DRESSING AND TAXXIXG SKIXS AND FURS. 83 



not cut the skin. A piece of a scythe, with a handle at 

 each end, makes a good fleshing knife. 



"Now sit down, with the highest end of the beam 

 against your belly, and lay on the skin, hair side down, 

 and i^roceed to take off all the flesh and fat, and every 

 unequal substance before you turn the hair side up. 

 Then commence to grain, with the neck of the skin next 

 to you, and shove against the hair, having a firm hold of 

 the knife, and shoving with some strength, when off will 

 go a streak of the grain, and so proceed until it is all off. 

 This is the way to grain a green hide just taken from the 

 animal. 



To grain a dry hide, first put it in a tub or barrel of 

 warm Avater, and let it lie for twenty-four hours, and then 

 add to each half barrel of water a pint of good slaked 

 lime, and let it stand twenty-four hours more ; then pro- 

 ceed as with a fresh skin. 



When the work is properly done, the skin will be as clear 

 as glass, with no streak of grain or other uneven substance 

 left ; unless it is in this condition, it will not dress well. 



Now, in order to dress one buck skin, take eight quarts 

 of fresh rain water and warm it, and put in one pint of 

 soft soap. Put in the skin while the liquid is warm, and 

 work it with the hands, or punch it with a stick, until the 

 soapsuds is quite worked into it, say twenty-four liours. 

 Then take it out and pass it between two sticks, or pass 

 it tlirough a good wringing machine. Then pull it until 

 it is dry, in the hot sun, or before a hot fire. Next stretch 



