276 
TANNING ON THE PLANTATION. 
The revenue or taxes of Cuba, in round numbers, 
is about $12,000,000; $2,500,000 of which go to sup¬ 
port the army, $1,500,000 to the navy, $5,000,000 
for the civil functionaries, and $3,000,000 are sent 
to Spain. 
The Cubean navy consists of one frigate, one 
sloop-of-war, two war steamers, six brigs, and 
eight schooners. 
I). Jay Browne. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
TANNING ON THE PLANTATION. 
Ingleside, Miss., Sept. 19 th, 1843. 
Tanning leather, for the use of the plantation, 
is an item of good management that should not be 
overlooked by any planter. Nor would it be as 
much overlooked as it is, if the simplicity of the 
process was generally known—that process, I 
mean, that will suffice for making leather for 
home use. The tanner by profession, in order to 
prepare an article that wiil command a good price 
in market, and have a merchantable appearance, 
puts the hides and skins through a greater num¬ 
ber of manipulations; and, that he may work to 
better advantage, has his arrangements on a more 
extensive scale. 
The vats, tools, and implements, really needed, 
are few and simple. Four vats will generally be 
found all-sufficient; one for a pool of fresh water, 
and for bailing ; one for liming ; another for color¬ 
ing ; and a fourth for tanning. The best size, in 
the clear, is seven feet long,.four and a half feet 
wide, and five feet deep. They should be placed 
so as to be easily and conveniently filled with writer 
from a spring, running stream, or cistern. Dig the 
holes 9 feet, by 6\ and 6; if the foundation is clay, 
the depth need not be over 5 feet. Form a stiff 
bed of clay mortar in the bottom, on which to lay 
the floor, and on it erect the sides and ends of the 
vat, of plank of almost any kind, sufficiently thick 
to resist the pressure from without—two inches 
will be thick enough. When this is done, and the 
whole nailed fast, fill in the vacant space all round 
with well-tempered clay-mortar, ramming it effec¬ 
tually : it is on this, and not the planks, that 
dependence is placed for rendering the vat per¬ 
fect. When well made, a vat will be good’for a 
long lifetime—the ooze preventing the decay of 
any but the top round of plank. Such a vat will 
hold 15 large beef hides (30 sides), besides a num¬ 
ber of small skins. 
The material used for tanning, is the bark of 
the red or black oak, stripped when the sap flows 
in the spring, stacked and dried—nf which about 
four pounds are supposed to be necessary to pro¬ 
duce one pound of leather. There is an article 
occasionally used, called “ catechu,” which is an 
extract made from the wood of a mimosa-tree, 
a native of India, half a pound of which answers 
the same purpose. Galls, willow bark, the bark 
of the Spanish chestnut, and common elm, as also 
sumach, are all used by the tanner. It has been 
recently found that the root of the palmetto 
answers an equally good purpose Avith the best 
oak bark. 
Bark has to be ground as wanted; or if the 
quantity needed is small, and it is not thought ad¬ 
visable to incur the expense of a bark-mill (from 
$10 to $18), it may be pounded in a large mortar, 
or beat up on a block. It will require one third 
more of pounded than of ground bark, to afford 
equally strong ooze, which is the infusion of 
bark. 
The principal tools requisite are a fteshing- 
hiife, currier's knife, a brush like a stiff horse- 
brush, and a fleshing-beam. The ffeshing-beam 
is made by splitting in two a hard-wood stick of 
about a foot in diameter; inserting two stout legs, 
some thirty inches long, in one end on the split 
side, so that the other end rests on the ground, 
■with the round side up, the elevated end being 
high enough to reach the workman’s waist. A 
fleshing-knife may be made by bending an old 
draw knife to suit the round of the fleshing- 
beam. 
The skins of bulls, oxen, cows, and horses, are 
called hides ; those of calves, deer, sheep, &c., are 
known as skins. 
Fresh and dried hides receive the same treat¬ 
ment, except in the washing process. Those that 
are salted and dry (and no hide should be dried 
with less than from two to four quarts of salt being 
rubbed on the flesh side—dried without salt, it is 
extremely difficult to soften them), require to be 
steeped, beaten, and rubbed, several times alter¬ 
nately, to bring them to a condition sufficiently soft 
for tanning. 
Green or fresh hides must be soaked in pure 
water from 12 to 24 hours, to extract all the blood, 
&c., and soften the extraneous fleshy matter, 
which must then be removed—throAving one hide 
at a time on the fleshing-beam, grain or hair-side 
doAvn, and scraping or shaving it off with the flesh¬ 
ing-knife, Avhich must be someAvhat dull or the skin 
is apt to be cut. They are then put in the liming 
vat, which is supplied with strong lime-water, by 
filling the vat a little over half full of water, and 
adding thereto four bushels of unslacked (or of 
air-slacked) lime, or at the rate of § of a bushel of 
lime to the barrel of water. This will suffice for 
fifteen hides ; each time that they are removed and 
a fresh lot of hides put in, add another bushel of 
lime, which will keep up the strength for a twelve- 
month. Before using, stir the lime well up, and 
Avhile it is thus mixed with the water put in the 
hides evenly, so that the lime will settle on every 
part of them. They are to remain here from ten 
to fifteen days, or for three or four days after the 
hair will rub off Avith the finger completely and 
with ease. While in the liming-vat, they must 
be moved up and down every other morning, to 
expose them to the air, and to the equal action of 
the lime. Being doav ready for unhairing, cut 
each hide in two, by slitting them along the centre 
of the back Avith a knife, forming them into sides . 
Throw ten or twelve of these sides on the flesh¬ 
ing-beam, and strip the hair off Avith the knife; 
and as they are unhaired, throw each one into the 
vat of fresh water to bait or soak. When the lot 
of sides and skins in hand have been all unhaired 
and thoroughly washed, throw them again, and at 
once, on the fleshing-beam, Avith the grain or hair 
