NEWS AND NOTES 



Consumption of Tanning Materials 



Tan bark and tanning extracts were con- 

 sumed in the United States during the cal- 

 endar vear 1909 to the value of $21,904,927, 

 as against $21,361,719 in 1908 and $21,205,- 

 547 In 1907. Of these totals the outlay for 

 extracts formed 49.2 per cent during 1909, 

 49.4 per cent in 1908, and 45.5 per cent in 

 1907. 



"SVTiile the total expenditure for vegetable 

 tanning materials has been divided between 

 the group of barks, etc., on the one hand 

 and that of extracts on the other during the 

 past three years, the average cost per cord 

 of barks has advanced steadily from $9.52 In 

 1907 to $9.58 in 1908 and $10.31 in 1909. 

 This increase in the average cost per cord 

 has been accompanied or followed by a cor 

 responding decrease in the quantity an- 

 nually consumed during the same period, 

 the total for 1908 being 7.2 per cent less 

 than that for 1907. and that for 1909, 4.3 

 per cent less than that for 1908. The most 

 marked decrease in annual consumption 

 is shown for hemlocK, which was the bark 

 used in greatest quantity in all three years, 

 the reported total of this species for 1909 

 being less than that for 1908 by 13.8 per 

 cent, and less than that for 1907 by 14.4 

 per cent. 



The showing for extracts is similar to 

 that for barks, etc., with respect to cost, 

 though entirely different when the annual 

 consumption is considered. The average 

 cost per pound of extracts of all kinds 

 consumed during 1907 was $0.0264, while 

 in 1908 it was $0.0269 and In 1909 $0.0278. 

 The total consumption in 1909 was greater 

 than that In 1907 by 21.918,360 pounds, or 

 6 per cent, though slightly less than that 

 reported for 1908, the total for which year 

 wa.'^ the largest of which there is record. 



The most marked increase among the 

 leading extracts was in chestnut extract, 

 the consumption of which in 1909 exceeded 

 that of 1908 by 24.5 per cent and that of 

 1907 by 35.6 pr cent. This movement in 

 the tanning Industry toward the supplant- 

 ing of barks as materials with extracts has 

 been discernible in the showings for sev- 

 eral years past and follows logically the 

 growing scarcity and rapidly Increasing 

 cost of the barks. Furthermore the fact 

 that the supply of barks is not only dimin- 

 ishing but at the same time becoming more 

 remote from transportation facilities con- 

 tributes to the decreasing use of tanning 

 materials In this form. 



The tanning industry, or that portion of 

 it using vegetable tanning materials, is 

 widely distributed. The consumption of 

 extracts was reported from 33 states, and 

 of barks from 25 in 1909, but the four 

 states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, West 

 Virginia, and Michigan, ranked in point of 

 consumption in the order named, used near- 

 ly two-thirds of the total quantity of barks 

 reported, and, with Massachusetts, about 

 three-fifths of that of extract. Pennsyl- 

 vania continues, however, to be far In the 

 lead of all other states in the quantity of 

 both barks and extracts annually consumed, 

 this state alone reporting 28.8 per cent of 

 the barks and 32.2 per cent of the extracts 

 used during 1909. 



The Southern Appalachian Rivers 



A detailed report upon the surface water 

 supply of the south Atlantic coast and the 

 eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico is con- 

 tained in Part II of a series of government 

 reports entitled "Surface water supply of 

 the United States. 1909." This paper Is pub- 

 lished by the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey as Water-Supply Paper 262 and may be 

 obtained from the Director of the Survey 

 on application. It will be of particular in- 

 terest In connection with the protection of 

 streams by national forests under the new 

 law. 



Determinations of rates of water flow 

 are of Importance in leading to the most 

 complete utilization of the power of a 

 stream. At any reasonable valuation per 

 horse power, the undeveloped power of 

 these streams Is an Important Industrial 

 asset. In Georgia and the Carolinas. more 

 than 100,000 horsepower has been developed 

 and Is being used by the cotton mills alone, 

 and public service corporations in these 

 three states are to-day developing 300.000 

 to 400,000 additional horsepower to turn 

 the hundreds of mills and light the many 

 towns and cities in the region. In the 

 operation of the power plants already con- 

 structed and in the financing and building 

 of those yet to be developed the problem 

 of water flow is an Important factor. 



Projects for providing water for domestic 

 supply, for irrigation, and for generation 

 of power for factories can not be designed 

 intelligently without a knowledge of the 

 flow and the behavior of the rivers from 

 which the supply is to be derived. 



Methods of taking records and of com- 

 puting rates of flow are described Ib detail 



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