272 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



sugar too dear for them. The tree grows more nu- 

 merously here in the mountains than in the country 

 nearer the coast ; and one sees now and again in the 

 woods gutters and troughs by means of which the sap 

 is collected. The Indians also are known to make use 

 of the sugar, and they boil it down on the spot. Others 

 prepare it for sale, at one and a half to two shillings 

 Pensylv. the pound. It is brown to be sure, and some- 

 what dirty and viscous, but by repeated refinings can 

 be made good and agreeable.* A domestic tea is pre- 

 pared from the leaves of the Red-root (Ceanothus 

 americana) , which is really not bad to drink, and may 

 well take its place along with the inferior sorts of 

 Bohea tea. Jonathan Plummer in Washington county 

 on the Monongahela during the war prepared himself 

 more than 1000 pounds of this tea, and sold it for seven 

 and a half to ten Pensylv. shillings the pound. His 

 method of preparation he kept secret; probably he 

 dried the leaves on or in iron-ware over a slow fire. 

 By better handling, more careful and cleanly, this tea 

 could likely be made greatly more to the taste than it 

 is. At the beginning of the war, what with general 

 prohibitions and the enthusiastic patriotism, the im- 

 porting of Chinese tea was for some time rendered 

 difficult, and attempts were made everywhere to find 

 substitutes in native growths ; this shrub was found 

 the most serviceable for the purpose and its use is still 

 continued in the back parts. Along the coast this 

 patriotic tea was less known and demanded, but it will 



* More circumstantial accounts in this regard are to be 

 found in P. Kalm's description of how sugar is made in North 

 America from several sorts of trees. Schwed. akad. Abhandl. 

 XIII. 



