LEATHER. 



By Charles M. Leupp, New- York. 



This great branch of domestic industry, ranking in value and ex- 

 tent with those of cotton, wool, and iron, claims a high position 

 among the manufactures of the State of New-York. Our commer- 

 cial metropolis imports and distributes a greater number of foreign 

 hides than any other city in the United States, and a larger number 

 of sole leather or heavy hides, than any other city in the world; 

 while our inexhaustible forests of hemlock, abundance of water 

 power and facilities of transportation, secure us advantages beyond 

 those of any other State in the union. 



It is only within the last thirty years that New-York has become 

 the manufacturer of sole leather for other states and countries. Pre- 

 viously, and indeed subsequent to 1845, we were mainly supplied 

 with oak leather from the States of Pennsylvania, Delaware and Ma- 

 ryland; while Massachusetts 'and Vermont, furnished us with hem- 

 lock leather. Comparatively little leather of oak tannage is manu- 

 factured in this State, owing to the scarcity of oak bark, and its in- 

 ferior strength for tanning purposes. We still continue to receive 

 the principal part of our oak leather from the southern and western 

 States, where the oak tree is found growing in greater quantities 

 and strength. 



In regard to hides. While our imports of foreign, chiefly from 

 South America, do not on an average exhibit much falling oiF, (the 

 average of the past ten years being 692,000 annually,) our domestic 

 hides have increased largely. The prairies of the west seem capable 

 of growing cattle almost as abundantly as the campagnas of South 

 America, and the tanneries of the western States, and north-western 

 part of the State of New-York, which formerly drew their supplies 

 of foreign hides from the city of New-York, are now almost exclu- 

 sively stocked with hides, the produce of the countries bordering on 

 the lakes. Canada, which in past years derived large supplies of 

 leather from this city and State, now receives only her stocks of for- 



