The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-07
A NEW SOURCE OF TANNIN.

For many years workers ana dealers III leather and leather goods have geen view ing with apprehension the gradual d'sap- pearance of tannin. the acid or substance with which the raw hides of animals are tanned and rendered fit for use. As is well known. oak and hcmiock are the principal trees whose bark is used for tanning leather in this country. The different species and varieties of oak fur nish varying quantities and qualities of tannin, but the oaks and the hemlocks are the principal sources of supply.
 But the supply of oak and hemlock is fast disappearing. In days gone by, when timber lands ahounded in every part of the continent the most wasteful methods magnable were employed. As soon as the bark would peel in the spring the cases they would begin at or near the ground and strip of the bark as high as they could reach or work and then leave the tree to die and the remainder of it's hark to be wasted. Others would cut the trees down, peel off all the bark they could and that was the end. Tn either case there was one tree less to supply tannin for future use
 The inevitable and unavoidable result of such wasteful methods is that the sup ply of tanning material is growing short. True. there Is much to be had in other countries, and 1t is also true that other trees than oak and hemlock. as well as nf rIa nj nfain tn h,1k that only delays the time when other sources must he looked to or other meth ods be resorted tu to prepare raw hides for use. It was only natural that great CT expense of tanning leather would add to the cost of the finished product. and thus various causes worked together in the demand for new source of supply of the tannic properties of certain trees And just to flI the demand comes the announcement of n new source from which to obtain this necessity ot tho tan ner. From The Saturday Evening Post We take this extract:
 Agricultural experts predict that one of the great future industries ;n many parts of America will be the cultivation of canaIgre. a plant whose roots contain more than 30 per cent tannic acid, which is more than twice the quantity of tannIn contained in the bark ot oak and hem lock
 Canaigre can he grown with great sue cess on arid lands. The significant fact in the development of canaiEre is that 1t makes its growth In tho winter Long before the annual drought in the extreme arid regions sets in the roots of this nlant have matured. It is authnritatively nn- nounced that in States to which U is adapted canaigre farming will meet the most sanguine expecta tions of all who embark in the enterprise. crop may h4 counted upon absolutely every year. 4 yield under proper cultivation is said to be from ten to twenty tons of market able roots to the acre.
 It is not to be understood that canaigre is a newly discovered plant, or that its tannic properties have just been found out. It belongs to the dock, or rhubarb family, and has been long known in Tex as. where the properties of its root have been known and put to use. The import ance of 1t lies not in the fact that 1t has just been discovered, but in the fact that it yields such large returns and that the roots contain such large per cent of tannic acid. If, as stated in another por- tion of the article from which we have quoted. the plant thrives in portions of Texas. Arizona, California and other parts of the West 1t Is natural to sup pose that 1t can be successfully cultivated in other places in the South and that it will thus supply a demand for an indis- pensable article and prove another source of profit to our farmers. We think 1t would be well worth trying in Alabama. 
 The esteemed Raleigh (N. C.) Post tells us that the scuppersong Ifs both indi- genous and peculiar to North Carolina soil and will not flourish elsewhere"