284 RURAL NEW YORK 



This represents the production of 238 plants that 

 employed 6,110 persons and added about $16,962,- 

 000 to the total. The economy in large centralized 

 plants is especially well exemplified in the meat-pack- 

 ing industry. The possibility for the utilization of 

 by-products has been realized. A large branch of 

 tlie fertilizer industry has grown out of it. The 

 manufacture of soap, glue and oils, the utilization of 

 hides, bones, horns, hair and every conceivable part 

 of the animal is made possible in these large estab- 

 lishments. Formerly they were wasted or poorly 

 utilized in the small packing-house. 



The local tannery used to be a feature of every 

 considerable community, but now it is often difficult 

 to find a local buyer of hides. New York stands 

 fifty in the leather and tanning industry with a 

 value of $27,642,000. This is an increase of 16 per 

 cent for the preceding ten-year period in compari- 

 son with an increase of 56 per cent in the slaughter- 

 ing and meat-packing industry. The value of the 

 untreated hides produced in the State was $8,500,- 

 000. The production of hides doubled in the ten- 

 year period preceding 1909, probably representing 

 considerable importation of foreign hides. 



New York produces nearly 23 per cent of the soap 

 of the country, nearly all in New York City and 

 Buffalo in alliance with the meat-packing industry. 



Sixty per cent of the value of gloves in the United 

 States is produced in New York, largely localized in 

 a small region in the Mohawk Valley where the 

 town of Gloversville marks its center. This industry 



