No. 133.] 457* 



around dwelling*;, and properly pruned. It is one of the most 

 useful and elegant trees in the American forest. 



Timber sawed ont from this tree and kepi housed -will last hun- 

 dreds of years perfectly sound. 



Mr. .Vash — We 0(ipy the following from an address lately de- 

 livered by the Hon. Zadock Pratt, before the MethaniCvS' Institnte 

 in New-York, on the subject of tanning, and the hemlo<-k and oak 

 barks : 



I appi'oach the practical business of tanning in our own day 

 and generation. The first thing to be considered by a practical 

 titnuer, if he wishes to carry on the business with success, mast be 

 a good location. Where hemlock or oak abounds, there the ole- 

 menfary principle of tanning exists. This location ought .to be, 

 ff course, upon a navigable stream or railroad; for it is much 

 easier to carry the hide to the bark than the bark to the hide. In 

 America, the great question of location is settled by the shortest 

 and cheapest route to what our tanners all over the country nn- 

 derstand by the word " Swamp." This district lies in the south- 

 eastern part of New- York city, in the heart of business, ptetty 

 nearly in a straight line down Spruce and Feriy-street-s, towajds 

 Brooklyn. It used to be a neglected part of the city, and it vras 

 iterally a swamp. But the tanners began to buy and build there.^ 

 and for a considerable time the tanning busineSvS was carried on in 

 the Swamp — I moan the business of tanning the liides — wherea«, 

 now, it constitutes only the leather market, with the exception of 

 the morocco tanning, which is still carried on to a considerable 

 extent. 



The " Swamp" is the largest leather market on the earth. It is 

 a ra^liating point for the distribution of hides and leather for thie 

 country and for other countries, in about the same way that Willi- 

 street is the market and centre for financial operations. I sha.111 

 say little about oak tanning, because there is less of that kind oi" 

 tanning done, and I have been more familiar with the hemlock. 



The ffurcessful tanner fiiah himsc If obliged in onr times to turn 

 his thoughts to scientific agriculture, for the purposes of economy, 

 if for no other reason : and he must locate himself where the tree* 



