10 



any contagion carried by the horse would be spread by him to 

 such an extent that it would cause possibly millions of dollars of 

 damage. 



''Kidron" would have been rather an exceptionally dangerous 

 horse to turn loose. The private's horse is picketed up at the 

 front or at camp, under the supervision of the army veterin- 

 arians, and is pretty carefully guarded from contagious dis- 

 eases. *'Kidron," on the other hand, went wherever his master 

 chose to ride him and may have touched noses with any number 

 of French horses having any kind of contagious disease. 



If "Kidron" were released from quarantine, he would proba- 

 bly visit scores of cities throughout the country, and if he had 

 a disease, might spread it beyond all reasonable possibility of 

 eradication. For these reasons, the Department of Agriculture 

 thought it wise not to create any sort of favored status for him. 



HOME TANNING OF SKINS. 



When it is desired to preserve the skins of wild animals which 

 have been shot or trapped, these may be tanned either with the 

 hair on or ofif, as desired. Hair can be removed from hides by 

 soaking them in tepid water made alkaline by lye or lime. The 

 following recipe for a tanning liquor is furnished by the Biologi- 

 cal Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture : To 

 each gallon of water add one quart of salt and one-half ounce of 

 sulphuric acid. This mixture should not be kept in a metal con- 

 tainer. Thin skins are tanned by this liquor in one day; heavy 

 skins must remain in it longer. They may remain in it in- 

 definitely without harm. 



When removed from this liquor the skins are washed several 

 times in soapy water, wrung as dry as possible, and rubbed on the 

 flesh side with a cake of hard soap. They are then folded in 

 the middle, hung lengthwise over a line, hair side out, and left 

 to dry. When both surfaces are barely dry, and the interior is 

 still moist, they are laid over a smooth, rounded board and 

 scraped on the flesh side with the edge of a worn flat file, or a 

 similar blunt-edged tool. In this way an inner layer is removed 

 and the skins become nearly white in color. They are then 

 stretched, rubbed and twisted until quite dry. If parts of a 

 skin are still hard and stiff, the soaping, drying and stretching 

 process is repeated until the entire skin is soft. Fresh butter, 

 or other animal fat, worked into skins while they are warm, 

 and then worked out again in dry hardwood sawdust, or ex- 

 tracted by a hasty bath in gasoline, increases their softness. 



