Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1910-01-14
GATHERING SPRUCE GUM.
An Industry of the Maine Woods-Meth-
DDS and Profits.

puS anu GlUulS-
The woods of Maine yield moro than
one-haIf of the five tons of genuine
spruce chewing gum consumed in this
country every year. Though the city fac-
tories tuiR ont large quantities of orti-
hclal gum, made from hitumpn. mitch
and paratiin, and favored with many be-
gmlln% essences, and sell their products
50 cheapy that the poorest citizen can
attofd to buy all the gum he wants to
chew. the cleal. amber-tiuted life blood
OF the black spruce tree is getting to be
an expensive luxury. says a Bangor COR
respondent of the Philadelphia Record.
Before the pulp mills came to Maine
crystal pure gum was sold by the iohhers
for from 40 to 90 cents a pound Most
OF 1t was selected from newly chopped
trees by the lUmbermen. The advent Of
the pulp mills and the rapid tranSporta.
ZION of the cut timber by rail from the
stump to the factory brought about Il
change of method. Old growth spruce
timber, from which the best quality Of
gum Is obtained is now So rare that an
active lumberman will not secure more
than pound of gum in n winter.
The demand continuing constantine
prices doubled in few years. giving
birth to new industry which gives
profitable employment TO more than two
hundred men month in every YEAR Ii
has taken about twenty years tu COM
plete the evolution of gum picking from
a crude art to Il science.
The men who engage in the business
have regular routes. which they travel
over year after year. The territory is
leased from the land o, ners. Before
coming down from tree the hunter
makes deep horizontal gasheS on the sun
ny side of the trunk. forming wounds
from which the pitch will eXude during
the summer and later harden into gum
for the next harvest.
Little gum Of last seasons ripening has
come 10 market and the retail price in
Bangor is II cents an ounce. When the
pickers come in with their packs the
price will tail 10 Ni.T:J aud 50 retail. and
about $1.IO in l0-pound lots.
1t is asserted that the habit Of gum
chewing gives one clear brain. and thar
the chewer can think quickly and act
wisely in conducting the affairs of life.
More than tw0-thirds of the gum gath
cred in Maine is sold in Boston, and
most of this is rctaied To local customers.
a fact which may account for the high
intellectual condition Of Boston.
Persons who visit the hacliwoods towns
Of Maine hear many stories about enter
priSing citizens who have gained sudden
wealth by cornering the gum supply. In
1856 a Boston druggist named Brown
came to Bangor to purchase lumber for
a group Of cottages he was about to erect
near Cottage City He sold spruce gum
in his store. buying it from the iohbcrs
at an average price of 81 "a pound. Find
ing thar he could buy it in Bangor for -
cents Il pound, he purchased all he could
get, visiting the camps in order to secure
as much rs possible.
He bought nearly two tons, which he
packed in boxes and stored away to
await the opening of the river so that it
could be taken to Boston by boat. The
ice was late in going out of the peuob-
scot that year, and before the druggist
received the gum the price had gone up
to 81 a pound. He made profit Of
more than 5000 on an investment Of
less than $4,000