KSrOIlT OF THE BUREAU OF ANBIAL INDUSTRY. 425 



to be made. They are scraped on the flesh, washed and put in a 

 drench of bran and rye flour, which ferments and, by chemical action, 

 opens the pores of the skin, takes out the lime, and prepares the pelt 

 for tanning, after which they are " scudded" on the grain side to 

 remove impurities, washed, and * 'processed " by being put in a solution 

 of salt, sulphuric acid, and water, where they remain three to ten 

 hours. This preserves the skin for an indefinite period, and is called 

 process tanning, and is most generally used with sheep-skins. An- 

 other method is to throw the skins from the beam into either bark 

 liquor two weeks, alum one day, or sumac liquor two weeks, where 

 they are tanned, then taken out, hung up to dry, and laid away "in 

 crust," ready to be sorted for the various finishes. A "skiver" is 

 the grain side, a "flesher" the flesh side of a split sheep-skin. 

 These are finished white or in colors, and used in shoe, book-binding, 

 satchel, and pocket-book work. 



Sheep-skins are not exported, but, on the other hand, the processed 

 skins, which come in duty free, are imported to the amount of 15,000 

 to 20,000 dozen a week on an average. 



LACE-LEATHER. 



This leather is cut in strings, and used for lacing belts, which trans- 

 mit power; also for whip-lashes, fly-nets, or leather strings. It is 

 usually made from a 30 to 40 pound cow-hide, unhaired with lime, 

 put in a pack of salt and alum a month, then set out on a machine, 

 stuffed with tallow and oil, buffed, and finished. The tanned leather 

 is mostly made in New York and New England, where it is used for 

 factory purposes. W nen dry bides are used in its manufacture they 

 are soaked, softened in a mill, washed in a wash-mill for a few min- 

 utes to remove wrinkles, then split down the back and divided into 

 sides ; they are then whitewashed on the hair side by swabbing over 

 them a solution of lime ; they are then piled up about two hundred 

 sides high, and remain so ten to twenty days, after which they are un- 

 haired, washed in a revolving wheel, and stuffed with tallow and 

 neat's- foot oil. The proportions of these vary according to tempera- 

 ture; less oil and more tallow are used in summer than in winter. The 

 sides are rolled, shaved on the flesh side, buffed to remove the grain 

 and prevent the lacing from cracking, rubbed with a mixture of lard 

 oil, tallow, and flour, and finished with a glass slicker. 



Rawhide lace-leather is made from light cow-hides, which are put 

 in a machine, when oil and tallow are forced into them. 



Picker-leather is made from green steer-hides, and tanned and fin- 

 ished the same as lace-leather. It is used for picker-straps in mills. 



Walrus leather is used to make wheels on which emery is put to 

 be used in metal-polishers. They are tanned a year in strong oak or 

 jappnica liquors, for which they are prepared by an alkali process 

 which removes the oil. 



HORSE-HIDES. 



These have only been tanned during the past twelve years in this 

 country. Newark, N. J., is the chief seat of the industry. The 

 hides are washed, limed, handled, and unhaired much like other 

 hides intended for upper-leather stock. The sides, after being un- 

 haired, are put in clean water over night, then green-shaved and put 

 in a bate of hen manure four or five days. The bate is worked out ; 



