UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 706 



Washington, D. C. 



Contribution from the Bureau of Chemistry 

 CARL L. ALSBERG, Chief 



^•L^*^W<« 



July 26, 1918 



AMERICAN SUMAC: A VALUABLE TANNING 

 MATERIAL AND DYESTUFF. 



By F. P. Veitch, Chemist in Charge, and J. S. Kogers, Assistant Chemist, Leather and 



Paper Laboratory} 



Introduction 



Species of American sumac , . 



Present methods of gathering and curin: 



Tannin content of American sumac 



Sumac extract 



Disposal of extracted material 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

 1 

 3 

 5 

 8 

 9 

 10 



Causes of poor quality in sumac 



Cooperation for better sumac 



Directions for proper gathering and curing of 



sumac 



Buyers of sumac 



Summary 



INTRODUCTION. 



Sumac grows wild on uncultivated lands in a large part- of the 

 United States, and is especially abundant and accessible east of the 

 Mississippi River, from Maine to central Georgia and Mississippi. 

 (See PL I.) Plentiful stands are found on cut-over land, in old 

 fields, in pastures, on mountain sides, in waste places, and on the 

 edges of swamps in the Appalachian region. Immense quantities of 

 this valuable tanning and dyeing material, which costs nothing to 

 raise, remain ungathered in this country every year, while vegetable 

 tanning materials to the value of more than $5,000,000 ^ are im- 

 ported annually. If the sumac industry were well organized, the 

 large quantities of this native tannmg and dyeing material now 

 wasted could be utilized m making leather and as a substitute for 

 other dyes wherever practicable. This would serve to check the 

 rising cost of similar tanning and dyeing materials, tc lessen our 

 dependence on foreign countries, and to give the country people in 

 certain sections an additional source of employment. 



Sumac has long been used hi the tanning of leather and in dyeing 

 fabrics. Its value for tanning depends chiefly upon the fact that it 

 yields durable, light-colored or white leathers, and, consecjuently, it 

 is used largely in the tanning of bookbinding, glove, and hat band 

 leathers, and for removing darker-colored tanning materials from 

 the surface of bag, case, and fair harness leathers. Sumac-tanned 

 leathers have been found to be most durable and suitable for book- 



1 The writers wish to acknowledge the assistance of R. W. Frey of the Bureau of Chemistry in the 

 chemical worfe connected with this investigation, 

 s Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States, 1916, U. S. Dept. of Commerce. 



59562°— 18~Bull. 706 



