12 ANIMAL PROTEINS 



serious enough. The terrific slaughter, necessary at the 

 same time to provide the belligerents with food and the 

 army with leather, is bound to result in a serious crisis for 

 the leather industries ; and in conjunction with the country's 

 financial condition, will make it absolutely necessary that 

 all care should be taken with the raw material of one of our 

 most important industries. The farmer who pays no heed 

 to the warble fly, the man who gashes the hide in flaying 

 and who allows the hide to putrefy, are equally criminal 

 with the man who throws bread crusts into the dustbin. 



It is impossible to foresee, as yet, anything in the nature 

 of a satisfactory solution to the problem of raw material, 

 especially in respect to heavy leather production, for the 

 food question will rank first in the popular mind, and the 

 earlier slaughter enjoined for the more economical produc- 

 tion of meat will scarcely tend to increase the proportion 

 of heavy hides. 



The Foreign Supply of hides is also of great importance 

 and value. In the case of imported hides precautions to 

 prevent putrefaction are essential, and some method of 

 " curing " is always used. 



Salting the hides is one of the most satisfactory methods 

 for temporary preservation. The action of salt is hygro- 

 scopic, and mildly antiseptic. Moisture is withdrawn from 

 the hides, which are then under conditions no longer favour- 

 ing the growth of bacteria. Well-salted hides will keep for 

 years, especially if quite clean. A light salting is also useful 

 for a short preservation, and is becoming common in hide 

 markets an4 tanneries during the summer and autumn 

 months. Salting is a method used extensively in the 

 United States. The "packer hides" of the stockyards 

 are carefully and systematically salted with about 25 

 per cent, of salt and stored in cool cellars. The hides are 

 so piled up in heaps, that brine easily drains away. The 

 great disadvantage of salting is the so-called " salt stains/' 

 These stains have been ascribed to the iron in the salt, to 

 the iron in the blood, to calcium sulphate in the salt, and 

 also to chromogenic bacteria, whose development is favoured 



