Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-03-12
Frederic Haskin's Letter
MR.. HURST AND THE CooNTlE BERRY.

Miami, Fla, March IVA Jew
miles from this town 10 factory
which il said to be the only one Of
its kind in the world. 1t makes q
high grade OF starch out Of q com.
mon weed which grows all over the
country and in every vacant lot In
the town, and which was long re-
gArded by most people not merely
a. useless, but as positive pest.
This factory IL owned by one
man, who invented his own pro-
cess, built . large part Of his own
machinery, and does q large part
Of his own work. He has perhaps
the most absolute monopoly in .
monopoly-ridden republic. He
maintains his monopoly by keeping
his process Of manufacture an alb
solute secret. He will tell you
anything about himself and his fac
tory, except how 1t works. His
name is A. B. Hurst. and he is a
big, gray-headed man, very good
natured, and having more fun with
his little factory than boy with a
new sled.
The coontie berry, sometimes
known as the comte berry. upon
which Mr.. Hurst has founded his
fortune, is a small shrub, usually
less a foot high and decorated
with large bright red berries. hav-
ing very tough skins. II you pull
up this plant, you are surprised to
find that it has a very large root,
resembling q sweet potato and
seeming out of all proportion to the
size Of the plant. The scientific
name of this plant is Zamia Flori-
dana, and it is a specie Of arrow
root. 1t grows literally all over
the sandy pine barrens of the east
coast of Florida. You can walk 10
feet from the road anywhere and
find a specimen. Mr.. Hurst had an
enormous supply Of raw material to
draw upon, and he gets it for next
to nothing. He pays farmers a
very small sum for the right to
cart away the coonties on their
lands. Starch is made from a SINH
lar plant which is cultivated in the
West Indies, but as far as could be
learned, Hurst is the only man who
has made a success of utilizing the
wild one.
This coontie is very we'll, or
rather badly known to the natives,
because it is the natural enemy of
the turkey. When the white men
first moved into these parts. they
we're surprised to discover that
there we're no wild turkeys on the
east coast, although the interior
and the west coast country were
full of them. The reason for this
they discovered when they intro
duced domestic turkeys. A domes-
tic turkey would get along fine
until he came to his first coontie
plant, which would necessarily be
soon after his arrival. He would
then pause and scrutinize those
bright red berries with glad
dened eye. He would seem to feel
sure that they were food Of a very
desirable sort. In just few min
utes he would have filled his crop
with the big, misunderstanding fruit,
and for a time thereafter he would
enjoy a sense Of personal well-be-
ing and contentment. But this
would not last long. for he would
soon begin to weaken.
Not that the coonties poisoned
him. According to the most reliable
accounts, the whole trouble with
them is that their outer integument
is capable OF resisting all the me-
chanical and chemical agents which
turkeys gizzard can bring to
bear upon them. They do not af-
ford the bird any more nourish-
ment than so many marbles. They
occupy the banker space, but dc
not deliver the fuel value. After a
few days, the turkey who has eaten
coonties dies Of starvation and dis
appointment.
Mr.. Hurst is therefore not only
making use of a hitherto useless
plant, but he is avenging the tur-
key, and making the east coast Of
Florida safe for him.
Mr.. Hurst used to be an orange.
grower, but he lost heavily in the
great freeze of 1894. and resolved
there and then, as he put it, Ito &c
into some business that didn't de.
pend on the weather"
He got interested in making
starch by working for a company