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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 1918)
Mr BRir L EAT pcns of despond m I -y elly. j J ' '" '' ' t- -AXvwA . - i nrrr in i ns XCopyrlght, 1918, by Frank G. Carpels- J ter.) I T OSTON, Mass. I hare figured out - the cattle needed to furnish the ' shoes already supplied to the Army. They are so many that if you could bridge the ocean by a roadway 40 feet wide all the -way from Boston to France the animals would fill the bridge and reach on to the trenches. In this Instance the cattle could be driven nose to tail 20 abreast and each score allowed 10 or 12 feet of the length of the roadway. By the Government specifications we can get only five pairs of shoes out of each hide, and the number of pairs so far made is in the neighborhood of 30,000,000. ;' In addition to this is the great amount of leather needed for saddles and leggings. This means the con sumption of millions of cattle, and also multitudinous pigs, for the best leather for saddles and leggings comes from the hog. And then there are the gloves which the soldiers use. They are made of horse hides and colt skins. There are also the Jerkins or vests which the airmen, the Navy, and even the boys in the trenches"must have to Keep out the cold. The jerkins are made of sheepskin with the wool on. They are the warmest of the garments possessed by the soldiers. Furthermore, - we must have vast quantities of leather of one kind and another for the harness of the cavalry and straps for the artillery and Army equipment. A great deal is used in automobiles, motor trucks and in the machinery that goes to the battlefield. In fact, the war now demands every class of good leather for one purpose or another; and It comes from the ox, cow and calf, the horse ani colt, the sheep and the lamb, the goat and the kid, as well as from the water buffalo. and the hog, and even the seal, alliga tor and kangaroo. In addition to these Items are the many varieties of leather used in the Industries making munitions and sup plies and all sorts of goods for the Army and Navy so thatskins of every description have a part in the war. All of this leather has to be made in the American tanneries. We have hundreds of them and they handle each year the skins from which almost $1,000,000,000 worth of leather products are made. They tan something like 10,0000,000 hides to produce the heavy leathers, and about 100,000,000 other akins from which the lighter leathers f- are made. About one-fourth of this leather comes from animals killed at home and the most of it from the meat packing houses which are today the chief source of domestic supply. The number of cattle so killed would fill a bridge twice as long as the one above mentioned, and in addition we get the skins of more than 6,000.000 calves, 14.000,000 sheep, about 300.000 goats and more than 100.000 horses and colts. All these taken together make a total of about 34,000,000 animals, whereas the number of hides and skins which go through the tanneries are four or five times as great. The balance is im ported and we pay-for it in the neigh borhood of $160,000,000 a year. At least that Is what we paid for the amount we imported in 1916, the year before we entered the war. During that year we brought in from abroad the hides of 7,000,000 cattle and those of 4,000,000 calves. .The goat skins im ported numbered 62,000,000, and the hides of horses and colts represented an equine population of 600,000. The sheepskins from abroad weighed more than 100.000,000 pounds, and we .had more than 1.000,000 pounds of raw skin from kangaroos. This raw mate rial came from all the countries of the world excepting those with which we are at war and those which no ship can now reach. About one-fifth of the hides were from Argentina and Uru guay. The sheepskins came from Great Britain, China and India and a large number of them were from the flocks of South Africa and New Zealand. The kangaroos came from Australia, for the kangaroo Is found nowhere else on the globe. The horse and colt skins were chiefly from South America and Brit ish ports. The raw materials of the leather In dustry come mostly from the 21 coun tries at war with Germany. The only question of getting the material Is chips. There are large supplies of hides In South America. We have to have ships to get them to the United States. There are large supplies in China, and the same is true of Africa and Australia. They have to be sent over thousands of miles of water to our ports. At present the United States and Great Britain have pooled their inter ests In the buying of hides. They are competed' with by Germany, which Is buying raw materials needed for war fare In all the countries of the world This is notwithstanding they have no means of getting them to Germany. It buys them to keep them out of the hands of its enemies. It may have .to cell the hides later, for they will not keep Indefinitely, and, if so, it will be at a niga price. Just now the buying of this vast product intended for leather is more or less directly in the hands of the Government. Uncle Sam Is the chief customer for all kinds of raw ma terlals, and you might think It would be easy for the men furnishing our leather to get a big rake - off from every Government order. It Is not. The War Department has a board hide and leather control, and Its dollar i vmLr IiPn TKTTM T s4rj7ry &nd'Mavym Jy?