COMMERCE IN HIDES. 31 



become a very important feature of our commerce. " The 

 manufacture of tanned leather, and tanned and dressed 

 skins of different kinds, and their conversion into the numer- 

 ous purposes of elegance and necessity, have attained in this 

 country almost the first rank as a branch of national indus- 

 try. The article of hides is not only the basis of this great 

 industry, but is the indirect agency of bringing into play 

 other important industries, among which are the manufacture 

 of tallow, hair, soap, glue, bone-dust, ivory-black, animal 

 oil, &c. 



" It is estimated that at least 35,410,000 pounds of tallow, 

 and fourteen million dollars' worth of neat's-foot oil, candles, 

 and glue, are realized from the animals which are slaugh- 

 tered that furnish the hides that annually enter into the 

 commercial transactions of the United States. The imports 

 of hides and skins in 1876 embraced some five million hides, 

 including a million from Buenos Ayres, and half as many 

 more from Rosario. The west coast of Africa furnishes the 

 United States with a large number of hides. 



" Other countries, including Sierra Leone, Bolivia, Zan- 

 zibar, and Mexico, furnish our leather manufacturers with 

 some of the best hides in use. The hides of animals obtained 

 in the tropics do not make so good leather as those of the 

 temperate latitudes. 



" The number of hides imported at New York for the first 

 eight months of 1876 were 2,134,163, at Boston, 1,035,855." 

 The writer of this letter says, in regard to the practice of 

 the Texans of branding their cattle, " Texas cattle receive 

 six different brands, representing as many leading firms in 

 the business. 



" This practice destroys millions of dollars in the value 

 of the hides ; but the dealers in cattle care more for the rais- 

 ing of cattle for beef than they do for the hide : hence the 

 mutilation of the cattle without regard to the hide. The 

 frequent branding of cattle is also a cruelty to animals. 



" On account of the rapid growth of the cattle-raising busi- 

 ness in the United States, the demand for foreign hides does 

 not keep pace with the increase in our leather manufactures. 

 In 1810 one-third of all the hides used in the United States 

 came from South America. In 1875 over eight million hides, 

 foreign and domestic, were tanned in the United States. 



