3 6 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



There were, besides this, 2,319 currying establishments in this 

 country, with a product valued at more than $71,000,000. The cen- 

 sus figures for 1890 will undoubtedly show even larger increases 

 in production. This increase is reflected in the importation of 

 hides, which for the year 1891 aggregated $27,930,759. During 

 the decade important tanneries have been started in some of the 

 Southern States, and the industry is constantly expanding. This 

 fact appears in the extension of the American leather trade abroad, 

 but this is by no means what it should be. The exports of leather 

 in 1891 aggregated $12,026,556, a gain of a little more than a 

 million dollars as compared with the previous year. Sole leather 

 led, with a sale of 40,084,833 pounds abroad, at a total sum of 

 $6,430,764. It is interesting further to compare the exports of 

 leather and the manufactures of it for the past five years : 



Year. Value of Exports. 



1886 $14,865,087 



1887 16,235,922 



1888 19,578,489 



1889 23,712,814 



1890 27,000,134 



1891 30,736,319 



The gain in the exports of leather, indeed, have kept pace rela- 

 tively with the sale of the manufactures of it abroad, such as boots 

 and shoes. But Americans possess certain important advantages 

 in the making of leather that should give them a stronger hold in 

 the European markets. The continental tanneries have no better 

 facilities for getting hides, and they are handicapped by the lack 

 of oak and hemlock bark which our own manufacturers have at 

 hand. But, despite all this, the leather industry stands among the 

 first in this country in dignity, enterprise, and magnitude. Impor- 

 tant advances are yet to be made : but with the natural advan- 

 tages of our tanners, their thrift and inventiveness, with a con- 

 stantly expanding home market and a possible foreign one, there 

 appears to be no reason why it should lose its relative rank. 



