The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-11-12
oFFAL LEATHER.

! salable now. They are aDOuE Sne On1y
mo+oriaI that can be conscientiously
usad IN cheaper shoes. Oak bellies
and shoulders make oak soles and sell
at something like half the price of
hacks Shoe manufacturers have not
heen free purchasers of these articles
until recently.
The rise in prices has impelled them
to turn everything to account which
will serve their purpose. Experiments
have dem onstrated that much leather
which had hitherto been cut into the
lower grades can be made available
for the higher. The ofal, if it is rolled
by hand, will make good soles and in.
soles. A manufacturer who recently
bought a car load of oak bellies, said 4:
Zone year ago I would not have looked
at the stuff. Now l cannot make nv
lowest grade shoes without it," Be-
fore the civil war tanners could onlv
get rid of this waste by burning it or
letting it rot in piles with chemicals
and converting it to fertilizing pur-
poses. In 1866 millions of old army
accoutrements were sold at govern
ment auctions. They were all made
from oak leather.
Bayonet and sword sheaths, a r
fridge boxes and other equipments
came back to the dealers in leather,
some OF them to the very men of whom
they were bought. They were ripped
apart, rolled, renovated and prepared
for soles. There was not any too much
leather for a few years after the war
and this eked out the supply. Then a
new class of traders sprung up who
dealt exclusively in pieces of leather.
The traffic is mainly confined to Bos
ton and New York, where there are
about twenty firms regularly engaged
in buying and selling. Within a few
years several Western tanners have
made a compact to turn in their waste
and Ofal in a common lot. 1t is worked
into shoe material. They have found
profit in it and are realizing handsome
dividends. The regular dealers in
offal buy from tanners, belt makers,
book, carriage, harness and bicycle
seat manufacturers. They sell to those
who process and manipulate it till
ready for USE by shoe manufacturers.
The growth of this business is shown
by the census returns. In 1870 there
was no mention of it. In the course
of the two ensuing decades it attained
the following proportions:
1880. 1890.
Establishments, 172 344
Hands employed, 1855 5,5O3
Value of material, s., 939, 249$13, ia. 655
Value of product, 1881, 635 II 1908. 846
The increase was at the rate of nearly
a million dollars a year. OF these there
were in Massachusetts:
Establishments, 1853 2S8
Hands employed, 1861 1914
Valueo of material, S., 861, OS9 $12 388. $50
Value of product, 1897, 734 Is, 1928, ESQ
The sales from first hands are very
close to cash. The pressure to buy is so
great that money on delivery is gen
orally expected. The dealers assert
the material and sell it to cutters of
soles and insoles, heel and shank max
ers, and manufacturers of tips and
trimmers. They can pick their GUS
toners no 2. Most lots are disposed of
almost as o as they are prepared for
sale. There are more than 500 assort-
ments and grades of scrap leather.
The lowest is the narrowest skiving
and leather dust from heel edges, that
sells for one-eighth of a cent a pound
to chemists. They are used in making
prussic acid. Scraps from imported
patent leather bring the highest prices.
If wide enough for a ''cack vamp,"
81 or even $1.25 a pound is paid for
them. OF course, bellies and shoulders
rank as offal.
The advance in prices per pound in
less than six months is as follows:
January. June.
Secured butt shoulders. ...15 80