jl230 
raw hide Avould produce approximately an average 
of 85 Ib.s. of leather. Sole leather u-sually is .‘^old by 
the pound. It is extremely difficult to get actual 
figures as to the number of jaiirs of shoes i)roduced 
I)er jioiind of hide, as green or dry-.salted skins 
throw a smaller or larger jiercentage of finished 
leather to the pound. 
The average feetage measurement on— 
Sizes Feet 
riiildren’s shoes. S to 1 2.20 
Misses’ and growing girl.s’. l^j to (! 2.(K) 
AVomen’s . 2 to S 8.25 
Hoys’ . 1 toO 2.50 
Men’s . 2.00 
Consequently a green hide, 45 pounds, producing 
45 feet of finished leather, would cut approximately 
15.5 ])air.s of men’s .shoes. regal shoe company. 
In regard to the number of pairs of .shoes that 
could be cut from a green-salted coAvhide in good 
condition weighing 45 pounds, tanners estimate for 
upper leather that they can get about one square foot 
of leather for one pound of hide, so that the 45- 
pound hide would make 45 feet of leather and would 
cut, approximate^’, in men's medium .size, medium 
height .shoes, about 15 pairs of uppers. You under¬ 
stand for sole leather they need much heavier hides, 
and this only covers the upper of the shoe. 
GEO. E. KEPrn COMPANY. 
It is rather difficult for us to answer your que.s- 
tion, but, assuming that uppers were to be cut from 
a hide weighing 45 pound.s, we should .say that it 
ought to produce 14 or 15 pairs of uppers. 
IIANAN & SON. 
You ask how many pairs of shoes can lie made out 
(if a cowhide, in good condition, weighing about 45 
pounds. We have made inquiries of our tannery 
j)eople and they all agi-ee that it will produce about 
seven pairs of .shoe.s. We have hides of this weight 
that do not produce anything like this amount, mean¬ 
ing country-dressed hides. A good many times these 
hides come to us dressed by green butchers and 
slaughter cut, or what we .call under cut. damaging 
the hide so it will not iiroduce within 5t> per cent of 
what this hide ought to jiroduce. We feel sure if the 
farmer understood this he would have exjierienced 
men dress the cattle and not damage the hide, .so the 
hides, when brought to market, would be worth more. 
KNOICOTT. .JOHNSON & CO. 
The Worn-Out Shoes 
Many jieople have wondered what becomes of the 
old. or worn shoes. There must be thousands of 
pail’s of partly worn .shoes discarded by their wear¬ 
ers. In former years Ave saw many such shoes in this 
city thrown into the ash cans and carried to the 
dump.s. In many hoiLseholds these old shoes accu¬ 
mulate. They are not entirely Avorn out. but could 
be repaired so as to give considerable Avear. In the 
Army at the present time such .shoes are saved and 
repaired, so that they freipiently give almost double 
."^ervice. In Avalking through this great city, particu¬ 
larly in the districts Avhere people are clo.sely croAvd- 
ed together, a stranger Avould be surprised at the 
number of small shoiis Avhere shoemakers and cob¬ 
blers apparently do a thriving business. In most 
other lines of industry the hand aa (irker has been 
croAvded out, as goods Avere made more and more by 
machine. In the shoe busine.s.s, the number of cob¬ 
blers seems to increase as shoe manufacturing ex¬ 
pands. It appears that the old shoes throAvn UAvay 
by the Avell-to-do are carefully sorted out on the 
dumps and sold to these cobblers. Whenever pos¬ 
sible, such shoes are reimired and polished so that 
they Avill sell at a fair price for .'<econd-hand ar¬ 
ticles. It is surprising hoAV a skillful cobbler can 
save such a shoe from Avhat seems like a total 
wreck. AA'here the shoes are so badly gone that they 
cannot be rejiaired in this Avay, the cobblers cut them 
up and saA’e as much of the leather as pos.sible for 
use in their repair Avork. We have seen these cob¬ 
blers at Avork tapping a pair of shoes, and using a 
collection of small pieces of leather nailed and pasted 
together in the most skillful manner. Manufacturers 
of shoes tell us that a fair proportion of the shoes 
they sc'll are returned to them for one reason and 
another. Sometimes there is some natural defect in 
the leather, or a defect in making. AA’henever there 
is a reasonable excuse for returning these Avorn 
shoes they are aecejited and credit is given to the 
dealer Avho returns them. Jobbers and cobblers 
r.rc' eager to buy these Avorn shoes, and Avill pay 
a dollar and a quarter or more per pair. They have 
Avays of cobbling them so as to sell them as second¬ 
hand shoes, and make considei'iible money out of the 
business. There Avill ahvays be a quantity of leather 
.scraji;' or Avorn sole leather AA’hich cannot be u.sed in 
repairing, and this is utilized in various AA'ay.s, either 
as fertilizer or as fillers for various goods, .so that 
from the hide doAvn to the Avorn-out shoe there is 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 2, 1018 
little if any lo.ss, and the farmer receives from 15 to 
20 iier cent of the final price of the consumer. 
