El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-03-02
Chewing Gurn Industry
GUM CHEWING HABIT FOR AGES;
CHICLE DISCOVERED IN MEXICO

- I EAftL1 three Dillon STICKS or
~ chewing gum viii be manufac-
- tured in the United States this
year, and most OF it will be chewed as
fast as it is made. There are numerous
factories scattered throughout the
country, and it is said that few indus
tries show greater cleanliness of oper-
alton than is the rule in the American
chewing gum esta blishment. A report
of the department Of commerce and
labor declares that the secOnd-cleanest
factory of any kind inspected by that
department was one where chewing
gum was made.
How 1t Is Made.
The process by which the gum is
made is full of interest. Its basis is
chicIe gum, and this is boiled TO the
required consistency In copper kettles,
after which is added the flavOring and
the necessary sugar to give 1t sweet
ness.
1t is then transferred to large cen
trifugaI receivers, whipped into dough
and then removed TO tables where it is
kneaded in powdered sugar. After this
it is rolled into sheets, cut to the de-
sired size, dried, wrapped by machinery
and placed in boxes for marketing.
Repeated attempts have been made to
mix or aduIterate chicle, or TO get a
substitute for it, but there seems to be
pc substitute except spruce gum, about
$1,000 pounds OF which are gathered in
the woods 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 IAN excellent vehicle for
carrying such drugs as pepsin. A
British court has held pepsin chewing
gum to be a drug, and under the Eng
lish puTe-drug act a druggist was fined
for selling some that contained less
pepsin than was called for by the label
The mastication that goes with chew
ing gum produces a flow of saliva
which IS highly beneficial in certain
forms of stomach trouble. While gum
chewing has been principally an Ameri-
can habit, the people of other coun-
tries are becoming initiated TO its de-
lights. A big American manufacturer
estimates that the United States pro-
duces enough annually TO give two
sticks 10 each man. woman and child
en- earth
Imported from Tropics.
Chicle comes to us from tropical
America at the rate of more than 5,OOO,-
coo pounds year and costs in the raw
state about s2.OOO.OOO annually. The
tree which bears it is TO be found in
the dense forests of the tropics The
operation in its gathering is not dis
similar to that of gathering maple syrup
in the United States
\ 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
il as conveniently as telephone line
man 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 il, securing
from 10 to Is pounds 4 day in the height
Of the season. A tree may be tapped
prOfitably for % years
An effort is being made by the grow
ers TO induce the men 10 work by the
week. as their ambition to make good
wages by the so-much- per-pOund sys-
tenn has resulted in great harm TO the
trees.
Yield OF the Trees.
Planted 400 to the acre, the trees
yield 1000 pounds of gum annually.
Land where they will grow sells at
from 50 to SIS per acre. The wood re-
sembles mahogany. and door and win
dow frames made of it are still in an
excellent state OF preservation in the
great demand by cabinet-makers. The
tree grows to maturity in a little less
than so years.
When the sap is gathered it has a
milky appearance which changes to yell
low when exposed TO the air. 1t is
carried to the boiling sheds where II is
concentrated to the proper consistency,
then kneaded into loaves and made
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.
Habit of Long Standing.
The chewing of gum is by no means
new habit. Our fathers chewed
birch-bark slippery elm and shoe
makers wax years upon years ago,
but even their pleasure in molar activ-
ity is far antedated. Christopher Co
Iumbus left behind him a letter which
proves conclusively that chewing gum
was used more than 400 years ago. and
that he regarded IL as OF sufficient i'm
portance to offer some to Ferdinand
and Isabella as part of his inducement
TO them to finance his second expedition
to the new world
He offered TO bring them as much