ON THE COMMERCE AND USES OF THE HAIR OF ANIMALS. 445 



Pig's Hairs or Bristles. — The stiff glossy hairs growing on the 

 back of the hog or wild boar, which are in great request by shoe- 

 makers, saddlers, and brush-makers, are chiefly imported from Russia, 

 Prussia, and Germany. The sources of supply will be seen from the 

 following imports in 1861 : — 





lbs. 



Russia 



1,644,751 



Prussia 



21,906 



Hanover 



20,338 



Hamburg 



159,184 



Holland 



16,333 



Belgium 



84,038 



France .. 



37,797 



United States 



40,658 



Other Countries 



11,875 



2,036,880 



The exports from Russia were formerly larger than they are now, 

 but many substitutes have been brought into use for brush-making. 



The imports from 1820 to 1833, ranged from 1,178,346 lbs., the 

 lowest to 2,320,993 lbs. ; from 1835 to 1841, the imports were much 

 about the usual average, namely, from 1,200,000 to 2,000,000 lbs. 



The imports since have been as follows : — 



Year. 



lbs. 



Year. 



lbs. 



1842 . 



. . . 1,732,739 



1852 . 



. . 1,953,488 



1843 . 



. . 2,020,435 



1853 . 



. . 3,237,059 



1844 . 



. . 2,132,300 



1854 . 



. . 1,807,765 



1845 . 



. . 2,412,267 



1855 . 



. . 179,260 



1846 . 



. . 2,234,782 



1856 . 



. . . 2,876,838 



1847 . 



. . 1,547,981 



1857 . 



r . 2,644,802 



1848 . • 



. . 2,064,739 



1858 ». 



. . 2,055,596 



1849 . 



. . 2,504,676 



1859 . 



. . 2,595,926 



1850 . 



. . 2,305,685 



1860 . 



. . 2,534,217 



1851 . 



. . 2,238,710 



1861 . 



. . 2,036,880 



The hair of pigs is used for stuffing chair seats and other upholstery 

 purposes in America, either alone or mixed with horse hair. As the 

 supply of bristles from wild hogs cannot continue on the same scale, 

 our manufacturers have began to tax their ingenuity for other materials 

 for brushes — various strong vegetable fibres have been brought into use, 

 and the last invention is metallic dents or fine wire teeth for brushes. 



A writer in 'Household Words' on this subject, observes : — "This 

 brush question may be said, figuratively and literally, to bristle up 

 before us in greater importance than most persons would imagine. 

 What with the wax-ends for our Crispins, and the materialsfor our brush- 

 makers, the demand for bristles is quite enormous. Only think of our im- 

 porting more than two and a half million pounds of bristles every year 



