June 15, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
r-.'i 
* ^ * 
HOW THE FORESTS FED THE 
PIONEERS. 
Mrs. Emmelin Heiskell, a niece of Dr. 
Johnston Lykins, the first Mayor of Kansas 
City, who has spent the winter in Kansas City 
and who went there in 1852, said that it was a 
mistaken idea that the pioneers of tlie West 
were entitled to any sympathy. According to a 
correspondent of the Star of that city, they had 
an abundance of nature’s food supply and kind 
neighbors and were content and happy. 
"Actually we would not have sufYered nor felt 
greatly inconvenienced in earliest times if we 
could not have had a dust of flour or a pound 
of store sugar,” says this correspondent. 
"In our list of indigenous food were walnuts 
in superabundance, a few butternuts, hazelnuts 
in plenty, hickory nuts—the mammoth variety 
and the plump little shellbarks—to say nothing 
of chinquapin and other acorns. These last 
were abundant and nourishing enough to fatten 
our hogs until the hardening of the flesh neces¬ 
sary before ‘killing time,’ when some corn was 
given them. Wagon loads of all these native 
nuts were to be bad for the mere gathering. 
“Wild fruits were quite as plenteous as the 
nuts. Almost anywhere, but more especially 
along the edge of the timber around prairies, 
the wild goose plums, yellow and red, large, 
juicy and sweet, we gathered by bushels. No 
‘dinky’ little baskets were carried to bring them 
home. Tubs were taken in wagons and car¬ 
riages and quickly filled. 
“Housewives had barrels in cellars filled with 
plums, rainwater poured in to fill the inter¬ 
stices, and they made pies from the supply 
throughout the winter. By the following fall 
the water remaining in the barrel was tbe finest 
kind of vinegar. You remember what Thomas 
Benton said in his report of his visit to Kansas 
City and vicinity about 1853: 
“ ‘In driving over the flower bedecked prairies 
the horses’ hoofs were crimson—dyed with the 
juice of wild strawberries, which almost covered 
the surface of the ground beneath the varied 
blossoms alone.’ 
"Blackberries were in such profusion that half 
were not gathered by us or the birds, and the 
same can be said of wild gooseberries. Rasp¬ 
berries were not so abundant but plentiful in 
some localities. A few service berries, black 
and red haws, sweet and succulent—not the dry, 
tasteless variety we find here now. Groves and 
clumps of wild crabapple trees, whose pretty 
pink blossoms filled the air with sweet odors 
for rods around, furnished an excellent fruit for 
making jelly. Slough grapes—the sweet, almost 
seedless fruit—whose vines festooned every 
bush and tree in the island off the coast bot¬ 
toms and along the Kaw and Missouri River 
lowlands were used fresh and preserved in syrup 
for pies—and powerful good ones they made. 
“The ‘winter grapes,’ so abundant, so sour 
before frost, it was said the pigs squealed in 
merely passing beneath the vines, yet so fine 
after being slightly frozen, were not only 
mighty good for food, but considered a specific 
for chills and fever, so prevalent in newly 
opened sections. What was called the summer 
grape (why, I know not, for neither was it 
good until after frost) was a most delicious va¬ 
riety, almost as large as Concords, and a lot 
superior. These grew in abundance hereabouts, 
especially on higher land. Occasionally we 
would find trailing along a rail fence, vines of 
the fox grape, the fruit nearly as large as par¬ 
tridge eggs, somewhat pleasant to eat, but as 
we had such an abundance of better, we rarely 
robbed the foxes of their favorite food. 
“Persimmons enough and more for possums 
and people we had here. If eaten at the proper 
stage persimmons are as delicious as any pre¬ 
pared conserve. Mushrooms were abundant in 
rich timbered land and along the bluff sides. 
And pawpaws—Missouri bananas, they are 
sometimes sacrilegiously called—this juicy, 
sweet scented, abundant fruit of the forests, 
could be eaten all day by their admirers with¬ 
out producing a sensation of surfeit, so diges¬ 
tible and wholesome are they. But, like per¬ 
simmons, these must be eaten at the proper 
stage of ripeness. 
"riien meat! What didn't we have in abund¬ 
ance, and the choicest? Buffalo to begin with, 
because it was our biggest game. \\'e hung 
hindquarters of young buffalo in tbe cool 
smokehouse or other protected places—we 
scorned the other portions—anO cut from them 
while they lasted the sweetest, juiciest steaks 
and roasts. We also prepared or bought a 
goodly supply of ‘jerked’ (dried) buffalo meat, 
which we shavers carried in our lunch baskets 
to school and in pockets, and a group of 
youngsters in ‘playtime’ and surreptitiously in 
study hours gnawing away on the delicious 
handy edible accessory resembled the gum- 
chew'ing friends of later years. 