Hide and Leather Wasted 
The income from the hides does not end with the 
leather or the shoes. It is said that AA’hen a hog or 
a steer is slaughtered in one of the modern packing 
houses everything connected Avith him is saved ex¬ 
cept tile squeal. AVe understand that in some cases 
even this is preserved on the disks of talking ma¬ 
chines, the noise being used to give a thrill to certain 
moving picture shows. The hair taken from the 
hide is sorted and sold in different grades. Alost of 
it is used for plastering, although the better class 
may be used for other purposes. The hide also fur¬ 
nishes a quantity of grease. In former years it hard¬ 
ly paid to attempt to saA’e this grease, but of late 
years the price has been such that all this fat is 
saved. The scraps and the clippings, as Avell as the 
ears and the tail, are made into various grades of 
glue and gelatin. The small scraps of leather, after 
the hide has been tanned, are u.sed for A’arious pur- 
lio.ses. Xninberless patents have been issued cover¬ 
ing jirocesses for handling these leather scraps. 
Many of them depend on mixing the scraps Avith 
some adhesive substance, and pressing them under 
high iH’essure into a sort of combination board. In 
some cases the leather Avaste is ground or shredded 
and then pressed as above mentioned. This pressed 
leather is used for nniking a loAver grade of shoe, 
and is suitable for .soles and heels in loAA’-grade goods. 
In addition to this a considei’able amount of leather 
.4 Michigan-grown Jonathan Apple. Fig. 589 
is made into fertilizer. The ordinary .scrap leather » 
often contains seven per cent jof ammonia, but this is 
in such an unavailable condition that it is not suit¬ 
able for jilant food. Several methods are u.sed for 
making this leather aA’ailable. In one case the 
leather is gi’ound tinely and mixed Avith avooI Avastes, 
raAv phosphate rock and sulphuric acid. This is put 
together in a chamber or "den"’ Avhere a fierce heat 
is deA’eloped. The result is that both the phosphate 
rock and the leather are made available, .so that the 
nitrogen in the leather can be used as plant food. 
Another method is to ])ut the softer scraps of leather 
into a big tank or dige.ster. 'J’here the leather is 
thoroughly cooked Avith live steam under a very 
high pressure. This cooking breaks up the cells of 
the leather to some extent, and chemical changes 
take place Avhich make the ammonia available, and 
nearly eijual to dried blood as plant food. No one 
Avonld I’ecognize the leather .scraps after they pass 
through either proce.ss, as the original fiber is com¬ 
pletely broken up. Thus Avhen the hide is taken 
from a cow it Avill jiass on thi’ough the hands of the 
tanner and the shoemaker, and Avhen finally ca.st 
aside as ”Avorn-ont" leather, may be turned into 
plant food, and that jilant food used to jiroduce a 
corn or grain crop Avith Avhich to feed another coAf 
and produce another hide 1 
Apple Growing in Michigan 
I IIAA’E just put up a barrel of Jonathan apples 
for display at our State Horticultural Society 
meeting, at Detroit, in December, and thinking you 
Avould be int(‘rested in seeing Avhat kind of fruit Ave 
groAV on our lake shore sand hilLs, I am sending you 
a .sample. There Has been considerable discussion 
aJiout hoAv to deal Avith this lake shore bloAv sand, 
and this is our jiroblem. AVe have been using rye 
and vetch for cover crop for years, and if for any 
reason Ave fail to get a good strong stand before the 
Fall AA’inds get in their fine Avork, Ave may find the 
work of years undone in a feAV hours. Still Ave hav’e 
groAA’H some of our very finest apples on the top of 
hills of blOAV sand on Avhich it Avould be imiiossilile 
to rai.se anything, even a disturbance, and some of 
these came from little trees Avith their loads of three 
and four bushels to a tree on top of such hills. 
The seA’ere AATnter injured our Kings, Ilubbards- 
tons and AAhigeners pretty severely, but our Jonathan, 
T'ameuse, Duchess and Spy have not been injured 
as much. AA"e had a fine croi> of Duches.s. and should 
have Avon out on them, but sugar conditions killed 
the market. AA’ith peaches and plums short. Duchess 
should have found a fine market. So you see Ave do 
not find it all a bed of rose.s. AVith all things Ave 
have to buy tAvo or three, or even four times the 
former price, and help out of sight, aa’o just Inn’e to 
hit the high places and do our best, hoping for 
better times. Aly one son is Avith me, in deferred 
clas.s. the other “somcAA’here in France.” AA’here I 
bojie he is giving good account of him.self. 
