TANNING MATEEIALS. 145 



Several large manufactories of tanning-extract were established some 

 years since in Canada for supplying the English market, but owing to 

 the depression of prices there, they are shipping their extract to the 

 United States. The low wages that they pay, and the comj)arative 

 cheapness of bark, which may be had from the crown lands at a very 

 low price, enables them, it is said, to do this with advantage, although 

 the duties are 20 per cent, on the valuation.^ 



According to the census of 1870, the number of tanneries in the 

 United States was 7,509, of which 1,495 were in Pennsylvania and 1,002 

 in New York. There were employed 35,243 persons and $01,124,812 in 

 capital. The annual wages paid amounted to $14,505,775 ; the mate- 

 rials used amounted to $118,569,634, and the product was valued at 

 $157,237,597. 



The annual report of the secretary of internal affairs of Pennsylva- 

 nia for 1875-'70 contains reports from 172 establishments (less than 

 one-fourth of the whole number in the State), which show the annual 

 product in leather as 25,934,107 pounds ; persons employed, 1,706 ; 

 domestic hides tanned, 392,485, worth $1,947,377 ; foreign hides tanned, 

 359,103, worth $1,884,477; calf-skins tanned, 38,403, worth $42,903. 

 Total value of hides and skins tanned, $3,874,757, and value of bark 

 used, $964,884.2 



A firm doing extensive business in the State of Maine estimates that 

 the bark within their knowledge yields 3 cords to the acre ; that 4 to 6 

 trees will make a cord of bark and 1,000 feet of lumber, and that in ten 

 years, " at present rate of use, there will be no hemlock in Maine of any 

 amount." We have not been able to learn that in a single instance 

 hemlock timber has yet been planted within the United States with the 

 view of supplying bark for future use. Much of the timber now stand- 

 ing is fully ripe, and some of it is perishing. 



' If the area of timber now available for this use were definitely known, 

 it would be very difficult to calculate its duration, because it is liable to 

 casualties that may be even greater than the amount used for tanning 

 purposes. The principal of these are fires and wind. In peeling bark, 

 the tops, and often the whole trunk, is left on the ground, and a fire 

 once started in a dry season could scarcely be controlled while any of 



York. The exports in 187.5 from New York were 11,974 rolls, 31,248 bales, 546 cases,, 

 1,739 bundles, 12 boxes, 9,222 packages, 17,713 sides, and 9 casks ; total value |5,3."8,704. 

 The imports of New York for that year amounted to $319,108.06; 3,764,822 pounds 

 coming to New York in 187.5; 2,759,309 were brought by railioads, and of this nearly 

 half (1,094,610) by the Erie Railway. {Annual Heport N. Y. Chamber of Commerce,. 

 187.5-76, part ii, p. 120.) 



The receipts of leather in Boston for the year 1876 were 1,778,182 sides, 578,970 rolls, 

 1.53,063 bundles, 40,350 bags, 7,390 bales, 4,047 sacks, 5,929 packages, 603 crates, 3,959 

 cases, 639 boxes, 180 barrels, 109 casks, 28 hogsheads, 35,834 pounds, 239 pieces, and 2 

 cars. — {Shoe and Leather Eeporter^s Almanac, 1877, p. 30.) 



During the year 1875 there were sent from Philadelphia by steamers 1,406,162 pounds 

 of hemlock extract to Liverpool, and 497,154 pounds to Antwerp. This was mostly 

 from the works at Elmira and Painted Post, N. Y. 



Nearly a hundred years ago a considerable amount of ground oak bark used to be 

 shipped from Baltimore and Philadelphia to England. Its cost here then was $4 a 

 cord. 



1 During ten years ending June 30, 1877, the quantity of extract of hemlock bark 

 exported from the Dominion of Canada amounted in all to 171,996 barrels, valued at 

 $1,745,244, Of thi£, 72,132 barrels, worth $621,014, came to the United States. 



*The largest sole-leather tannery in the world, according to the Shoe and Leather 

 Reporter's Almanac for 1876, is the Wilcox tannery, in Elk County, Pennsylvania, which 

 for several years has manufactured about 200,000 sides of hemlock sole-leather per 

 year. For the last two years it had tanned nearly all the bison-hides coming to New 

 York. Next to this comes the Eagle Valley tannery at Ridgeway, Pa., tanning 150,000 

 sides, and the Kingman, Jackson Brook, and Vanceborough (Maine) tanneries, produc- 

 ing from 100,000 to 130,000 sides each year. 

 10 F 



