VARIOUS FARM PRODUCTS 591 



portant in the re-formation of the forest. In fifteen months these 

 somewhat irregular rows of trees are 18 feet high and in four years 

 from the time that the old forest is cut down, these rows of seedlings 

 will have grown to such a height that they will require thinning 

 out, and among the trees cut out in this process there are many 

 which yield a fair quantity of bark. 



An industry which pays so well in the new country of Natal, and 

 does not require a large amount of hand labor, sixty men being 

 sufficient for 2,400 acres, is worthy of the attention of American 

 cultivators. The climatic conditions seem favorable in Hawaii, and 

 doubtless also in some of the American island possessions, but' 

 whether they are as favorable as they are in Natal, where it is 

 claimed that the species grows more luxuriantly than in its native 

 land, may be a question. (B. P. I., B. 51.) 



Sumac. There are various varieties 01 this shrub. The rhus 

 copallina or dwarf sumac grows almost anywhere, throughout the 

 eastern half of the United States, in the north as a mere shrub and 

 southward as a small tree. The California sumac (rhus laurina) 

 prevails in the Pacific Coast States. In the Atlantic States is found 

 the rhus venenata, variously called poison sumac, swamp-dogwood, 

 poison elder and poison ash. The effects brought about by com- 

 ing in contact with this poisonous species are rather worse than 

 that caused by poison ivy. The nonpoisonous varieties are some- 

 times used as ornamental shrubbery, the foliage producing a marked 

 and pleasing effect during the late summer and fall. Bobwhite 

 (quail and partridge) are very fond of the bright carmine berries 

 of the sumac and may generally be expected to be found where the 

 plant is not scarce. Another variety, the Sicilian sumac (mascu- 

 lino) is very much sought as a tanning material for pale colors 

 and soft tannage, especially for moroccos, roans, shiners, etc., and 

 for brightening the color of leather tanned with dark materials, 

 and from 12,000,000 to 18,000,000 pounds of that special variety 

 are imported for that purpose from Italy annually. This Italian 

 product comes generally very much adulterated, so much so, that 

 it has become a question worthy of being inquired into, whether 

 the American sumac could not be used instead, at a much smaller 

 cost at that. When high-grade, light-colored leathers or durable 

 sumac-tanned leathers are required, as for instance in bookbinding, 

 adulteration results in discoloration and destruction of the leather 

 in a much shorter time than when pure sumac is employed in 

 tanning, and the money loss thus occasioned is many times the dif- 

 ference in cost between a pure and an adulterated sumac. (B. P. 

 I., B. 117; Y. B. 1902, 1905.) 



Bamboo. The growing scarcity of wood for manufacturing 

 purposes and the unusual and important uses to which the bamboo 

 is put by the people in the Orient has led the Bureau to make some 

 extensive investigations of bamboo culture in Japan and other 

 countries. Already a number of varieties have been introduced 

 and steps have just been taken for the inauguration of a consider- 

 able number of plantations of these important plants in different 



