32 THE BUREAU OF SCIENCE 



work under conditions as they prevail in Philippine tanneries and 

 shows how local methods may be greatly improved and that the 

 product of the tanneries could be increased in quality and volume 

 with very little increase in the capital invested. The Bureau of 

 Science has produced leather free from the disagreeable odor 

 characteristic of Philippine leather and equal in quality to the 

 imported product. Furthermore we have successfully and 

 satisfactorily tanned thick carabao hides, twice as thick as or- 

 dinary cattle hides, whereas by the Filipino processes carabao 

 hides are tanned only with difficulty after they have been split. 

 Well-prepared carabao leather is exceedingly beautiful and will 

 find exceptional sale for the manufacture of trunks, suitcases, 

 book bindings, etc. During the coming year we plan to extend 

 the work to include practical demonstrations to tanners of the 

 proper methods and to make a series of tests of several kinds 

 of native barks, which are possibly adapted to the purpose. If 

 the tanners will follow the process used by the Bureau of Science, 

 the following yearly losses can be avoided: 



Pesos. 



Due to incomplete tanning and partial putrefaction 

 of the leather during the process, which constitutes 

 a loss of 32 per cent of the weight of the finished 

 product 576,000 



Due to the decreased value of the inferior product 



as compared with imported leather 450,000 



Due to waste and uneconomical tanning material 50,000 



Total 1,076,000 



The actual value of the leather tanned in the Philippine Islands 

 is about ^1,800,000 per annum, and the importation of leather 

 and its manufactured products for the year 1914 amounted to 

 ^3,115,648. This shows the importance of the tanning industry 

 in the Philippines and that due to its crude methods there is 

 an annual loss of over ^1,000,000. 



A beginning has been made in an effort to safeguard the water 

 supplies of the Philippine Islands. During the year the Bureau 

 of Science has performed about 200 analyses of water from 

 artesian wells, dug wells, reservoirs, springs, etc., which makes 

 a total of about 2,000 water analyses on file in this Bureau. The 

 work presented in a preliminary paper, consisting of 40 pages on 

 the water supplies of the Philippine Islands by Cox, Heise, and 

 Gana, has been continued. The Bureau of Science has made 

 possible the differentiation between good and bad waters, not 

 only with respect to potability, but also with regard to suit- 

 ability for technical and industrial purposes. Work has been and 



