478 TkAXSACTIOXS of the AjIERICAX I.ySTJTUTS. 



one kind, some another. Well, gentlemen, I am a man sixty-six 

 years old ; I ^^'as born and raised in Virginia, and have been famil- 

 iar with all kinds of timber, and their uses, and if I was to plant 

 timber to raise for durability, I would go in for a good chance of cof- 

 fee nut, or coffee bean, just as you please to have it. Locust is liable 

 to be injured by the borers; chestnut will not last on the ground or 

 in it ; cedar is too slow a growth, and too dwarfish ; coffee nut grows 

 thrifty and tall, and will last as a post for twenty years or more. I 

 have now got posts set around my yard that have been in use twelve 

 years, and there is no sign of their rotting j^et ; indeed, the sap is 

 not clotted ; and I have noticed stamps within the last few days, 

 where the land has been cleared upward of twenty years, that were 

 perfectly sound. The tree is very comely to look at, and it bears 

 seed plentifully. I have a quart or half a gallon of the nuts that I 

 gathered this last spring, that I will forward to any person who will 

 signify their wish to obtain them, if they will be at the expense of 

 charges for expressage, and tell me how to send them. 



Amekican Sumac. 



Mr. C. "W. Burnett, of Cabel Court House, TVest Virginia, writes 

 as follows : I saw in the American Farmer, of Baltimore, Md., of 

 May last, a statement about American sumac as a tannin principle. 

 It says : " A lot of sumac has been sent from Philadelphia to Liver- 

 pool. It has been analyzed by Hudson & Arrott, and found to 

 contain twenty per cent of tannin." We have immense quantities 

 of sumac in this region. I suppose it must be the same as sent from 

 Philadelphia to Liverpool. Some persons say there are two or more 

 kinds of sumac. I have never seen but one. I see it is used for 

 tannin, for coloring matter, and for urine. I wish to know what 

 part of the tree is used for tannin. Is it the leaf or the berry, or 

 both together, that's wanted ; and how is it put up for market ; is it 

 injured by rain or dampness? I have seen in some papers that 

 sumac is quoted as high as $190 per ton for Sicily, and in a Balti- 

 more circular of May, 1869, for roots, is quoted, sumac, ground, per 

 ton, $35. Is anything doing in the way of sumac now-a-days ? I 

 would like to be informed on this subject. If it will pay, a company 

 will be formed here to go into the business. 



Mr. B. R. Lummis, Sodus Point, Wayne county, N. Y., also asks 

 questions in relation to the same subject and particularly as to the 

 \vorth of the seeds as a dye. 



