Chicle

chikl, a gum manufactured from the sap of the sapodilla tree. This tree is found throughout tropical America. The chicle industry is confined largely to southern Mexico and Yucatan. Under favorable conditions the tree grows to a height of seventy feet. During May and June camps are established in the sapodilla forests, and preparations are made not unlike those for making maple sugar. The natives make V-shaped cuts in the bark of the tree. A crude milky sap is collected. It is carried in pails to large kettles and boiled down. An average tree will yield about six pounds of the gum, but must not be tapped oftener than once in three years. Well prepared chicle is nearly white when fresh and clean. It is a tough, firm, aromatic, elastic gum. The best quality is worth a dollar a pound in camp. In 1908 Yucatan and Mexico supplied the United States with 4,000,000 pounds of chicle. It is used in the manufacture of high grade chewing gum. Up to the end of the year named about 30,000,000 pounds of chicle had been imported by the United States. See Gums