I have been interested in your articles on farmer¬ 
ettes. and I am sure, they haA’e not anything on me, 
for I have done the day's Avork of jiicking and all 
the grading, besides getting meals and keeping the 
bouse running (after a fashion) and for a Avoman 
Avell over (lO years I think I am doing jiretty fair. 
I Avas much interested in your Hope Farm article 
on Alclntosli apples. We have some and I Avas afraid 
they Avould not do Avell for us, but this year Ave had 
our first chance at barrel lot, and feel quite delighted. 
They are certainly fine eating apple.s, and noAv that 
they are getting e.stablished may be one of our best 
apples. XoAv that Ave have proved Ave can groAv as 
fine an apple as anyone for size, color and, best of 
all, tlavor, on our sand hills, it remains for us to 
Avin out financially, and that is (juite a problem. I 
never miss an opportunity to spread the .go.spel of 
The Kt’kal XTnv-AMRKEU to high and Ioav, and the 
best of it is that it has something to fit all cases. 
OttaAA-a Co., .Mich. e.aima e. .stk.aioht. 
It. X.-\. .4t Fig. 580 Avill be found a picture of one 
of the Jonathan apples Airs. Straight speaks of. 
AVhere (his apple finds it.^elf fully at home it is very 
fine. AVith us it does not find .suitable surroundings. 
That is a iicav and good use for rye and vetch_hold¬ 
ing the .sand together. 
Choice Fruits tor High-Class Markets 
Developing an Orchard From the Bottom 
Part HI. 
Hi'.M i.r.s ()!<’ .SELFFTIDX.—.Vs a test of the 
earline.ss of rijiening. Air. Schauber, at the end of 
live .vears, jilanted some of the original corn Avith 
Avhich he started, and beside it .some that Avas groAvii 
the year before after four years of .selection. The 
.germination in both cases Avas perfect. .Vt harvest 
the .selected strain Avas found to be 10 days earlier 
than the original from Avhich it Avas developed. Alost 
of th.e seed is dried on Avirt* racks in open sheds Avith- 
out heat. On account of the rush of fruit Avork in 
October, the hmsking has to be left till late, and if 
the season is Avet the corn may not completely dry 
out before freezing Aveather come.s. Last year Avas 
the lirst in AA’hich the los.ses IniA’e been noticeable, 
but this condition AA’a.s genei’al. Air. Schauber is 
noAv considering using a building Avith a Ioav fire for 
drying. Ily picking the ears in the field as they 
ripen, he expects to get the corn on the drying racks 
earlier than usual. X’^o corn is sold from this farm 
except under guaranteed ear tests. The testing and 
.shipping afford good AYinter Avork Avhile the fruit 
AAoi’k is lightest. The jnethod of te.sting devised by 
Air. Schauber is the simplest and yet the most effec¬ 
tual I have ever seen. He uses a small incubator, 
AA’hich is kept for hatching chickens. Auger holes 
are bored in inch-thick boards, not (piite through the 
board, so as to make small jjockets to hold the ker¬ 
nels. Each ear is numbered and each hole is num¬ 
bered to correspond. AVhen the kernels are placed, a 
stack of these boards is made Avith cloth padding be- 
tAveen. The Avhole is ju.st high enough to fit the in¬ 
cubator easily. P>y soaking the Avhole stack in a tub 
of AA’arm Avater, the cloth i)ads take up enough mois¬ 
ture to remain Avet .several days. With the heat of 
the incubator kept at SO to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, 
the kernels Avill germinate inside of three days. 
This .seed usually .sells at .$4 a bushel, but last year 
sold readily at .$(> a bushel. A fair crop is 80 to 40 
bushels per acre of ,'^alable seed, so this adds ma¬ 
terially to the income from a fruit farm. 
OTHEIt FIXES OF AVOKK.—Air. Schauber al- 
Avays keeps in touch Avith the Avork of the College 
and the State experiment station. Resides his corn 
and potato Avork, he is testing 80 varieties of grajies, 
10 neAv kfnds of straAvberrie.s, and this year grcAV a 
selected ClaAv.son Avheat Avhich yielded 40 bushels 
per acre. This Avheat sold readily to nearliy farmers 
at -P a bushel. Mr. JSchuubei’ is very inoUest with 
/ 
