144 PERFUME FROM PINE-SAP: PINE WOOL. 



be cut when the sap is most abundant and the bark most easily peeled; 

 but the saving will prove so much clear profit, above cost of collection 

 and manufacture. The perfume obtained from the cambium of the 

 pine is now found in market, in the form of an alcoholic tincture, which 

 is sold at a price not more than two-thirds as great as that of vanilla. 



PINE WOOL. 



There has existed near Breslau for several years, an establishment for 

 the preparation of a fibrous substance from the leaves of the Pinus syl- 

 vcstris, which possesses many valuable properties. The needle-shaped 

 leaves of conifers generally contain a fine tenaceous fiber enveloped in 

 other tissues, and a resinous substance, from which it may be separated 

 by boiling with certain chemical reagents and by washing. The fiber is 

 fine or coarse according as it is prepared, and may be used as cotton or 

 wool in mattresses, or it may be spun and woven. In 1842 a quantity 

 of woven fabric of this material was introduced in place of cotton in the 

 hospital at Vienna, where, after several years' experience, it was re- 

 newed. Among its advantages are that its odor repels insects, while 

 it is salutary and agreeable to those using it. It has also been used in 

 prisons and hospitals at Berlin, Breslau, and other places with increas- 

 ing favor. As to durability in mattresses, it is found to last three times 

 longer than wool. When spun and woven it has the strength of hemp, 

 and it may be made into carpets, blankets, and other articles. 



In the preparation of this wool an essential oil is obtained, having an 

 agreeable odor, and a green color if kept in the dark, but when ex- 

 posed to the light it takes an orange color, returning to its original tint 

 in the dark. It is used as a liniment in rheumatic complaints, wounds, 

 and certain cutaneous diseases. It may be used in varnishes or for illu- 

 mination, and is a solvent of caoutchouc. The waters left in its manu- 

 facture are used for bathing, and are reputed to have much medicinal 

 effect. In concentrated form these waters are put up in casks for those 

 who wish to use them at home. {Giornale dclle Arti e delle Industrie; 

 Eevue des Eaux et Forets, i, 279.) 



TANNING MATERIALS. 



The principal tanning materials produced and used in the country 

 are hemlock and oak barks, and full statistics of their importation and 

 exportation are prepared for the statistical part of this report. As a rule, 

 the bark of the hemlock, {Abies canadensis), is the principal material 

 used in the Eastern, Korthern, and Western States, but little of it being 

 used south of Pennsylvania. There are comi)aratively few oak tanneries 

 of considerable extent within the above region, but quite a number in 

 the southern border of Pennsylvania, and in Maryland, Virginia, West 

 Virginia, Kentucky, and States farther south.^ 



^The first shipment of leather to England was made about 30 years ago, consisting 

 of 500 sides, worth $2,000. The war stopped all efforts in this line, but in 1869 the 

 amount exported was valued at $132,709, of which much the greater part went to the 

 West Indies. The arming of nations in Europe in 1871, and increased prices, created 

 a demand, and in that year $1,062,366 worth of sole-leather was shipped to Europe, of 

 which §600,000 went to Liverpool and $48,000 to Hamburg and Bremen. The total 

 shipments of the year were $1,690,252. In 1872 they were more than doubled, amount- 

 ing to $3,471,582, and in the five years ending in 1875 the total shipments amounted to 

 $22,161,972. 



Four-fifths of the leather sent to New York is made in Pennsylvania and New York, 

 only six tanneries sending oak sole-leather, the rest hemlock, excepting 35 or 40 union 

 tanneries* These are largely owned or the capital is furnished in the city of New 



