USES OF THE BAYBERRY 



By Albert A. Hansen. 



TT 7HEX we contemplate the many conveniences which 

 v ~ science, invention and modern industry have made 

 possible, it is difficult to imagine how our forefathers were 

 able to get along without them. Plants contributed a large 

 share toward supplying many of the wants of the early pioneers 

 and, curious indeed, are many of the uses to which they have 

 been put in the past. Along the Atlantic seaboard, from Maine 

 to Florida and rounding the coast of Louisiana, grows a plant 

 known as the bayberry or small waxberry (Myrica Caro- 

 linciisis), which contributed its share toward lightening the 

 burden of living during the pioneer days. The fruits of the 

 bayberry are covered with a grayish coat of wax, a device for 

 protecting the berries. The early settlers depended to a large 

 extent upon these berries as source of wax, a fact still utilized 

 in parts of New England. The housewife was not slow to find 

 practical use in these wax-covered berries. She tied clusters 

 of them in little cloth bags and used them in this fashion as a 

 means of waxing the irons with which to iron clothes. It is 

 said this practice persists even to the present day. 



Reference is frequently made in colonial literature to the 

 Christmas candle. The true christmas candle was made by 

 dipping strings into bayberry wax, the result being a candle of 

 handsome dark-green color. Many legends centre around these 

 candles, one of which tells us that the burning of the christmas 

 candles on Christmas Eve is sure to bring good fortune to the 

 household. 



