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re numbers warbled, and loss of hides passing through this market 
in one year. We have now much pleasure in sending you the 
information. 
“ 1888, Jan. to Dec. Number of hides, 250,740, total. 
,, ,, ,, ,, 83,580 warbled. 
“ Loss on same, £16,716 for one year. 
“Messrs. Richard Markendale & Co., Limited, Hide, Skin, 
and Fat Market, Manchester.” 
The above notes from three great centres give some idea of the 
amount of loss that is caused by depreciation of market value from 
warble attack to hides. But it should also be considered, as was 
pointed out to me in the course of communication by Messrs. 
Robert Ramsey & Co., Glasgow, and Mr. Hill, President of the 
Sheffield Butchers Co., that this loss is quite independent of the 
subsequent waste of money consequent on the expenses of manu¬ 
facture of damaged material, which, when finished, may be useless 
for the purposes needed. 
Where the warbles have been left unattended to until the maggot 
drops out, the kind of false skin which has formed on the surface 
of the warble hole will remain (more or less) for a long time as a 
kind of “plug,” preventing perfect healing, and very injurious to 
soundness of the leather, and, later on (even when only scars 
remain), to its serviceableness, where large perfectly smooth 
surfaces are required. A warbled hide bears marks of the injury 
of the present year , and also more or less of the last and preceding 
years also. Messrs. Ramsey’s approximate estimate of damage 
from the above cause gives about double the original loss on the 
injured hides, as the amount thus wasted to the community. 
Further (looking at the point under consideration of amount 
of warbled hides and loss thereby throughout the country), it is to 
be remembered that, although the bulk of the English hides are 
distributed from the hide markets to the tanneries, there is still no 
small amount received directly by tanners from local farmers or 
butchers. 
On my application to Messrs. H. & C. Hatton, of the Barton 
Tannery, Hereford, as to their estimate of the loss suffered by 
themselves from warble injury, they drew my attention to this 
point and added :— 
“ We venture to think it would be sufficient to state that one- 
half of the hides taken in by tanners direct from the butchers are 
warbled, and show an average loss of 5s. to 6s. each ; this would, 
of course, show a rough estimate of some thousands of pounds in 