- a. c cnji" rem a - year employes include the. leading hide and leather men of the country. In Washington Is also an organisation known as the tanners' council, which came together as soon as we entered the war to co-operate with the war industries board and the War Depart ment in the purchase of skins both at home and abroad and in all importa tions of leather from other parts of the world. This council represents many branches of the leather Indus try. It has no capital etock, and it pays no dividends. It is not a bxrying or selling organization, and its only object is to furnish the Government with Information aa to the- supply of leather materials both at home and abroad, and to aid it in placing con tracts which will eliminate exorbitant profits and most efficiently mobilize the leather Industry for the work of the war. The council costs the Gov ernment nothing, and it is maintained at the expense of the tanners. It is one of many patriotic Institutions of the kind which have come to the sup port of the country In this time of need. All of the Government orders for leather are fixed upon the advice and Information of associations like this, and every attempt is made to get the best material at the lowest possible Tn A . n ahftW Vftfl h O W CAre- fullv the Government works, I wilF cite some of the specifications for the leathers required for the shoes of the soldiers. Take the new Pershing boot, of which we are now making a million and a half pairs every month. The requirements for the sole leather- de mand that it be made of good, sound, dry or green-salted fine-haired hides. It must be firm, eoua ana wen ronea. It must be properly tanned? filled with good vegetable tanning, and when fin ished, it must be acceptable to the Government. The specifications state Just from what part of the animal each kind of leather must come. This leather comes from the bend, a little section of the back and side of the beast so small that only five pairs of shoes . There Is no excuse for mlte-lnfest-d poultry houses or lousy chickens, when a few hours' work with white wash. Insecticide and dusting powder will kill these parasites and Improve conditions generally. Following are some valuable suggestions for this work. BT FRANK C. HARB. Poultry Husbandman, Clemsoa College, B. C NOTHING detracts so much from the appearance of a poultry house bs dark, filthy walls covered with cobwebs and dust. The place is unl- vlting to ourselves, and to the fowls that make It their home. Since much of the grain fed poultry Is scattered in the litter on the floor of the poultry house, we have another reason why the inside of the house should be bright and sanitary. The fowls will waste grain thrown in the litter of a dark house. A coat of whitewash on the walls will quickly change this dark house into an attractive home for the inmates. But. before the whitewash Is applied. let us first catch all the fowls and con fine them in coops, boxes or barrels. where we can quickly handle them later. Then clean up the drop board, re move the litter, dig up the floor and level lt again and take out all fix tures that are movable. Sweep down the walls. If there are many crevices and cracks between the boards near the roosting quarters, I would recom mend covering this portion with good heavy building paper. I prefer an un sized paper to roofing paper, because the latter cannot be satisfactorily whitewashed. Aa Excellent Whitewash. I have tried many different ways of mixing whitewash, and have found the following scheme the most satisfac tory: Slake two pecks of lime with boiling water, adding the hot water slowly and stirring constantly until a thin paste results. Then work into the lime paste a gallon of salt until the mixture is smooth. Now add water to bring the salted paste to the desired consistency. Just before applying the wash, add a handful of Portland ce ment and a teaspoonful of bluing to each pail of the wash. Mix well. The cement makes the wash stick to wood, stone, brick or concrete, and not rub off, while the blueing counteracts the gray color and the result Is a snow- white wash. This whitewash is excellent for either indoor or outdoor use. It sticks on, wears well, and lt can be applied either by a sprayer or brush. Some years ago I tried mixing a little crude carbolic