Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-06-08
1t Is Found Growing Wild In AL
most Every Part of New
Mexico,
DEFINING CANAIGRE FACTORY
Experiments Made at the New Mexico
Agricultural Station. -Oanaigre Fur
nishes aSuperior Tanning Extract
Its Growth.

er it is absolutely essential to have
great watts full of the acid, in which
hides soak until rid of much animal
matter and rendered pliable.
Through deforestization the former
great sources of supply of annie acid,
oak, hemlock, beach and sumach, have
been greatly diminished. Canaigre has
Deer declared by experts to be a better
fannie acid producer than hemlock
bark.
Francis F.. Lester, registrar OF the
New Mexico college of agriculture, thus
describes the plant and it's uses:
"Canaigre RumeX Hymenosepalus)
is a native plant found wild in the re-
gion known to botanists as the lower
sonora life zone. Is most at home in a
sandy soil, and in the lower plains and
river valleys. Its name is a corruption
of Spanish cana agria' (sour cane),
otherwise known as wild dock, wild
rhubarb, etc. It's roots are like those
being tuberous. They vary in size from
the fraction of an ounce to more than
2 pounds in weight, and grow in clus-
ters which increase in number n size
every year, growing darker and harder
as they grow older. A plant grown from
seed will produce a root from one to
four ounces in weight the first season,
and this root will produce from two to
a dozen other roots during the next sea-
son. The life of the plant is about five
or six years. Wild plants are found
yielding as many as eighty to 100 roots,
weighing s or 8 pounds. In cultivation
the plant has been satisfactorily prop
agated by cutting the tubers, or by de-
taching the shoots, in the same way
that the sweet potato is propagated."
The plant makes it's growth during
the winter season, between September
and May, blooming in March and April
and dying down in May. 1t will stand
a good deal of cold. one plant having
stood Is degrees below zero in New
York state.
Experiments show that the per cent
Of fannie acid in the roots run from 25
to over 80 per cent. The effect of culti-
walton appears more in increased size
and number of the cots than in in
creased percentage of fannie acid.
When shipped green the roots were
found to ferment on the way, but
shipped in a dried and sliced condition
they meet with a favorable reception.
BY drying and slicing a ton of canal
gre chips is produced from three tons
of green roots. In 1891 over 1000 car
loads We're shipped to European points.
| The prices ranged from $55 to SOS, de-
livered.
Experiments, for the purpose of OBJ
tanning a more concentrated form of
canaigre product, resulted in 1899 in
producing a satisfactory canaigre ex-
tract. and a factory was erected at
Deming to produce the extract. The |
product is a semi-solid extract, having |
a standard purity Of as per cent of tan
mic acid. One ton of this extract is OBJ
entire output of the factory was sold at |
prices averaging 5 cents a pound deliv-
cred.
S. P. Curtis, the juror of tanning ma
terials at the worlds fair, says: II am
of the opinion that %canaigre contains
a large quantity of fannie acid, with
less injurious substances than any 9TH
err known tanning material in use. |
Leather tanned with this material is
much stronger, more durable and flex-
ible, and is affected less by lea and
moisture than that tanned by any 9TH
er material. 1t reduces the time of tan
ming to at least one-half that required |
by other materials used in modern tan
ming, and it contains a filling property
not found in n other tanning mate
rial"
These favorable comments are prac-
tically repeated by experts in other
countries. With the rapid destruction
of the oak and hemlock, tanners will
have to look elsewhere for a tanning
product.
Twenty to forty years are required to
grow a fair-sized tree, while, in two
years, as much fannie acid as would
be contained in the tree may be pro-
duced from canaigre on a few yards Of
land. A ton of hemlock bark furnishes
about the same quantity Of tannin as
a ton of canaigre roots, but the former
costs more than twice as much as the
latter. Moreover, the cost of working
the hemlock bark into extract Is great
err than that of working the canaigre
chips.
Canaigre is a certain crop. 1t responds
readily to cultivation by an increased
yield. 1t is easily planted. About 900
pounds of young, LOUNGE roots, set at
intervals Of one foot in rows three feet
apart, is sufficient for one acre. 1t
is a winter crop, and is irrigated when
water is little used for other irrigation
purposes. The roots may be left in the
ground for an indefinite time before
harvesting.
The cost of growing an acre Of canal
gre Is not more han $16.5 @. The roots
will yield from IL to 20 tons per acre.
The crop may be irrigated four to six
times, the land being cultivated after
each irrigation in order to loosen up the
soil. Planting should be lone before
October /, and harvesting between June
and September.
Analysis shows that the waste prod
uct left after extraction Is as valuable
for fuel as mesquite wood. When we'll
it Is also valuable as a fertilizer.
It Is said that the available supply of 6
native roots e railroad shipping
points has been exhausted, and the in I
lustry must in future depend upon the d
cultivated product.
In this territory, where, as every res |
lent knows, the Wild tuber grows lux U