The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1909-08-26
GO IN THE WOODS
FOR SPRUCE GUM
There Are Men Who Make a
Business of the Trip Into
Names Wilderness
THEY CALL IT "GOING CUMMING"
From 25 to so Work the Maine Woods
Each Spring Leases from the
Lumbermen-May Pick So Worth
In Day.

In the early days OF April from
twenty-five to fifty athletic, canvas
clad young men start for the up-riyer
woods from Bangor, Me-. and nearby
towns to collect spruce gum from
the more than 10000, 900 900 feet of
spruce timbers still standing in the
northern forests of Maine.
! Not few of these men are the we'll
to do sons Of old families, who go
cumming" partly for profit and part.
| ly as pastime. A majority. however,
are trained climbers who know the
woods and who break away from side
walks and electric lights to gain
health and money at a time of the
year when numbering operations are
drawing to close and before the
streams open up for driving.
Instead of being a solitary and
silent man the gum picker as a rule
is as talkative as a book agent and
as ingratiating as poor kinsman in
straitened circumstances, says the
| Boston Herald. For. in order to Sc.
cure exclusive control over the gum
|
the picker must claim lease over
spruce timber lands whose owners he
has never met. Before he can do this
he must ingratiate himself into the
| favor of the camp bosses and their
subordinates. A pam who can sing a
rollicking song or tell lively story
is welcome.
The travelling outfit OF the gum
picker is very light A set of steel
climbers. such as are used by line
men, heavy and broad hatchet for
cutting off the gum and for soaring
the trees for the making OF more gum
the next year-these with tobacco.
| pipe and matches. complete his rig.
His food and lodging are given to
him by the boss Of the camp where
he chances to stop over night. his
cheerful ways and the Jews he brings
from the outer world more than pay.
ing for all dues.
The picker who CLEANS his harvest
from the same trees year after year
enhances the value of the holding
greatly. though this value applies to
the gum alone, for the trees are not
materially affected. The owners of
the woods are too busy 20 spend time
in allotting gum areas, and as the in
come from gum picking is never large
and the time of picking lasts but
few weeks the harvesters cannot af-
ford to pay the fees for drawing the
leases. to say nothing of giving tribute
for the gum.
a smart" man working in an old
gum orchard of thrifty trees that are
scattered widely enough to admit sun.
! light for ripening and hardening the
gum can under fair conditions collect
in day from eight to ten pounds of
rough gum, which on cleaning will
shrink two pounds, worth 81 a pound
in the cities. Before starting out to
operate gum orchard a picker must
spend one spring in marking and scar
ring the trees. so as TO make sure of
finding gum enough to pay for his la.
! Dor when he calls around q year later.
This is done by climbing a thrifty
| tree to above the Old limbs and high
! into the sunlight and soaring the
| south side OF the trunk between the
/ whorls of limbs with deep incisions
! shaped like a Y.
The spruce sap eXudes from these
wounds and moving downward along
the cut is dried in the sun until
/ pitchy crust is formed which fends
off the bits of bark and spills blown
about by the wind and prohibits the
entrance of inquisitiye bees and other
insects. Thus protected from harm,
the embryo nugget of gum continues
to grow from the inside by fresh sup.
plies of resinous sap and to harden
from the outside by slow evaporation.
The sun goes away south, winter ar
! riyes and the sweetening frosts re-
move the pitchy and acrid taste, leav-
ing from a score to a hundred of
sweet and ruddy and crysta.lized
"teats" of genuine spruce gum.
There are good reasons why the
harvesters should choose April as the
month for the tasks 1t is then that
the gum is in its ripest and best con-
dition, not so old as to be hard and
crumbly, not so young as to be soft
and taste of pitch. The scaly crust
above the winter snow banks among
the trees is then as smooth as glass,
carrying all the gum which escapes
the hand of the picker into the hol.
| lows among the drifts and holding
them safely in plain view until they
can be picked up. Before the end OF
May the coming sun will have warm.
ed the tree trunks and set the old
wounds to bleeding new sap. thus
spelling the harvest for another year.
II he is an old hand at selling in
the city the gum hunter will charge
from 81 to $3.50 a pound for his gum.
If he is new at the business he may
sell to some sharp broker or druggist
for rs cents pound. II he likes to
haggle he will call around from place
to place and in cay or more can sell
out for 81 a pound.