Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-08-16
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ELLSWORTH. Me-, August II. 1915

! ELLSWORTH Me-, August II, 1875.
| ToUc Editor Of the KfaneJcc Journal!
YOU | suppose, aware that of the great
manufacturing industries which most distinguish
the Northern States the manufacture Of leather
takes the foremost rank. 1t exceeds by many mil
lions of dollars the annual production of either
the IRON wooden, or cotton fabrics of these States
Our tanners, through their skill in the manufac-
ture, have opened the European markets for the
sale of their goods, against which they had been
| locked until within the last few years. Our eX-
port trade in the products Of our tanneries has
within the last three or four years, more than
quadrupled, and from present indications prom
Uses eventually to become the most extensive OF
our fabrics shipped abroad
OF this industry, Pennsylvania, New York. and
the New England States, hold, in about equal pro-
portions, the great monopoly in the manufacture.
1t is the most important of the industries which
have made Boston, and the towns in ITS enylrons,
the great manufacturing centre of the Eastern
States, and has made our own State one OF the
most conspicuous in the manufacture, not perhaps
so much from the extent we produce as from the
acknowledged excellency of the products of our
mammoth sole-leather tanneries
an industry which has contributed materially to
their wealth, and almost unequalled prosperity,
giving employment to so many Of our people in
its prosecution and tina: of its many departments
or collateral branches, depends upon the extent
abundance Of our tannin material, which proves
the most important auxiliary OF the manufacture.
Already the hemock forests of these States, which
form the main source of supply to the trade, show
signs of an carly and final depletion They have
become so far exhausted in our own State as to
barely meet the demand Of our local tanners. and
can no longer materially contribute to the sup
plies required by the rapidly augmentng trade in
Eastern Massachusetts, which hitherto has de-
rived the bulk of its tannin material from the
hemlock forests, which once covered SO large
part of our state, and which are soon to be
numbered-like the great p:nories of the State
with the things of the past
There is, however,, substitute for the hemlock,
product of our soil, unlimited in abundance, as
valuable for the manufacture Of leather as the
hemlock itself, ard which not having util-
lied, our people fail to appreciate. Ice value OF
this VIII be better understood by those who com
prchend the extent and Importance Of the annual
revenue the leather trade of Eastern Massachu-
sets has paid for the last fifty years to the people
of Maine for their hemlock tsnnin material, and
which to-day, in consequence of its increased
magnitude, demands hundred fold more in eS
tent to meet its wants,I alude to the sweet fern,
shrub which grows luNunously in almost every
part of the State, covering with dense growth
all our barrens and burnt forest lands, and pre-
dominates over all other vegetation on thousands
of acres Of rugged sterile pasture lands.
This shrub is rich in tannln properties valuable in
the manufacture of nearly all the varieties of
leather made In the tanning districts contiguous
to Bosten. 1t is equally valuable for all purposes
for which the sumach-the most costly of all our
tannin materials used, either tannin OF
coloring agent. 1t imparts TO calf skins, upper
leather, harness and belt leather, unusual weight,
tirmness and fexibility. 1t makes the strongest
and most elastic leather used for lacipg belts. and
for other purposes where trmness combined with
elasticity is desirable. With these properties ii
also imparts to stock color most desirable to
tanners.
The State of Maine grows more Of this shrub
than is produced in all the other northern States
combined, and may, therefore, monopolize the adj
vantages of utilizing it for the benefit of the
leather trade generally.
As another evidence OF its relative value, will
state for the benefit of the people to whom the
subject is new, that ton of sweet fern, gathered
when its tannn properties are fully mature,
(Which is early in the autumn,) properly cured,
will tan many pounds of leather as a cord of
hemlock bark will tan. While the cost of gather
ing and curing ton of fern will not exceed the
cost of pealing cord of bark. Like the sumac
plant it may be ground pulverized and shipped to
market in bags, or like the hemlock bark its tannn
properties may be extracted and concentrated into
an imperishable liquid extract, barrcled, and in
that form shipped to market.
The more al article of commerce can be con-
densed without injury to its properties, the great
the convenience of handling and the less the
cost of transportation, considerations not to be
overlooked where profit is the desideratum. I'm
like our forests. lands producing the sweet fern
grow new crop each succeeding year, while the
hemlock, once felled, is never reproduced.
With sea-board more extended than any of
the States; with navigable rivers and bays, reach
ing deep into the interior of the State; nearer to
the best leather manufacturing districts, along
and contiguous to tide water; her people enjoy adj
vantages in marketing their native tannin mate
rial, not to be had by those of other States, who
have the material with which to share in the trade
While they remember this, let them not forget
that tannin material, in all its varieties, is among
the most staple of the commodities we ship to
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