74 MitchilVs View of the Manufactures 
of iron is declared to be very fine, and that druggists 
and dyers may be supplied to any demand they may 
make. 
The tanning of skins is displayed, in these surveys, to 
great advantage. Indeed, among a people who univer- 
sally wear shoes of leather, and a great part of whose 
male inhabitants dress in boots, the consumption of that 
material is extravagant. By admitting hides and peltry 
free of impost, and laying heavy duties upon the intro- 
duction of tanned and rawed leather, Congress has given 
ample protection to the operations of preparing skins for 
use. But our domestic supplies go far beyond the de- 
mand for the feet and legs. Saddlery, harness, and books, 
are principally supplied from the same internal source, 
to the great extent of their several demands ; and the 
like may be observed of the supplies for the wants of na- 
vigation and military equipments. 
A prominent feature in the face of this performance is 
the number of stills employed in the preparation of ar- 
dent spirits. The quantity of ardent spirits annually dis- 
tilled appears, by the returns, to equal the prodigious 
amount of twenty-three millions seven hundred and 
twenty thousand gallons. The extraction of brandy from 
peaches, of an alkoholic liquid from cider, and of whis- 
key from rye, and even maize, is carried to this alarm- 
ing excess. These products of the distilleries are chief- 
ly consumed among ourselves, though a portion of the 
latter is converted to gin before it reaches the human 
stomach. While, therefore, we observe the increase of 
these home-made fluids, we must reflect on their inebria- 
ting effects. It cannot be disguised, that their intoxica- 
ting quality recommends them to such general employ- 
ment. Nor ought it to be concealed, that in a country 
where a gallon of this maddening stimulus can be bought 
for half a dollar, a gill may be obtained at retail for three 
cents, and the seller, at the same time, more than double 
