77 



profitable. And boot and shoe and harness manufacturing 

 should follow, saving in our own country the immense 

 sums we are nbw paying to enrich other sections and im- 

 poverish our own State. J. M; Wilson. 



[The great importance of the valuable properties of the 

 mesquite,as stated above by Dr. Wilson, induced us to ask 

 him, if possible, to furnish us. with some corroborative evi- 

 dence in confirmation of his statements, and in reply, he 

 kindly sent us the following letter, inclosing the one from 

 Mr. Coorpender.] 



ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE OF THE SUPEEIOK TANNING PROP- 

 ERTIES OP THE MESQUITE. ~ 



I 



Near Seguin, July 20, 1869. 



W. Ricliardson, Esq. — Dear Sir — Yours of the 2d insfc. 

 came to hand during my absence, or I would -have answered 

 sooner. 



In your letter, after a favorable notice of my article on 

 the mesquite, you mention : " But when you say the wood 

 itself is superior to the best oak bark, and that it (the 

 tannic acid) penetrates to the middle of the thickest hides 

 simultaneously with, its effect on the surface, I fear the 

 assertion may challenge incredulity with many scientific 

 readers." The statement, I confess, in both its parts, 

 seems extraordinary, and if true, it invests the mesquite 

 with great value and interest as a tanning material. The 

 experiments made with the mesquite were confined to Dr. 

 Park, who discovered it. He established a tannery, and 

 conducted it successfully until the close of the war. It 

 then passed into the hands of Mr. K. Coorpender, near 

 Seguin, who carried it on for some time, but was finally 

 compelled, by the difficulty of gettihg skilled labor, to 

 abandon it. The proof, then, is confined pretty much to 

 the developments of this single tannery, conducted first by 

 Dr. Park and then by Mr. Coorpender. I am sorry I am 

 unable- to give a a statement from Dr. Park himself; it 

 would be iftteresting and satisfactory. He is now living 

 somewhere in Tennessee. I was with him- a good deal 

 while he was making his experiments, and we discussed 

 freely the scientific principles involved^ and I am well ac- 

 quainted with the facts and results. He always stated to 



