X, A, 6 Gana: Leather Industry of the Philippines 353 



The weights and prices of these imported hides are given in 

 Table VII. 



Table VII. — Weights and market prices of raw salted hides in Manila. 



Variety. 



Weight. 



Price per 

 hide. 





Kilo- 

 groins. 



20-25 



15-21 



18-35 



15-80 



Pesos. 



13-16 



7-12 



6- 8 



5-16 





Carabso hides 







TANNING MATERIALS 



The only tanning materials used in the Philippines are the 

 barks of the various species of mangrove (Rhizophoraceae or 

 mangrove family) and the camanchile tree {Pithecolobium dulce 

 Benth.). The former are very plentiful and cheap, selling for 

 about 25 pesos per metric ton. In spite of this fact and in 

 spite of their high tannin content, mangrove barks are not 

 extensively used in the Philippines outside of the city of Manila. 

 This is primarily because of the resulting harshness and dark 

 red color of leather tanned with mangrove alone. However, 

 good light-colored leathers can be produced by combining caman- 

 chile and mangrove, as I have demonstrated by experiments 

 which will be discussed later. The mangrove barks have been 

 considerably studied ■■ and are widely used in Europe and 

 America. Their use may well be extended in the Philippines. 



Camanchile bark is used almost exclusively by Filipino tanners, 

 who prefer it on account of the light-colored leather it produces. 

 Because of this demand the price of air-dried camanchile bark 

 has risen as high as 10 pesos per 100 kilograms. The tree 

 is widely scattered throughout the Islands, although nowhere 

 systematically or extensively grown. The present annual con- 

 sumption of bark amounts to about 1,500 tons. Exhaustion of 

 the supply is threatened, as the trees are commonly killed by too 

 extensive stripping of the bark. The bark is brownish gray and 

 rough outside and reddish brown inside. It produces dull but 

 light-colored leather, which reddens on exposure to light. An 

 infusion of it contains a tannin of the catechol class, which 



'Bacon and Gana, This Journal, Sec. A (1909), 4, 205; Williams, R. R., 

 ibid. (1911), 6, 45. The waste wood can be utilized for firewood [Cox, 

 Alvin J., ibid. (1911), 6, 1], or for destructive distillation, as shown by 

 experiments now under way. 



