Thoreau writes in his journal:
I discovered one convenient use the bayberries served,— that if you got your hands pitched in pine woods, you had only rub a parcel of these berries between your hands to start the pitch off. Arthur [Ricketson] said the shoemakers at the Head of the River used to the tallow to rub the soles of their shoes with to make them shine. I gathered a quart in bout twenty minutes with my hands . . .
Daniel Ricketson also writes in his journal:
  Clear and fine, spent the day at home. Mr. [Amos Bronson] Alcott dined at B. Rodman’s. Thoreau made some bayberry tallow in the shanty; walked with him to the rocky cliff beyond Acushnet . . .(Ricketson, 300).
