The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-07-26
BUTTONS THAT GROW ON BUSHES
Nuts Furnish Many of These Needful
 Articles for Wearing Apparel.

From Popular Mechanics.
 No, the Ivory buttons you wear do not represent the death of an elephant in the wilds of Africa; your pearl buttons were probably never nearer than you took them to the shell of a bivalve moilusk and the probabilities are that no rubber tree was ever tapped to produce the hard rubber buttons that adorn your overcoat. Down in Central America three Is a fruit producing palm that has quite metamorphosed the button business and formed the nucleus for one of the most important industries of the United States. The seed of this fruit contains a milk that is sweet to the taste and is rel [ shed by the natives The milk, when al- lowed to remain in the nut long enough, becomes indurated and turns Into a sub stance as brittle and hard as the ivory from the elephants tusk. The plant that produces 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 your buttons are made from veg etable milk. and they are grown on bushes.
 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 continent to the big button factories, from which they issue forth In every conceivable design, color. grade and classification of button.
 The ivory plant has recently been dis covered in California, but the nut 1t pro- duces in it's wild state Is of inferior quail ity 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 would become an in- dustry of importance second only to the growing of corn, wheat and cotton, for everybody wears buttons
 The best ivory nut for commercial pur- poses is found on the banks of the River Magdalena, in the United States of Co., lombia, where it is called the Tagua palm. The fruit forms a globular head about twice the size of 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 a year by the natives
 The Apparel Gazette, the great dealers 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 nut. however, has superseded the archaic mud, rubber and bone buttons in vogue formerly. It ad- mits of wider and more varied treatment for this purpose than any other known substance, and is easily worked. The United States consumes more than one half of the worlds product of ivory nuts. and nine-tenths of the vegetable ivory is manufactured into buttons.
 When the nut reaches the button fac tory 1t Is cut into three slabs. In the process of cutting out the bottom is partially shaped. Afterward the thread holes are drilled and countersunk. The button Is then sent to the polisher, who uses the shavings and powder made in drilling to pc.ish them in their white state Afterward they are sent to the designer, who traces on the buttons in indelible dyes the designs needed to make them match the various weaves, coloring and textures of fabrics. After receiving these outlines. if the buttons are to re- main smooth and receive another coat of coloring they are put into dye. If they are to be stamped with segregated pat tern they are put into a pressing machine fitted with dyes of the pattern desired.