Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1893 — Florida Moss. [ARTICLE]

Florida Moss.

The valuable moss of Florida abounds In the hummocks and back lands. It is gathered chiefly by negroes. In its natural state it hangs in festoons from the limbs of trees in strands from one to five feet in length. The moss is gathered by pulling it from the trees with long poles, or by cutting the trees down and then removing it. The moss is buried in the earth for about a month, after which it is dug up and dried and shaken and sold to the local moss dealers for $1 per 100 pounds. It is then run through a machine called a gin, which is nothing more than a cylinder covered with threfe-inch spikes revolving between a roll of similar stationary spikes. The action of these spikes is to knock out some of the dirt and trash, but it does not complete the job. It is then shaken over a rack formed of parallel bars, after which it is pressed into bales of about 200 pounds each. Some of the moss mills do all this work by hand, except the ginning. The moss, after having gone through the above process, brings from $2.50 to $3 per 100 pounds. If, instead of allowing to remain in the earth for one month, it is left there for three months, the entire bark of the moss is pulled off, and there remains a beautiful black fiber almost exactly like hair. The hair moss brings from $5 to $7 per 100 pounds. The treatment of this moss is a good field for invention. Might not a machine be made which will take off the bark, leaving the fiber, without the necessity of burying the moss for so long a time in the earth.