352 The Philippine Journal of Science 1915 



cattle, and 17,890 carabaos were slaughtered in the Philippines 

 during the calendar year 1913. These animals would furnish 

 roughly 90,000 skins and 56,000 heavy hides. The number of 

 available raw hides, according to the reports of the treasurers 

 of the several provinces mentioned in Table I, is 54,057. 



Hides and skins are bought and sold by the piece. At market 

 centers salted hides of Australian cattle average about 16 pesos 

 and of native or Chinese cattle about 10 pesos. This amounts 

 to about 65 centavos per kilogram for the former and 60 cen- 

 tavos per kilogram for the latter. However, in many provinces 

 cattle hides can be bought as low as 1 peso per piece and average 

 less than 5 pesos. They are frequently not removed from the 

 animals. There is a small production of dried hides which are 

 exported to Hongkong and British East Indies for the manu- 

 facture of glue. Table V gives the value of such exports. 



Table V. — Exports of dried hides from the Philippine Islands to Hongkong 



and British East Indies. 



Year. Pesos. Year. Pesos. 



1907 30,336 1911 22,626 



1908 25,710 1912 22,626 



1909 27,920 1913 29,492 



1910 46,074 



Very little care is exercised in the method of preserving hides 

 for the market. Systematic salting is not in general use, and 

 many hides reach the tanner in a semiputrid condition. The 

 process of salting hides is a very simple one and consists in the 

 even distribution of salt, about 25 kilograms for every hundred 

 kilograms of hides, over the flesh side of the hides in a layer 

 so thick that solid salt always remains. The hides should be 

 stacked in such a way that the draining away of any resulting 

 brine will be prevented. Hides which are salted with reason- 

 able cai*e keep very well, even in this climate. 



In addition to the domestic product, there has been a consider- 

 able importation of raw hides and skins into the Philippines 

 during the last four or five years. The imported hides come 

 almost exclusively from China. Table VI gives the figures of 

 the importation of raw hides and skins. 



Table VI. — ]'alue of imports of raw hides into the Philippine Islands. 



Year. 





Pesos. 



Year. 



Pesos. 



1907 





9,056 



1911 



36,210 



1908 





19,906 



1912 



151,222 



1909 





"39,326 



1913 



62,428 



1910 



» From China. 



"76,772 



*■ Mostly from China. 