acid with the wash to Increase its lnsectidal qualities. The acid made yellow streaks on the Wall, and, while better results might be obtained by adding a small percentage of some coal-tar or other Insecticide. I can see no object in doing this. . The little, bloodthirsty red mite is r l THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, JULY 21, 19 IS. THE aequiredjToi' can be out from each hide. Ton may have heard of sides of leather. The larger skins are cut along the back into two halves or aides, and each side is divided into the shoulder, the bend and the back. The bend is the best portion of the back behind the shoul der. It makes the firmest and best leather of the entire skin, and is de voted chiefly to the higher grades of shoes. The bend for the Pershing shoe must be not more than fifty-two Inches long from the root of the tall and not more than twenty-eight inches wide. The wording is such that there can be no -question is to the character of ma terial. It is the same with the orders for trench shoes which have already been issued. The specifications for them are so many that they would fill about three columns of this news paper. They relate to. the kinds of leather used for the uppers, for the outer aoles, middle soles and inner sores. They specify the leather for every part of the shoe, including the heels, "which are to be from oak, union or hemlock sole leather of good quality, free from holes' or blemishes which will affect the wear." They specify how the leather Is to be cut, and give an Infinite detail of technical requirements which would not be un derstood by the man outside the tan nery and the factory. This letter is to give rou some idea of the leather Industry which is now so important in this time of war. Leather has always been valuable in warfare. - Away back in the stone age bowstrings were made of skin, and all the armies of the distant past had leather shields. It was with a sling made of" leather that the great Goliath was slain by the boy shepherd David; and, long before that, man had learned how to cure all sorts of skins. We know they made shoes at the time of the Pyramids, and that the Egyptians tanned leather long before the Israel ites cams to toll on the banks of the Nile. In China specimens of leather have been discovered in company with the only parasite that lives In the poul- try house. He makes his home in a crevice in the roost, in the space be tween the end of the roost and the roost support, and in the nest and nesting material. Whitewash does not kill this parasite. The most popular liquid used against him is common kerosene Or coal oil. All through the South you can see colored women with rag and kerosene washing the i costs and adjoining places where red mites reside. The kerosene can be greatly 8IWGLE-COMB THB3 egg machines the Leghorns are always In demand, not only with those who measure the worth of s flock of fowls by the number of eggs produced, but also with the fan cier. They are bred in several colors, but the white is the most popular. This is due, perhaps, because it is easier to breed white fowls than, colored ones. To the fancier, however, the single comb Buff Leghorn makes a strong appeal. It Is possessed of all the heavy laying proclivities of Its white cousin. The eggs are fertile, hatch well and the chicks are comparatively easy to rear. Like the whites, the buffs make good squab broilers at eight weeks of age. Breeding to good shape and the cor rect shade of buff at the same time IS the most difficult feature of the breed. It has been said that the popularity of the buf f variety is the most lasting, ex ' IPiill (i I J wi-W J - r- -' ' ' K -.. - xi." r:-' ,':V . ';--C' f o o- o- other relics that prove them to he over three thousand years old, and we know trl. .It 7" Li . .-Vi.- I , , , . i , . . , , . ,. with oil, almonds and bark. The first w men who came to America found the Indian wearing skins cured with buf- idiu uuiik oil KUU mtLy , auu u buuii u our forefathers settled here they be gan to build tanneries and make leather for sale. Three years after the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock, Experience Mitchell and Francis In galls came from that place to Lynn and Brldgewater and put up tanning establishments. .Experience Mitchell called his tannery "Joppa" in memory of the port of Palestine, where Peter stayed over night at the house of Simon the tanner, and after what was prob ably a meatless day had his wonderful vision. You will find all about lt in Acts x:S-16. Shortly after the establishment of these first tanneries Roxbury, now a part of Boston, became a tanning cen ter, and other tanneries were estab lished throughout New England until now there are hundreds of them, and the tanneries, shoe factories and oth er leather-making plants of one kind or another employ more than 1 00,000 workmen