. ,.-....
 The best ivory nut for commercial purposes is found on the banks of the river Magdalena in the United States of Columbia. where by some it is called the Tauga palm. The fruit forms a globular head about the size of a mans head and weighs from twenty to twenty eight pounds. The head is a kind of cluster of bulbs, and, in all contains from fifty to sixty seeds. The seeds are allowed to dry and are harvested several times year by the natives.
 The Apparel Gazette, the great deal ers' authority on everything that people wear, says: "The ivory nut is used
 almost solely in the manufacture of buttons, though some factories also make poker chips from them. The nuts however has superseded the archaic mud, rubber and bone buttons in vogue formerly. It admits of wilder treat ment for this purpose than any other known substance, and is easily worked. The United States consumes more than one-ha1f of the worlds product of ivory nuts, and nine-tenths of the vegetable
 ivory is manufactured into buttons.
 When the nut reaches the button factory it is cut into three slabs. In the process of cutting out the but
 ton is partially shaped. Afterward the thread holes are drilled and counter sunk. The button is then sent to the polisher. who uses the shavings and powder in drilling to polish them in