AMERICAN FOREST TREES 



food they imbibe from pin oak. The primitive school teachers three or 

 four generations ago turned these oak galls to account. They are rich 

 in tannin, and were employed in manufacturing the local ink supply. 

 The teachers were the ink makers as well as the pen cutters when the 

 pens were whittled from quills. The process of making the ink was 

 simple. The galls were soaked in a kettle of water and nails. The iron 

 acted on the tannin and produced the desired blackness, but if special 

 luster was desired, it was furnished by adding the fruit of the wild green- 

 brier (Smilax rotundifolia), which grew abundantly hi the woods. 

 It was well that steel pens were not then in use, for the school- 

 master's oak ink would have eaten up such a pen in a single day. 



