_ ber and matures in May, after which the roots or tubers increase 
fine saddlery and fancy leathers. It can be used alone or in con- 
nection with other materials.’’ He also recommends it for its 
quickness and thoroughness in tanning, color, beauty, consist- 
ency and pliability. He also says that the price, $65 per ton for 
the dried root, is very reasonable. ; 
Thus far most of the canaigre root product has been gathered 
by digging the wild plant; but this is unsatisfactory, for so much 
territory must be worked over to get a limited supply of the root. 
It has now been demonstrated beyond question that the plant can 
be successfully cultivated, and that there is more profit in culti- 
vating the crop than in relying on the wild product, which is 
necessarily so scattered as to take away all the profit in the extra 
expense of gathering. 
At $10 per ton, which appears to be a minimum price for the 
root crop, the profits are more than double the profits of beet : 
culture, for the yield per acre is about the same, while the cost _ 
of production is less and the price per ton is more than double. _ 
The amount of tannic acid used in the world is enormous,. — 
and while the demand is increasing the supply is rapidly decreas- 
ing. In addition to the supply of oak and hemlock barks, our 
country is importing large quantities of gambier from the Hast 
Indies. During 1891 15,000 tons were brought into this country 
which was valued at $100 per ton or $1,500,000. Six tons of | 
green canaigre root will make one ton of tannic acid worth $100, 
and this acid’can be manufactured at a cost of about $10 per ron, : 
and this would make the green canaigre roots worth $15 per 
ton — three times the value of the sugar beet. It would require — : 
9,000 carloads of green canaigre to take the place of the imported 
-gambier, to say nothing of supplanting the oak and hemlock es 
_bark and exporting to other countries. ao 
While canaigre is a dry climate plant, its growth is ice 
materially by irrigation; but it is one of those crops where no 
irrigation is necessary during the dry summer months of June, i 
July, August and September. The plant begins to grow in Octo- 
a 
in size and value during the summer months, but the top dies : 
down and no water is needed. 
The canaigre tubers resemble in fate the sugar beet. They 
are mented one ina hill like Bape the rows. pee thict, ty 
