| Show GATHERING OF GUM maine yields one half of the total production only five tons of tho the genuine corn com kodity are consumed annually in this country balance balance Is exported bangor me ile the woods wooda of at maliq yield moro than one halt half of bt the tha five tons of genuine spruce chewing sum gum cois consumed umed in this country every year though the city fac factories turn out largo large quantities of artificial gum mado front croni bitumen pitch and paraffin and flavored with many beguiling essences and sell their products so cheaply that the poorest citizen can afford to buy all the gum ho he wants to chew the clean amber tinted ufa life blood ot of the black spruce tree Is getting to be an expensive luxury before the pulp mills came to maine alaine cr crystal puro pure gum was sold by the jobbers for or from 40 to CO 60 cents canta a pound most ot it was s c collected e from rom now newly y chopped trees by the lumbermen the advent ot of the pulp mills and tho the rapid transportation ot of the cut t timber by rail from the stump tn tf the factory brought about a change of method old growth spruce timber tt raber from which the best quality of 0 gum to is obtained la Is now so rare that an active lumberman will not secure more than a pound of gum in a winter the demand continuing constant prices doubled in a few years giving birth to a now industry which gives profitable employment to more than men for a month in every year it has taken about 20 years to complete the evolution of gum picking train from a crude art to a science the men who engage in the busi bual ness have regular routes which they travel for year after year the territory la Is teased leased from the land owners before coming down from a tr tree ee the hunter makes deep horizontal gashes on the sunny side of the trunk fm fa ming wounds wound from which pitch will exude during the summer and later harden into gum for the next harvest little gum of last seasons ripening has come to market and the retail price in danger bangor Is 15 cents an ounce in april when the pickers como come la in with their packs the price will fall to and 2 retail and about in ten pound lots persons who visit the backwoods towns of maine hear many stories bout about rl enterprising citizens who have gained sudden wealth by carner nIng the gum supply in 1886 a doston boston druggist named brown came to bangor to purchase lumber for a group of cottages iager he waa about to erect riar Cot tago city lie ile sold spruce gum in hta his stare buying it from the jobbes at an average rate of 1 a pound finding that thai he could buy it in bangor tor for 50 cents a a pound he purchased all lie he could get visiting the camps in order to secure as much as possible ile he bought nearly two tons which lie he packed in boxes and stored away to await the opening of the river at s that it could be taken to boston bi b boat the tee ice was late in going out of the penobscot that year and before the druggist received hla his gum the price had bad gone up to 2 a pound ile he made a profit of at more than on an investment of less than 2000 |
