Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-08-15
A RIG INDUSTRY.


Cincinnati Enquirer
The trade In rabbit skins for hat
making liz now an enormous industry.
The skins are doubly valuable, the hair
being used for felt.makiDg and the potts
TO boil down into glue. The present
statistics OF the Industry IN Europe may
be figured from the fact that S0,000,000
OF skins are collected In France, $4,000
900 TO 80, 100000 In England, almost en-
tirely from the waTrens OF the sandhill
and woods; 100000 10 5000 900
In Belgium, almost wholly OF domestic
breed (as are nine out Of ten Of the
80 600, 900 Of French sllns); 100000 to
5000, 900 In Russia, Sweden aud Norway,
anu 100000 IN Northern Germany,
yearly, In Austria and Hungary there
are about 100000 collected, but re-
talned for home manufactures. Spain and
Portugal have skins Or Inferior quality,
which are kept for the hat factories OF
these countries France occupies the
chief place in the commerce OF rabbit
skins, not only In regard TO quantity, but
TO quality. There IL no rabbit compare
bic 90 the French rabbit, either to eat or
TO make hats OF. Both TO Belgium and
to England large quantities are ex-
ported,
The supremacy Of France did not exist
at the start In the rahbit-shln trade In
the early part of this century the Ger
mans and English took tho lead In the
preparation OF skins France was op-
pressed, and was unable TO take adyan.
tage of this new industry TIL islI From
that date we reckon the rise Of
trade which has attained to
gigantic dimensions, Paris, which
is the center OF the preparation
OF the material, dispatched agents in
every direction TO employ brokers, chif-
ioniers and other collectors OF skins Of
rabbits aud hares, which had before been
seldom pre- erved for any use, The most
energetic aud successful pulyeyors In
this industry were the Auvergf ais, who
still remain the chief agents IN the coli
lection Ia lsl7 the couperles de potts
I worked up 2 800. 900 OF skins; tho estab-
llshments In the provinces consumed
about an equal quantity
| At iirst the manufacturer collected and
stored rabbit skins and transformed them
Into hats with very rude machinery. II
Is only recently, by the distribution of
labor, always advantageous, that the
preparation OF the stun has been sepa-
rated from the manufacture OF hats, and
/ AuN VI VIZ 10 OlkNhtNcN
AS distinct industry. In England there
are now some twenty drums engaged
In preparing and cutting the skins,
tlG largest OF which hrms are III
Southwark, and others IN Manchester and
Leeds. The Industry altogether Is very
Interesting one In many respects, and II
represents living to large numbers OF
people, including the collection ti skins
Ia the towns aud villages throughout IN,
country, and the hundreds OF women anC
girls occupied in 'pullingn and In cthel
4 operations preparatory to the feltiuIJ
when the hat manufacturer enters upoI
the mysteries of his special trade.
The value OF the rabblt-skin trade II
England alone last year was over 81 1000,
600. There are no statistics at hand o
the trade In this country, but II Is yer,
Important. and there are oven place
where rabbits are bred In order TO pro
vide skins for the market This ~, how
ever, perilous experiment, as the OK
perlnoe Of Australia and New Iealan
: with their rabbit plaques viii demon
strate,