Country Hides and Skins. 
51 
classes and grades. The maximum results of this progressive meas- 
ure, however, will be deferred until the various methods of grading 
have been revised, simplified, correlated, and faithfully applied to 
the trading in all sections of the country. There should be well- 
defined classes and grades, not only for packer but also for country 
hides and skins. In fact, a single standard for all hides and skins 
by means of which they can be graded and sold on merit, 'regardless 
of origin, is desirable and deserves serious consideration. A stand- 
ardized basis for trading should make it possible for the country pro- 
ducers to realize prices more nearly commensurate with the quality 
of their products. As a result, carelessness and much inefficiency 
should soon be overcome and a marked improvement in the mer- 
chantability and market prices of hides and skins of the country 
class should follow. 
ESSENTIAL POINTS. 
Country hides and skins are an important source of the raw mate- 
rial of the leather industry. Tanners buy these raw materials on 
their merits, paying a price based largely on the quality and quan- 
tity of the leather they yield and on the uses to which the leather 
can be put. 
Improvement in the country branch of the hide and skin industry 
is absolutely necessary to put it upon a more economic basis. Much 
will be accomplished in this direction by continuing to trade strictly 
on a graded or selected basis, according to relative merits, and by 
avoiding many of the profit-absorbing intermediary agencies through 
more direct marketing by the rural producers. In this way country 
producers should not only derive more profits but the profits should 
be commensurate with the quality of their products, a condition which 
will prove an incentive to produce hides and skins of the best pos- 
sible quality. 
Producers of country hides and skins should bear in mind the 
following essential points: 
Take-off or skinning. 
1. Before killing clean off as much as possible all manure, dirt, mud, etc., and 
during skinning keep the hides and skins clean and free from blood especially. 
2. In bleeding cattle always stick the throat lengthwise; never crosswise. 
3. In skinning use the knife carefully and no more than is necessary. Avoid 
cutting the hide or skin. 
4. Make all ripping cuts with straight, smooth edges, not jagged ones. 
5. Pay attention to the pattern of the hide and see that it is properly distrib- 
uted among the shoulder, belly, and butt sections. 
6. Take off a hide or skin free from meat, sinews, bag, tail bone, horns, dew- 
claws, and split shanks. 
