Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-14
BUTTONS GROW
ON TALL TREES
10000 Tons, Worth 81, 7oo,.
900, Are Shipped from Ecua-
dor Yearly.

Out of 1000 il-dressed men taken
from an average city crowd, how
many could tell If asked where the
buttons that so artlstieally embe,lish
the fancy grays. browns or blues of
their fashionable attire have their
origin? Ten-perhaps And yet each
of them is an unconscious walNlng
advertisement of one of the uniq e
products of several Latin American
countries, writes Edward Albe, in the
Monthly Bulletin of the Pan Amer
can Union. and proceeds To give an
account of the vegetable ivory button
from its birth on the tree until 1t Is
placed as q finished product on the
card and offered for sale
1t appears that 1t has been some
thing like fifty years since some rub
Der gatherers in the forests OF north
ern Ecuador first told of a peculiar
species of palm which they found in
great numbers, whose fruit was a nut
resembling In form and color the
miniature head of a negro These
nuts were called 'negritos." and ulon
further lnVestlgat ton Il was toun1
that the kernels. when thoroughly
dried, had the appearance and tex
ture of dentine Ivory.
Nuts Made Into Buttons,
Sample lots of these nuts were ship
ped to Europe and although at first
they were thought TO be useless. II
WAS soon found that they FURNISHED
an ideal material from which to man
ufacture buttons and other small or
namental objects for which the more
eX pensiye ivory had hitherto been
used. The dried kernel could be
sawed, carved and turned on lathes
into all sizes and shapes of buttons,
while the texture of the material is
such that il readily absorbs dyes and
will take on a high and permanent
polish. Henchforth the ivory nut be-
came an important product and now
adds considerably TO Ecuador's export
trade Something like 2U,UUU tons are
sn.plcu NON that country each year,
worth about 81 zoo, 900, while COLOMBIA
and Panama are both increasing in
their output.
The tagua, TO use its common name,
grows near the west coast Of South
America from southern Panama
through Colombia. Ecuador and the
northern part OF Peru. II is most
plentiful along the eastern slopes of
the Andes and grows ia groves along
the river valleys at varying elevations
and as high as 800 feet above sea
level The tree Is Il stunted palm fern
with n short thick trunk which grows
slowly to d height of ten to twelve
feet, marked by spiral lines of scars
left by fallen leaves and fruit stems
The ieale s resemble large gorgeous
green feathers and are like those of
a cocoanut while the blossoms are OF
pure white and very fragrant.
Nuts Mature Slowly.
TIL. aaadc l.t,,afs t.,s,,ttfY,nr Fvo.,,
These are irst In the forms of sacns
of sweet. refreshing liquid that
changes into soft, delicious, cdl bic
pulp and finally becomes the hard
nut of commerce. \ group OF sixty
to ninety nuts are encased in a huge,
knobby, rough brown husk, which
looks something like a huge chestnut
burr. and which opens at the bottom
when the nuts are ripe and let's them
fail TO the ground The nuts mature
very slowly, requiring from blossom
TO ripeness fully a year The gather
ing of green or unr Pc tagua nuts Is
prohibited by law in Ecuador When
fully ripe they are about the ne of
small potatoes, of very hard white
composition, very fine grained, and
closely resemble dentine ivory In all
it's character sites The trees are said
to begin bearing In their sixth year
and live from fifty to one hundred
years
Hundreds of natives, called tagua-
ros, make a business of gathering
these nuts from the wild trees of the
interior of Ecuador, collect them on
RATS and float them down the river
to Esmeraldas or other Pacific ports,
whore they are sold In open markets
to the exporters. Tho Importance of
the industry has grown until now the
United States alone buys annually
about 10000 tons of tagua nuts for
which the purchasers pay. including
ovrort and import duties and trans
portation charges. about $4,000 q.
There are twenty three vcgeta BILE
ivory factories in this country and
no less than 81 .O0n 900 is invested in
the industry. which gives employ
ment to not less than 10000 people