596 ANNUAL REPORTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tlie producers of these leathers. The eflfort to produce leathers of 

 even, brio:ht colors and of pleasing general appearance has led to 

 the use of materials which are exceedingly harmful to the product. 

 Bookbinding leathers should have extraordinary durability, because 

 of their constant use and the cost of rebinding. So unsatisfactory 

 have leather bindings been found, that in recent years a tendency has 

 developed to substitute cloth bindings, which may prove more durable 

 than the leathers which have been prepared through the use of harm- 

 ful materials or processes. The same reasons for good quality apply 

 to furniture, carriage, and automobile leathers, especially to the last. 

 Automobiles are subjected to very rough usage and exposure to alter- 

 nate sunshine and rain. Under such conditions the harmful effect 

 of acids or other injurious materials is greatly accelerated, and the 

 leather rapidly decays, becomes useless, and must be replaced. Gen- 

 eralized specifications for bookbinding leathers for Government pub- 

 lications have been forwarded to the Public Printer, who is making 

 an effort to secure leathers which will comply in general with these 

 specifications and be free from the materials which experience has 

 proved detrimenial. 



Paper and Paper-Making Materials. 



Experiments have been continued on the utilization of waste long- 

 leaf pine for the making of paper and the recovery of wood turpen- 

 tine, rosin oils, and wood creosote. These results confirm the opin- 

 ion formerly expressed by the bureau that the utilization of the waste 

 pine timber of the South from the cut-over lands is one of the most 

 promising fields of industrial development which exists in the coun- 

 try. Bulletin 159 gives the results. 



The work on a new method of cooking with gaseous chemicals has 

 been continued as opportunity offered. Cooperative work Avith the 

 Post Office Department through our laboratory at Dayton, Ohio, has 

 been continued with satisfactory results. Routine work is also being 

 done for the Post Office Department, the Bureau of Engraving and 

 Printing, and the General Supply Committee in the testing of paper 

 bought on contract and in the testing of samples for contract sup- 

 plies. The chief of the laboratory has served with the Committee 

 on Paper Specifications to the Joint Committee on Printing of Con- 

 gress in the preparation of specifications and proposals for paper 

 bought by the Government Printing Office. The report of this com- 

 mittee, which followed in general the lines suggested in Report 89 

 of the Secretary's office, was printed and adopted and the papers 

 of the Government Printing Office are now bought in compliance 

 therewith. 



Turpentine and Rosin. 



Standard, nonfading type samples for rosin have been devised. It 

 is believed that the use of these type samples — which should be certi- 

 fied or at least checked by the Government, as millions of dollars 

 change hands annually on the grading of rosin — will greatly promote 

 the correct grading of rosin and at the same time prove more eco- 

 nomical to the official graders. An instrument has been devised 

 whereby the producer of rosin can easily grade his rosin at the still 

 and thus know before shipment what grade of rosin he is sending to 