and produce something like $400,000,000 worth of leather goods per annum. Tanneries were estab lished in the colony of Virginia al most as soon as in that of Massachu setts, and as the country grew they spread throughout the United States. They are now everywhere and the establishments making leather goods of one kind or another are in the improved by adding half crude carbolic acid or cresol to each gallon of oil. This mixture will kill every red mite and their eggs. A less expensive mixture that will exterminate mites is a 5 per cent solu ttlon of cresol. or any of the commer cial liquid lice killers, in water. Buy a quart or larger can from your drug gist or seed house, and also a hand sprayer. The latter costs from 60 cents to $1, and Is excellent for spraying. Some time since I bought a four-gallon BUFF LEGftOBJSS. cept the white, - which recommends itself to the purely commercial farm era Buff Leghorns were originated in England. Mrs. Lister Kay was most active in their production, and, gener ally speaking, the fowls are the result of a cross between White Leghorns and Buff Cochins. Mrs. Kay claims that certain -yellow fowls from Denmark also entered into their origin. Early in the '90s Buff Leghorns were introduced into the United States, and for several years they enjoyed an extensive "boom." Without a doubt the buffs have all the merits attributed to the White Leg horn and lay as large an egg and as many of them. In addition to Its util ity, lt has the added Interest of hand some ooloring. This coloring, too, makes lt better suited to the backyard flock, since buff does not show dirt so easily as white plumage. neighborhood of 7000. The value - of the annual product is more man $1,000,000,000 and the capital invested In the industry Is perhaps $800,000,000. The business has been widely diversi fied and it is carried on through a long series of complicated machinery, each branch embracing a vast number of inventions and new processes of one kind, or- another. Every army has Us own footgear. I have before me photographs of that worn by the armies of Europe now in the collection of the United Shoe Ma chinery Company of Boston. The shoes and boots weigh from three to five pounds a pair and they take an enormou quantity . .of leather. The r. ,.w, . . t ., , new Pershing shoe weighs about nve boundll pcr palr. In another ietter I J,, deCPtb,e ,t and now how lt made. The hides and skins we use in our shoes for the soldiers are largely Imported. Many of them land at New York, although a large number are shipped to Boston and some to San Francisco, New Orleans and Chicago. They go from the porta to the tan neries, where they are cured and made into leathers of o"he kind or another. The methods of tanning have great ly changed within recent years. The tanneries of colonial days were much like a small country grist mill. The tanning mixture was oak and hemlock bark cut from the trees of the forest nearby, and ground In a little iron mill moved by a horse or mule. The hides were soaked in water to soften them, snd after thst the hair and bits of fat were scrsped oft. They were then tanned by putting them In pita with layers of ground bark between them After that water was let In, and the tanning material eoaked from the bark mixed with the water went Into the hide, giving lt the preservative quality which makes the difference between raw skin and leather. In such tanning the hides were often allowed to soak for months. When tanned they were taken out, dried and finished as the needs of the msrket required. The tanneries of today do most of their knapsack sprayer with an extra white wash noizle and use it for spraying the cresol mixture and for whitewashing, I would not be without It, and while the cost is greater than the small hand sprayer, lt Is much more convenient and satisfactory. One pumping of air Into the tank will give a good spray for 16 minutes. If you have some one to help you and can carry on the whitewashing and the mite eradication at the same time, then I would advise confining the fowls that occupy the house to coops, boxes or barrels until this work Is over. If the whitewashing and spraying Is thor oughly done, there will be no parasites In the house. The Best Loose Killer. Until a few months ago I did not think It possible to completely wipe out all the lice and lice eggs on fowls with one application of any insecticide. This has been possible with mites, but not with the body lice of poultry. But I am now pleased to state that F. C Bishonp. of the United States Bureau of Entomology, has recently discov ered a louse killer that will eradicate and kill all lice at once. The substance used la sodium fluor ide, a fine, white powder, which has been successfully used In ridding build ings of cockroaches. Mr. Blshopp has given his experience with sodium fluoride, together with