Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-03

Nearly 20o0. 100000 sticks Of chewing gum
will be manufactured in the United states
this year. and most Of Il will be chewed
a. fast az II IL made. There are numerous
factories scattered throughout the coun-
try. and It Is said that few industries
show greater cleanliness OF operation than
is the rule In the American chewing gum
establishment. A report OF the Department
Of Commerce and Labor declares that the
second cleanest factory of any kind In
spected by that department was one where
chewing gum was made.
The process BY which the gum is made
is full Of interest. It's basis Is chicle gum.
and this is boiled TO the required consis-
tency in copper kettles, after which Is
added the ~flavorlng and the necessary
sugar to give It sweetness. II is then
transferred TO large centrifugal receivers.
whipped into dough and then removed to
tables where it Is kneaded ia powdered
sugar. After this It is rolled INTO sheets.
cut TO the desired size. dried. wrapped by
machinery and placed in boxes for mar
keting.
Repeated attempts have been made to
mix or adulterate chicle, or 60 get a
substitute for It, but there seems to be no.
substitute except spruce gum. about 15.O0O
BbaAA4 - WIN I BaNAltlFu III AIt NbON1
of Maine each year. OF course this is a
mere drop in the bucket compared with the
amount of chicle brought into the United
States from Central America. Chicle is
not incidentally valuable, but has proved
an excellent vehicle for carrying such
drugs as pepsin. a British court has held
pepsin chewing gum to be a drug, and
under the English pure drug act a drug
gist was fined for selling some tina con-
tanned less pepsin than was called for by
the label, The masticatlon that goes with
chewing gum produces n flow Of saliva
which is highly beneficial in certain forms
of stomach trouble. While gum chewing
has been principally an American habit,
the people of other countries are becoming
initiated to it's delights. a big American
manufacturer stimate that the United
States produces enough annually to give
two sticks to each man, woman and child
on earth.
Chicle comes to us from tropical America
at the rate of more than 5000, 900 pounds a
year, and costs In the raw state about
1900, 1000 annually. The tree which bears
1t is to be found in the dense forests of
the tropics. The operation in it's gathering
is not dissimilar to that Of gathering
maple syrup in the United States. A
chicle gatherer has little more equipment
than the versatile machete and a piece Of
rope. He places the rope around his waist
and the trunk Of the tree, which Enables
him to scale 1t as conveniently as a tele-
phone lineman goes up a pole with the aid
of climbers. He makes notches in the
tree into which the sap flows. Later he
comes around and gathers it, securing from
ten to fifteen pounds a day in the height Of
the season. A tree may be tapped profit
ably for twenty-five years. An effort is be
ing made by the growers to induce the men
ito work by the week, as their ambition to
make good wages by the so-much-per-
pound system has resulted in great harm
to the trees.
Planted 400 to the acre, the trees yield
1900 pounds of gum annually. Land where
they will grow sells at from So to SIS per
acre. The wood mahogany, and
the door and window frames made of it
are still in an excellent state OF preserva-
ton in the prehistoric ruins of Mexico. 1t
Is in great demand by cabinet makers.
The tree grows to maturity in a little less
han fifty years.
When the sap is gathered is has a milky
appearance which changes TO yellow when
exposed to the air. It is carried to the
OOAAhB SheuS "uOIN II B COuCcilbfd teu W
the proper consistency, then kneaded into
loaves and mad ready for export. The
duty on it is 10 cents a pound, and was
laid only after the hardest sort of a fight
when the Payne-Aldrich bill was framed.
The chewing of gum is by no means a
new habit. Our fathers chewed birch bark,
slippery elm and shoemaker's wax years
upon years ago. but even their pleasure in
molar activity is far antedated. Christie
pher left behind him a letter
which proves conclusively that chewing
gum was used more than 400 years ago,
and that he regarded it as Of sufficient
Importance to offer some to Ferdinand
and Isabella as a part of his inducement
to them to finance his second expedition to
the new world. He offered to bring them
as much gold as they would need, as many
slaves as their navy would require, chew
ing gum, spices, etc. The gum, he said,