2m 



UNITEP STATES. 



medy, in either the forms of powder, pills, or spiri- 

 tuous tincture, in all cases requiring astringents. 



Use of the persimmon in the arts. Dr. Wood- 

 house says, the unripe juice of the plum is prefer- 

 able to oak bark for tanning. Allowing every tree 

 to produce four bushels of fruit, and suppose three 

 hundred trees cultivated, the quantity of gum resin 

 which would be produced, would be 1800 pounds, 

 coii^puting six pounds to a tree. The quantity of 

 juice would be several hundred gallons, which might 

 be kept in barrels till wanted for use. Country tan- 

 ners should attend to this useful fact. 



As a black dye. Dr. Woodhouse dyed silk with 

 an ink made of this substance, which was as black, 

 and bore washing as well as that dyed with galls or 

 logwood. 



From an excellent memoir upon this tree by 

 the late Isaac Bartram of Philadelphia, inserted in 

 the 1st vol. of the Amer, PhiU Trans, it appears, 

 that from half a bushel of perfectly ripe fruit, 

 mashed, and mixed with two gallons of water, and 

 fermented with a small quantity of yeast, he pro- 

 duced half a gallon of proof spirit, of an agreeable 

 flavour. Beer is also made from the fruit in Mary- 

 land, by boiling it in water, straining and fermenting 

 it, and adding hops to prevent the fermentation from 

 going too far. 



Bread is also made from the fruit, by mixing them 

 as potatoes are with flour, in the case of potatoe 

 bread. The wood of the tree, which grows rapidly, 

 burns nearly as well as our favorite hickory, and its 

 ashes yield a large proportion of salts. The great 



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