560 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



standard-size boxes (2 by 2 by 4 feet) brought pickers about $2 per 

 box. District Forester Seigworth, of the Maryland Department of 

 Forestry, estimates that, on the average, 10,000 persons (including 

 many entire families) in the eight counties on the Eastern Shore of 

 Maryland engage yearly in harvesting holly, from which they obtain 

 an annual income of $150,000. ^ About 10,000 boxes are shipped 

 annually. The Delaware Commission for the Conservation of For- 

 ests reported in 1927 that the holly-products industry of that State 

 amounts to an average annual shipment of about 7,600 cases, valued 

 at about $400,000 and consisting of 1,500,000 wreaths besides loose 

 sprays and branches. The crop is harvested chiefly by local farmers 

 who receive about $100,000 for their labor. 



As already intimated, these miscellaneous forest byproducts have 

 many valuable sociological relations. They furnish seasonal and 

 local employment to numerous persons in the wooded portions of the 

 country. The tapping and rendering of maple sap comes in late 

 winter and early spring. Cascara peeling is largely a spring occupa- 

 tion. In North Carolina, especially in the region surrounding 

 Marion, the collection of galax leaves furnishes employment to a 

 great number of local people between November and March. Expert 

 pickers, it is reported, gather about 10,000 leaves a day, for which 

 they receive in the neighborhood of $5. The pre-Christmas season 

 makes a country-wide demand for ornamental forest evergreens. 

 All these sources of seasonal local employment bring in cash returns 

 or obviate expenditures as in the case of individual fuel supply, 

 foods, etc., and render possible not only the maintenance of better 

 standards of living but also in many cases the actual existence of 

 communities in forested areas and elsewhere which otherwise could 

 not survive. 



The forest produces a great variety and amount of food available 

 for human consumption and, even at this date, numerous Indian 

 tribes are largely dependent upon the forest for subsistence. This 

 vegetable human food of the forest consists of a wealth of wild fruits, 

 edible seeds and nuts, bulbs, tubers, and farinaceous roots, succulent 

 stalks, " greens", mushrooms and other edible fungi, etc. 



The future possibilities of miscellaneous forest byproducts are 

 exceedingly diversified and are of great importance. For example, 

 an immense potential source of rubber supply is on hand in numerous 

 native plants, largely of the forest, such as rabbi thrushes, pingues, 

 goldenrods, spurges, cichoriaceae, etc., although much research will 

 doubtless be needed to make rubber commercially available there- 

 from. There is an immense variety of indigenous forest medicinal 

 plants, some of which are already in commercial use. A vast host 

 of ornamental herbs, shrubs, and trees adorn the American forests, 

 and largely affect their aesthetic appeal ; these are becoming of increas- 

 ing importance in the American horticultural trade. 



There are desirable fiber-producing plants such as yuccas and 

 dogbanes; lacquer and gum-producing species such as acacias and 

 sumacs; outstanding honey plants, in extraordinary variety and 

 abundance and often widely distributed, some of which (as in parts 

 of California and the Southwest) are mainstays of the local honey 

 industry; matting and basketry plants; dye plants; upholstery- 

 stuffing material such as mosses and tillandsias; and products with 

 numerous other uses, including yucca wood for splints, amole and 



