The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-11-19
THE PLANT CANAIGRE,
Its Culture Will Be More Profitable
 Than Cotton.


 Southern Agricuturist.
 The demands for Hemlock and Chest nut oak bark and Sumach leaves for manufacturing tannic acid for making leather have largely exhausted the sup ply, and incheased their value to such point that the lanyard owners are con- fused to know how they are to get tam ming to continue their business. Two years ago editorials appeared in The Southern Agriculturist advising the farmer sof South Alabama to go into the culture Ca-na-igre plant, which contains more tannic acid than any of the barks of trees that are now in use. Ca-na-igre belongs to the dock family, and grows wild in Arizona, Texas and New Mexico, and plants can be procured from either of these States to make beginning, and after the first year enough roots can be saved to furnish seed for the next year. This plant delghtsi to grow in sandy, dry soils. such as will be found on the gulf coast.
 The Experiment Station at Tuscon, Arizona, has cultivated the Canaigre plant, dried it, pulverized and had the liquid analysed, which showed that 1t contained "A per cent of tannin acid, while Hemlock bark has but 10 per cent of tannin. It should be planted this fall and it will bloom next spring. Where loose, sandy soils selected for planting, it should be broken thoroughly, single roots of plants are dropped in rows nearly three feet apart and eight inches apart in the rows, and five in- ches deep. When the young leaves be- gin coming up they look like a field of beets or sweet potato vines. In fact, the roots of the Canaigre plants have general external appearance of the sweet potato even to the time of digging, and they are produced in hills of from three to dozen. varying in size and quality. The weight of each tuber is from 2 to IS ounces. and when a hill Is first pulled up a stranger might declare that 1t was a hill of wild sweet potatoes.
 An acre carefully cultivated will yield fifteen to twenty tons of green roots. which when dried for shipment will shrink to five to eight tons. The value of canaigre root properly dried varies somewhat in the United States and in Europe. In the rough, dried state canai- gre roots sell at $25 per ton, but the price in Europe is about $50, and the supply has not been equal to the demand. This is due partly to the fact that only re- gently the value of the plant has been demonstrated and the industry Is only getting started. The tannic acid from (.lnaigre is superior to that obtained from any barks or leaves, and it Is espe- cially adapted to tanning uppers, fine SauuleFy anu IdHCy ledtneTS. <aCCoIuiHS to the preesnt demand for dried canaigre roots are $150 per acre. The cost of planting and cultivating a crop of canal gre is about the same as that of a sweet potato crop, which make the profits quite large.
 We hope some enterprising farmers in South Alabama will send to Professor J. Thornber, botanist Tuscon, Arizona, for a thousand plants and give them a fair test. It is our opinion that the culture of the canaigre plant can be made many times more profitable in Alabama than the sugar beet is in Illinois. The shoe factory at Nashville will buy thousands of hides tanned with this superior tannic acid