drawings and descriptive matter pertaining to the many species of lice and mites found on poultry. In Farmers' Bulletin 801 (Mites nd Lice on Poultry), which Is mailed free on request to the division of publications. Department of Agri culture. Washington, D. C. We cannot recommend this bulletin too highly. Bodlum fluoride Is not ordinarily kept In stock by a druggist, but he can ob tain it for you from his wholesale, house. One pound Is sufficient for from SO to 100 fowls, depending on their size and abundance of feathering. The cost averages from 40 to 60 cents. It would be well to order a can of fluoride In ad vance. so as to have It on hand when the housecleanlng Is commenced. The treatment of the fowls Is quite simple. The powder Is usually applied dry. but a solution of fluoride In water (one ounce- to one gallon) makes a good house dip. The best way to apply the powder IS by the pinch method. A small pinch of the material Is placed among the feathers next to the skin as follows! One pinch on the head, one on the neck, two on the back, one on the breast, one below the vent, one on the tail, one on either thigh and scat tered on the underside of each wing when spread. Catch the fowls that were confined In the ooops and boxes while cleaning the house, and hold each over a shallow pan during the dusting, so that any surplus powder will not be wasted, Treat every fowl and growing chicken at the one time, and this one application will kill every mature louse. While some of the louse eggs might hatch the young will be quickly poisoned. doubted this at first, but I treated some heavily feathered Buff Cochins with the dry fluoride (a difficult breed to keep free of body lice), and one appli cation killed every louse. . re of Bine Ointment. Before I learned about sodium fluor Ida I kept fowls free of lice by treating them with a poisonous ointment and Insect powder. The ointment, known as 33 per cent blue ointment, is used work the same way, but everything is on a large scale, and modern machinery Is used. There are special machines for almost every process and for every variety of tanning. There are machines for manipulating the hide and for tak ing aft the hair. A leather splitting machine was Invented when Thomas Jefferson was President, and now we have splitting machines thst can be adjusted to the thousandths of an inch. By means of a belt as lt whirls around the thin steel knife sharpens Itself on an emery wheel. It will split a Mde into sheets as thin as paper if re quired. There are also measuring and cutting machines, which relieve the tanners of mathematical computation. Machines for stoning, polishing and finishing leather were produced as early as the time of the Mexican war, and patent leathers and pebbled leath ers were first made shortly before the Civil war. The materials for tanning have changed, and certain new kinds of vegetable extracts are used which do the work more quickly than the bark of the oak or th hemlock. There Is an aoorn from Turkey and Greece which has three times as much tan nin In lt as the strongest oak bark and there are pods, of certain South American trees which are largely used to make leather. Many other tanning materials come to the factories in the form of extracts which can be readily and cheaply mixed with water, and there are also pastes and solid extracts which can be dissolved by heat and used for tanning. Sumach is also largely employed. It is found through out the Southern states and also In Italy. Gambler Is also a tanning shrub which comes from the Malay archipelago. The extract is made by boiling the shrub, and It is sent to the market in blocks and tubes. Quebracho is another tanning material which is sold as an extract containing from 60 to 70 per cent of tannin. This comes from a tree that grows in the wilds of Paraguay. I have seen men cutting the forests for that purpose and shipping the wood to market. One cutch comes from the mangrove tree of the swamps very sparingly a small dab being rubbed on the flesh below the vent, and another under each wing, space not larger than a dime la covered, for the reason that this ointment is a mer curial product, and Is readily absorbed into the system. This ointment poisons the body lice, but lt does not reach the head lice. The head lice, which rarely migrate to other parts of the body, are exterminated by rubbing into the feathers of the head and neck some yellow Pyrethrum insect powder, or any commercial louse powder. One ap plication will kill the mature lice, but It has no effect on the young lice that are hatched later. The powder, there fore, should be renewed every 10 days for two or three times. Special atten tion should be given to the dusting of the head and neck of sitting hens. Unless the mother la. free of head lice the youngsters will be covered with these pests as soon as they are a few