EEPORT OF THE BUKEAU OF ANIMAL INDTJSTEY. 



419 



great as to materially lower prices. There have been marked fluctua- 

 tions both in numbers and price, in recent years, with some reduc- 

 tion of the total number. From various causes the exports of pork 

 to foreign countries have fallen off. Lower prices for beef and a 

 growing appreciation of mutton have tended to check the home 

 demand. But there is every reason to believe that the United States 

 will long remain the greatest swine-rearing nation, and that pork 

 production will continue to be a profitable branch of American agri- 

 Culture. 



1887 $10, 436, 138 



1888 9,583,411 



LEATHER PRODUCTION OF AMERICA. 



By ISAAC H. BAILEY, Esq., of New York. 



There were 11,773,171 hides and 19,936,658 skins tanned in the 

 United States in 1880; 23,812 men were employed in tanning and 

 10, 885 in currying the leather. Value of product tanned, $113,348,336, 

 of curried leather, $71,351,297. The production for 1888 may be es- 

 timated at fron 25 to 30 per cent, above that of 1880. 



The exports of leather and leather manufactures for the past five 

 years have been: 



1884.. .. $8,305,779 



1885 9, 692, 408 



1886 8,737,682 



The leather is tanned by placing the sides in vats filled with liquors 

 extracted from bark and agitating them at frequent intervals; light 

 sides are sometimes sewed in bags and the tan liquors forced gently 

 through the pores. This does not include "oil and alum tanned, 

 which is simply tawed leather. 



The varieties of leather made in the United States from domestic 

 hides and skins, with methods of tanning and finishing, are: 



OAK SOLE. 



This is made from green salted or dry domestic hides, the former 

 chiefly. Hides are soaked in water from one to three days, fleshed, 

 then put in limes and wheeled from one pit to another from three to 

 five days. The limes are cold and the process loosens the hair. The 

 hides are taken out, unhaired over the beam, washed in pure water 

 and worked on the grain to remove superfluous lime; then handled 

 in weak, sour liquors for three weeks; then laid away in fresh oak 

 liquors and ground oak bark for three or four months; then washed, 

 oiled, dried, dampened, and laid in piles to sammy, and rolled. 



If scoured backs are made, the hide, after tanning, or when par- 

 ti ally tanned, is trimmed and scoured on the grain. This leather is 

 used mainly for the soles of fina shoes. Backs are tanned of whole 

 hides, from which the heads and bellies are trimmed off when par- 

 tially finished. The scoured backs are the highest-priced sole-leather 

 made. 



UNION SOLE-LEATHER. 



This is made almost entirely from green salted hides. It is tanned 

 with liquors made of oak and hemlock bark, the latter largely pre- 

 dominating. The hides are soaked from one to three days, fleshed, 



