The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-11-30
FOREST PHARMACY.
NATURES REMEDIES USED BY
MEN IN LUMBER WOODS.
For Every Ill or Injury There Is a
Cure obtainable in the Trees
and Shrubs That Are
at Hand.

There is a pharmacy Of the woods
and some Of tie remedies are Of won
derful efficacy.
Few people in the outside world
know that there is produced in the
pine woods tonic and febrifuge great.
ly resembling quinine IN taste and eff
cacy. But the lumbermen know IL and
owe much to it's properties when run
down In health after seven months of
diet of pork and beans. bfead, tea
and frozen pork.
The sovereign remedy in these cases
is pine apple. Up among the branches
near to where dry twig shows that
the great tree has just passed its
acme of growth, a drab colored fungus
of a rude conical shape. generally
about half as big as a mans head,
clngs to the bark. This is the pine
apple of the woods.
Some woodmen use It as a powder,
chips cut from It being dried at the
fire and rubbed down by hand. Others
use an infusion prepared by boiling. II
Is fine tonic, acts gently as a diuretic
and sCatters feverishness rapidly. II
produces violent headache IL used to
excess and 1t is said to bring on in
ously.
When the pine apple Is not available
hemlock bark is successfully used The
bark Is taken from young, vigorous
tree, shredded and boiled until the
liquid becomes of rich red-brown
color. a large spoonful of this is taken
at meal times and acts as q tonic and
purgative. That this should be It's ef-
feet is remarkable, considering that
hemlock bark contains so much as
tringent tannin that it. is greatly used
In the manufacture of leather.
This Is also the great "shanty" rem
edy for horses.
When changes of weather are fire.
quent and the trapper or lumberman
suffers from a cough he seeks a rem
edy In balsam tree. Upon the smooth
bark are blisters sometimes inches
long. and within these is a fragrant.
thin gum. This contains benzoic acid
and resinous turpentlne and Is a
world-famed remedy where there is
rawness about the breathing apparatus.
Balsam Is also often used for cuts or
sores and has much healing virtue.
Sarsaparilla, which is sort of half
cousin TO ginseng. is well and favor
ably known as a cleansing and restor-
alive agent. The roots are found grow
ing by decayed wood, are easily OBJ,
tanned and have been used as spring
medicine and in the ceremonous
cleansings by the Indians from times
immcmorial.
Cedar oil Is valuable liniment and
as general pain killer had immense
vogue at one time among patent med
icne men. Guides and trappers still
believe in II.
Every woodsman is stanch be-
lever in the virtue of skunks grease
as an embrocation.
Bears oil is often mixed with a
crude kind of turpentine distilled from
the old roots of a pine stump, and It is
considered to be of great value when
rubbed upon the chest in cases OF in
iiammation of the lungs or pneumonia.
In extreme cases a spoonful is admin.
istered to the sufferer.
A poultice of we'll boiled Eastwood
suckers is also highly recommended in
cases of lung trouble. The bark of
slippery elm is used in pulmonary
troubles 9 a substitute for Irish moss,
and Is f.ally, when properly prepared,
a sod, nutritious and palatable food.
y decoction of cherry bark and
spruce bark. boiled and strained, is an
old Indian remedy for coughs. which
has been largely sold under various
names for years by venders of patent
medicines. The white trapper nova.
days dissolves spruce gum in alcohol
adds certain proportion OF the spirits
to the bark mixture and sweetens the
whole with maple sugar. Perhaps the
most experienced chemists could not
prepare better cough syrup than this
makes.
The great specific in cases OF incip-
lent cholera Is a strong tea made from
blackberry bush roots. fortified with
spirits and made very sweet.
For scratches, chapped hands and
other sores, woodland science fur
nishes the most grateful ointment 10
be found anywhere. II Is delightfully."-
fragrant, mild. sweet and OF speedy
action. II Is made from the gum laden
buds of the whitcwood or poplar.
which Is often called from its value
as providsr Of unguent the Balm OF
Gilead tree. The buds are boiled down
with deer's fat In proper proportion.
and little honey is added as the mass
cools. That nothing finer in its way
has ever been discovered is the COM
mon verdict of all who have ever made
use of IT,