1297 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
those days, required is months in which to cure. 
Very thin and light calfskins may. however, he 
brought into a condition suitable for the making of 
uppers for medium light hoots and shoes in two 
months’ finite. Hemlock hark gives a leather of a 
reddish color, very hard, and possessed of superior 
wearing qualities, and is. therefore, best adapted for 
the making of foofeweur. Oak bark gives a leather 
ot a creamy color, more flexible and possessing great 
tensile strength, and is. therefore, best adapted for 
the making of harnesses. The so-called Russia leath¬ 
er is fanned with birch bark. It is of a still lighter 
color, is more flexible hut of comparatively inferior 
Mill,•ini / a Splice in Woven Wire. Fit/. 555 
to the vat and stratified as before, with about an 
inch of fresh hark. The same liquor is poured over 
them, and they are allowed to remain in this for 
another two months, when this process is repeated, 
and, after another two months’ immersion the tan¬ 
ning is assumed to he completed, though in the case 
of extra heavy skins another immersion, and another 
two months' of time may be required. If the fresh 
hides were placed in a decoction strong enough to 
complete the tanning at one operation a thin sheet 
ol hard, impervious leather would he formed upon 
each side of the hide, and this would prevent the tan¬ 
ning liquor from gaining access to the interior, and 
hence, this part would remain un¬ 
tanned. would have little wearing 
quality or tensile strength, and would 
become hard and stiff when dry. I 
suspect that the inquirer's trouble lies 
right here. 
If may. however, arise from the use of 
a hide that is entirely too thick and 
heavy for the purpose for which the* 
leather is designed. In this case the 
leather, after being taken from the vat 
and dried, is pared to the required 
thickness. In the large establishments 
this is done h.v means of a machine 
which takes off the surplus leather in 
one thin sheet, which is used for hook 
binding and for other purposes for 
which an extremely thin leather is re¬ 
quired. But in home practice it is 
either shaved off with an implement 
somewhat resembling a drawknife, a 
process which, by the way. requires 
considerable skill, or it is worked down 
with sandpaper. After this, all the 
neat.’s-foot oil that the skin will hold is 
worked into the leather, which is again 
dried and more oil is worked into it. 
and this alternate oiling and drying is 
continued until no more oil will he ab¬ 
sorbed. Lampblack is added to the oil 
when it is desired to blacken the leath¬ 
er. and finally the surplus oil is worked 
off by rubbing the leather with wheat 
bran. 
Present quotations for hides are from 
four to five cents a pound. Sole leather 
is priced to the shoemaker at $1.Gf> a 
pound. A ratio that would afford a 
fair profit all around would be one to 
eight. Harness leather is bought by the 
pound, and is of varying thicknesses, 
is worked to a uniform thickness 
and is sold by the square foot, hence 
the ratio is not so easily determined, 
hut it is not far removed. There is 
money in home tanning. I know of no 
hook treating upon this subject, but am 
told that the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture at Washington, and also the Mis¬ 
souri Experiment Station, have been 
making some investigations along this 
line. There can be no book or instruc¬ 
tor that can equal experience for ac¬ 
tual efficiency. c. o. ormsbee. 
One Man'# [ilea of a Farm dale. Fit/. 55.) 
/Handling Celery with Caper Collars. Fig. 556 
How to Tan Beef Hides 
wearing qualities and tensile strength. II has. how¬ 
ever, a peculiarly aromatic odor which is pleasing 
lo most people. These are the only kinds of barks 
native to the I'nited States that are used commer¬ 
cially for tanning leather, and, by the way, but com¬ 
paratively little birch hark is used in this country 
for this purpose. Most of the so-called Russia 
leather is either imported or is an imitation. 
The hides after remaining in tin* tanning liquor 
for two months are taken from the vat. The liquor 
is pumped out and saved and the spent tan hark taken 
out and thrown away. Then the hides are returned 
I am tanning cow bides for harness leather. I have 
pretty good luck tanning, but the leather is inclined to 
be hard after I oil it and work it. I use oak bark and 
sumac for color. Could you give me a good recipe for 
tanning, so I could get the leather soft, or could you 
fell me where I could buy a good tanning book? And 
also tell me what is the best oil to oil the leather with. 
Virginia. E. o. 
