Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

EDIBLE PLANTS 399monly called box elder) has similar qualities; alsothat of the striped maple (moosewood, striped orswamp dogwood), but this tree seldom grows largtenough to be worth using.There is a decided maple flavor in the sap of tlieshellbark hickory. A good sirup can be concoctedby steeping a handful of the dried and crushed innerbark of this tree in hot water to a strong "tea" andadding sufficient brown sugar. An extract commerciallymade from the bark is used in making aspurious "maple sirup" out of cane or corn sirup. Itis safe to say that not one-tenth of the allegedmaple sugar and sirup now on the market is freefrom this or similar adulteration.As a backwoods expedient, sirup may be madefrom the abundant and sugary sap of the black birch(sweet birch). In times of scarcity the pods of thehoney locust have been utilized to the same end.They must be used within a month after maturity;later they become bitter.BEVERAGESNone of our native plants contain principles thatact upon the nerves like the caffein of coffee or thethein of tea; consequently all substitutes for coffeeand tea are unsatisfying, except merely as hot drinksof agreeable taste. Millions of war-bound peopleare suffering this deprivation now.In the South, during the Civil War, many pitifulexpedients were tried, such as decoctions of parchedmeal, dried sweet potatoes, wheat, chicory, cottonseed,persimmon-seed, dandelion-seed, and the seedsof the Kentucky coffee-tree. Better substitutes forcoffee were made from parched rye,from the seedsof the coffee senna (Cassia occidentalis) called"Magdad coffee," and from the parched and groundseeds of okra. Governor Brown of Georgia oncesaid that the Confederates got more satisfaction outof the goldenrod flowers than out of any othermakeshift for coffee. "Take the bloom," he directed,"dry it, and boil to an extract" (meaningtincture).Teas, so-called, of very good flavor can be madefrom the dried root-bark of sassafras, or from itsearly buds, from the bark and leaves of spicewood,