Connecticut western news., 1880-06-02
WHAT WE WEAR.
The Stuff Our Boots, Shoes, Etc., are
 Made of, and Where it Comes From.

The Stuff Our Boots, Shoes, Etc., are
 Made of, and Where it Comes From.
 Three million head of cattle are now feeding on the plains of Texas, Mexico, and Guatemala, the pampas of South America, and along the rivers of the East Indies, whose hides, within two years, will be distributed in every town ship in the United States in the shape of shoe leather. Last year 2, 700, 442 hides were imported in New York and Boston. Thus far this year the receipts are 1,7O0, ,415 skins. Fully half the num- Der of cattle represented by these hides were slain for their hoofs, horns, bones, and belts. The hoofs and horns and bones were used in making buttons, combs, and clarifying sugar; the sinews and trimmings in glue manufactures and the belts for making leather. Over third of last years importation came from the district west of the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries. Such hides are accounted the best in the market. The grass and climate of the pampas give them 8 fine texture and an abun- dance of gelatine. Experts say that the Buenos Ayres is the best hide that grows, but that it is usually badly cut in skin ming. It brings about twenty-four cents pound in market. An excessive i'm portation of La Plata hides this year is due to famine on the pampas. Herds of cattle have died from starvation, and their belts are shipped in great quan- titles.
 Africa sends us hides from Sierra Leone, Senegambia, Morocco, Zanzibar, and Madagascar. They are very light. Many of them are the skins of the small soft haired animals seen in the travelling menageries, and known as sacred cattle. Madagascars and Moroccos make fine inner soles, and the others are all turned into upper leather. India floods the New York market with belts known as buffaloes. They are small, and bear no resemblance to the hides of the American bison. Ninety per cent. of these hides find market here, and ten per cent goes to England and Italy. The best quality are the Patnas, grown near Luck now. They are the skins of sacred ami malls, and are used mainly for uppers. The Cawnpores, grown near Delhi and Agra, are much pooper. East India coast hides are badly sur rburnt, and are almost worthless. Most of these hides are shipped from Calcutta About l. 100000 have been tanned in this country within two years. The importation this year is enormous over 5000 up to the first of May.
 Most of the hides imported to the United States are tanned with lye leached from ground hemlock bark Hemlock forests are owned by shrewd business men, who bought them years ago, fore seeing their value. The largest hemlock tanning in the world is now done between Sterling Run and Warren, Pa:, along the line of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad. The district includes thirteen tanneries in Cameron, Elk, McKean, Forest, and Warren counties. Large tracts of land in these counties are cov- cred with dense growth of hemlocks. Little clearings are made in the wilder ness, 8 tannery is erected on some splen- | did trout stream, and an unpainted | village springs up within few months. ! The thirteen tanneries have facilities for ] tanning 775,O0O hides year. This would produce 1,550,OO0 sides of sole leather, averaging seventeen pounds to the side. and aggregating 26,350,0 ,0OO pounds of leather year. At fair 1 average, the hides weigh twenty-one pounds apiece; so that the 775, GOO go to the tanners with an aggregate of 16,- 275, ,O00 pounds, and emerge in the shape of sole leather weighing 26,35O, 900 pounds. This gain of 10, O75, 900 pounds is made in the face of feshing, hair scraping, and trimming. It is made by l the absorption of the tannin leached from ground hemlock bark These tanneries almost exclusively use South American dry hides, worth, on an average, twenty three cents a pound. The 775, 900 hides, therefore, cost $5,742,250. The leather averages twenty-five cents pound, and the hides that cost $3,742,25O turn out leather that sells for $6, 5s7, 500, the gain in value being $2,845, ,25O. All this, however, is not net profit. It requires the labor of nearly 1, 800 men at an aver age of $125 day for 312 days year and the value of 155, GOO cords or $40, . 000,0 pounds of hemlock bark, worth from $4 to $4.50 cord delivered. The aggregate of the cost of labor is $585, GOO, and that of the cost of the bark $658, 75O, a total of $1, ,243, ,75O. This leaves for the tanners $1 591, 800, out of which comes taxes, cost of acids, wear and tear of machinery, fuel, lights, insurance, and other incidental expenses, leaving fair profit at the bottom. The bark runs 2,2OO pounds to the cord, and a cord will tan about ten sides of leather.