MISCELLANEOUS USES 



Kalm, is first boiled in water and before the stuff 

 to be dyed is put into the boiler, ''some copperas 

 such as hatmakers and shoemakers use,'' is added. 

 The extraction of a dark brown dve from the inner 

 bark and the nut-rinds of the Butternut or White 

 Walnut {Juglans cinerea, L.) is an old practice 

 among country-folk, and in former times was a com- 

 mon method of coloring homespun woollen cloth- 

 ing. Civil War veterans will not yet have forgotten 

 the butternut garments in which so many of the Con- 

 federates w^ere clad that the term butternut became a 

 svnonvm for a soldier of the Soutli. The various 

 species of Alnus or Alder, familiar shrubs (and, on 

 the Pacific Coast, trees), contain in the bark a dye 

 principle of value. This, in some cases, colors a 

 brownish yellow, in others an orange. With cop- 

 jDcras a good black may be had. Before the Lidians 

 began to use the traders' colors, alder dye was in gen- 

 eral use among some tribes, and in the old days many 

 an alder bush met its death tlirough stripping by 

 artist-squaws bent on color-getting. The bark, 

 peeled preferably in the spring, was boiled either 

 fresh or dried, until the water became thoroughly 

 colored, when it was ready to receive the article 



to be treated. 



227 