"Deer, though not often seen in our immedi¬ 
ate neighborhood, were numerous nearby and 
tl:e finest venison hams could be bought for five 
cents a pound; sometimes less. Wild turkeys 
trotted in the timber and we bad about all we 
cared for of this superior fowl. Wild ducks, 
geese and prairie chickens were almost as 
numerous as blackbirds. We only used the 
young, tender squirrels and rabbits, as the 
ample supply permitted picking and choosing. 
‘Possum and sweet tater, ’prime and cooked to 
a turn, could be had any time during the winter. 
"And groundhog—why, even this varmint is 
edible, but a little goes a long way. Quail—not 
partridge—we called, and still call, that perfec¬ 
tion of game birds. It seemed almost blasphemy 
to designate this piece de resistance by so sug¬ 
gestive an epithet as quail—were so numerous 
that we actually tired of them at times. I re¬ 
member when one could buy all he wanted for 
twenty-five cents a dozen. 
"Our turbid old Missouri River furnished 
oodles of fish—the best in the world we then 
thought. An old-time lady said when salmon, 
lake trout and other varieties were brought to 
her: ‘I wouldn’t give a good steak from a 
young hen catfish for all these pale, sickly look¬ 
ing things brought from the lakes and else- 
wliere.’ 
"There was a grove of sugar maples about 
(now) Cleveland avenue and Ninth street to 
Twelfth street and eastward on the Daniel Stone 
plantation. From these Judge Carey’s family 
procured sufficient syrup and sugar for family 
use. There were other sugar trees scattered 
about this section, but did not pay for sapping 
1 be common hickory tree contains saccharine 
sap—not so sweet as the sugar maple, but 
alDundant and deliciously flavored. When the 
big logs of this wood were burning in our wide 
fire-places we children gathered in spoons the 
sweet sap which oozed from the cut ends of 
the logs. 
"The Rev. J. T. Peery, a grand and honored 
old-timer, whose home was at (now) St. John 
avenue and Spruce street, one evening laid a 
huge green hickory log on the broad stone 
hearth to dry out for the morning fire. When 
he arose and went to place the log on the bed 
of live coals be found beneath each end a little 
cake of sugar. The heat had started the flow 
of sap, and the same influence caused evapora¬ 
tion and left the pure sugar on the stone. The 
good preacher told this himself, so we know 
it is gospel truth.” 
AN ANCIENT FISH STORY. 
The pike is a fish for which now there is 
little demand. Yet Edward I., who regulated the 
prices of different fish, that his subjects might 
not be at the mercy of the venders, fixed the 
value of pike higher than fresh salmon and at 
more than ten times that of the best turbot. P ke 
are supposed to live longer than any other fish, 
in spite of their former popularity as food. 
Gesner relates that in 1497 a pike was caught in 
Swabia with a ring attached, inscribed: "I was 
first put into this lake by the hands of the Gov¬ 
ernor of the Universe, Frederick H., Oct. 5, 
1230.” This is the fish’s story.—London 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from any 
newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to supply you 
regularly. 
Conservative Investment. 
W e offer for conservative investment a high grade 
industrial Preferred stock to net 6% in an old estab¬ 
lished company commanding large market for its 
specialty at home and abroad. 
Under the most able management. Preceded by no 
prior lien of any kind. Net earnings equal to more 
than four times the Preferred Share dividend. 
W'e recommend these Preferred Shares as a per¬ 
fectly safe investment, suitable not only for the 
private investor, but for trust funds as well. 
Circular and full particulars on request. 
Ciycular and full pariiculars on reguesi. 
TURNER, TUCKER & CO. 
Ill BROADWAY, NEW YORK CITY 
BOSTON BUFFALO 
Chas. D. Barney ® Co. 
HANKERS AND BROKERS 
MEMBERS OF NEW YORK AND 
PHILADELPHIA STOCK EXCHANGES 
25 Broad Street, New York 
12 2 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia 
The aging of a cocktail is as 
necessary to perfect flavor 
as the aging of wine or whisky. 
The delicious flavor and aroma of 
Club Cocktails 
is due not alone to the precise 
blending of the choicest liquors 
obtainable, but to the fact that 
they are softened to mellowness 
by aging before bottling. 
Manhattan, Martini and other 
standard blends, bottled, read^ 
to serve through cracked ice. 
TRAINING vs. BREAKING 
Practical Dog Training; or, Training vs. Breaking. 
By S. T. Hammond. To which is added a chapter on 
training pet dogs, by an amateur. Cloth, ItiS pages. 
IVice, $1.00. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY 
PROMPTLY REJ.I1VCQ BY. 
THE ENGLISH REMEDY 
BLAIR’S PILLS 
SAFE.&.EFFECT1VE.50q&$I 
DRUGGISTS. 
OR 95 HENRY ST. BROOKLYM.M.Y. 
