Salt Lake Telegram | 1904-12-08 | Page 3 | The Indiana "Elm Peeler"

The Indiana "Elm Peeler." Call an Indiana man an "elm peeler" and you wreck his pride. Usually it draws , from him a venomous retort. The term "elm peeler," according to the old masters of the Hoosier language, constitutes a slur. At Peru, however. It stands for money, and lots of It. If you don't believe It ask A. I. Hiller, the "elm peeler" of Peru. He knows. The "elm peeler" is the benefactor of mankind. He is the Hoosier medicine man, and is not to be spoken of disparagingly. disparag-ingly. Twelve years ago Hiller began peeling elm trees in the forests surrounding Peru. HiB sale of the medicine freighted "peel" was small at first, but gradually chemists began to realize that the elm peel was curative, and Hlller's business lnereased with the years. Now he cannot get it fast enough. Most of Miller's product of the forest goes to a Chicago medicine manufacturing company, and he gets 9'4 cents a pound for it. Recently, with five assistants, Mr. Hiller gathered 7200 pounds of elm peel, receiving $t34 for the shipment. It required re-quired fiftec-n days to gather the lot. The season for peeling elm trees Is from April 10 to June 1. Hiller and his "elm peelers" go to the woods and camp (luring the peeling season. Frequently they work from fifteen .to eighteen hours a day in other words, they "make peel while the sun shines." The trees must be ten Inches or more In diameter before they are felled and peeled. The elms are sawed near the bottoms, bot-toms, and then rolled to a spot convenient for peeling. The rough outside covering is removed, and then a large knife is used to dissect the "slippery" part of the elm. There the peeler has the "slippery elm" so dear to the heart of every boy. The boy who doesn't know when the "slippery i lra" season is on is a juvenile dyspeptic. dyspep-tic. After the trees have been peeled the logs are abandoned, and are later cut Into stove wood. Elm Peeler Hiller insists that unless the planting of elms Is made an extensive Industry by the farmers. In a few years the elm will be extinct, and it is necessary to have them for the medicine med-icine they contain. Chicago Tribune. j