T HERE are about as many recipes and variations 
of recipes for tanning leather as there are of 
tanners. I never knew of two tanners following 
identically the same rules throughout. Neither did 
I ever hear of anyone using definite and exact meas¬ 
urements. either by weight or gallon, 
in determining the amount of material 
necessary in order to obtain the best 
and most economical results. The rule 
of the thumb, coupled with experience, 
is the one that is universally employed. 
Nevertheless, the inquirer will make no 
mistake if lie follows essentially the 
following directions: 
If the hides have been salted or 
dried, they must he soaked until they 
arc as fresh and as pliable as when 
first removed, for there is no known 
method by which a dried hide can he 
satisfactorily tanned. When thorough¬ 
ly soaked, they arc taken from the 
water, spread upon a bench with the 
flesh side up. and covered liberally with 
hardwood ashes, care being taken that 
every spot he covered. Then they arc 
folded longitudinally, and sometimes 
rolled, and laid away in a damp and 
rather dark place until the hair will 
readily slip. Then they arc again laid 
upon a bench and the hair and every 
particle of fleshy integument is scraped 
off. Then, for convenience in handling, 
they are trimmed into the form of a 
parallelogram. This is done by the re¬ 
moval of the head. legs, tail and other 
outlying parts. These may be tanned 
together with the main part of the 
hide and used in the making of loops, 
short straps and other parts calling for 
small pieces of leather, or they may he 
tanned by a little different process and 
used for sole leather and for heels. 
Meantime the bark has been pre¬ 
pared. This may he hewed from a log 
even at the present time, hut it should 
have been peeled from fresh logs dur¬ 
ing the growing period, and dried. It 
is prepared by grinding or otherwise 
breaking it into pieces about the size 
of a pea or smaller. Then the hides, if 
large, are split, for still greater conve¬ 
nience in handling, along the line of 
the backbone, each piece being called a 
“side.” and if very large they are made 
into three pieces by making two par¬ 
allel cuts, one on each side. The hides, 
or rather the sides, are now laid in a 
box or tank large enough to allow the 
side to lay flat, and covered with a lib¬ 
eral sprinkling of the crushed bark. A 
smaller box, or even a barrel, may be 
used, but it is less convenient. Other 
sides are added, each being sprinkled 
with the hark until the pile is about 
three feet high, if so many hides are to 
be tanned, this being about the limit of 
height at which they can be conveni¬ 
ently worked. Clare must he taken that 
the sides lie perfectly flat and without, 
wrinkles. Or, if a small box or a bar¬ 
rel is used, in which wrinkles are un¬ 
avoidable. the sides must be taken out 
every few days and turned. Otherwise 
the leather will be hard and stiff in 
places where the hides were wrinkled. 
It may be that the troubles of the in¬ 
quirer originated right here. Then 
water is turned on until the hides are 
completely covered, and they are weighted if neces¬ 
sary in order to keep them submerged. Failure 
along this line will result in a stiff, hard leather 
when dry. 
People talk about tanning by this process in 10 
•lays, or two weeks at the outside. A product re¬ 
sembling leather -may be made in a comparatively 
short time, but it will require fully six months of 
immersion to make the good old leather from which 
the itinerant shoemaker made the hoots of our grand¬ 
fathers, a pair of which would stand the roughest 
kind of wear for three full years. Sole leather, in 
Garden Notes from New Eng¬ 
land 
S T OR I NO V EO ETA B LES. — Before 
furnaces became common the house 
cellar was used for storing vegetables, 
as a matter of course. Nowadays many 
cellars are too warm unless a corner is 
partitioned off and properly ventilated. 
A double board wall with 214-in. tim¬ 
bers for uprights can be used for a 
partition if the space between is filled 
with cork, sawdust, shavings or dried 
seaweed. If none of these materials is 
available, the material known as 
sheathing quilt may be fastened to the 
boards. A partition made of hollow 
tile is particularly satisfactory. There 
must he a window for ventilation, and it preferably 
should have a wooden shutter on the outside of the 
frame. At this season the window should be closed 
during the day and opened at night. It isn't neces¬ 
sary to have a special floor in the storage cellar. 
Indeed, an earth floor is better than one made of 
cement, except that the latter is more successful in 
excluding rats, although rodents can be kept out, 
anyway, if the walls extend far enough below the 
level of the cellar bottom. If a temperature of 
between .”>2 and 40 degrees can he maintained most 
fruit and vegetables will keep well. This is too 