days old. The blue ointment must be confined to mature fowls, and an application every six weeks to two months will keep the body lice under control. Growing chicks had best be dusted with sodium fluoride. Other safe head lice remedies for chicks are cooking oil (olive or cottonseed oil) and pure vaseline. Rub the oil or vaseline around the head and neck. Do not use the blue ointment on the head of a chick, even if It is diluted with grease or vaseline. Don't use any grease con taining mercury. Treat every chick or fowl you pur chase and kill the lice on It. Don't let one lousy hen infest the whole flock. The returns will repay you many times for the labor and expense of the white washing, spraying and dusting. JOHN BULL SAVING PAPER Official Comma nlques Now Posted Outside Press Bureau. LONDON. July 1. The prevailing paper shortage and the coming restric tions on sales of newspapers except to those who have placed orders with news agents, have Induced the authori ties to post the British and French of fiolal communiques outside the Press Bu reau in Whitehall. An interested crowd yesterday watched the first typewritten copy of the British Official being put into its frame and lt took some time for them all to read It. The same interest was displayed when the French Official was posted, but as this was in the French language, Interest evaporated after a cursory glance from the majority of onlookers. IRISH STILL TURBULENT Rival nalds and Secret Drilling Re ported la Countryside. DUBLIN. July 1. The unsettled state of the country districts in many parts of Ireland is reflected In the minor news which reaches Dublin. There are occasional rival raids for arms by the police and the Sinn Fetnera, frequent reports of Illegal drilling, ocoastonal stories of disturbances In which poll tics evidently play a considerable part. of Borneo, and there is another catch which Is obtained from the acacia tree of East India. In fact, we now get our tanning ma terials from all parts of the world acd the different varieties are used In one way or another for making the dif ferent leathers. We also do a great deal of chemical fanning, although this Is chiefly em ployed for small skins and lip! t leathers. At present two-thirds of the glased kid la tanned by the chroire process. This consists of treating the skins with bichromate of potash to which some hydrochloric! acid Is added. By this method skins may be tanned within a few hours and the leathtr produced Is extremely soft and pliable and of a close texture. The process was first used largely at Phlladelphl i and lt has aided In making that city one of the chief leather manufacturing centers of the world. Another process of curing leather which is lnrgely used for certain va rieties of skins is tawing. This means treating them after removing the hair to baths of bran and water, and after that to one of alum and salt, and then covering them with a paste made of flour and the yolks of eggs mixed with water. The egjrs go Into the leather and cure it. The hide la then dried. and afterward worked and pulled back and forth to stretch ani soften lt. It is finally smoothed with a hot iron. Some glove leather is made In this way. The demands of the wsr call for more or less leather which has been treated after the chamois process. lit this the skins are thoroughly cleansed with lime, drenched with bran, and while etill wet are oiled with fish, seal or whale oil. The oil works into the skin, driving out the water, and lt becomes a part of the materia), making lt soft and spongy. Wash leather Is prepared in this way and for this the flesh halves of sheepsklna are used. , The most of the chamois is macre from the skins of deer, elk, buck, goat, sheep and calf, the first three being the best. In County Kerry, one of the hot-beds of the Sinn Fein, the chairman of the County Council has been sentenced to a year's imprisonment for failing to report a raid for arms on his own premises, and the County Council has now decided to ask the Mansion House Conference for "permission to go on strike" as a protest. The prosecution of the entire S3 members of the Board of Guardians of County Limerick for certain violent phrases used by them In an antl-con scription resolution, marks the first oc casion even In Ireland, a country not lacking in strange precedents, when, the members of a public body sitting at duly convened meeting have been. proceeded against for constituting am unlawful assembly. The wording of their resolution tp pears to have been particularly strong. The resolution has not been published. but there are seven clauses in the sum mons charging the guardians with "as sembling: to sow dissension among tha subjects of the King, to cause disaffec tion and to impede the successful pros ecution of the wsr." Hair - TintingV Ml J So Easy Noto I With VI "BR0WNAT0NE" j too can touch op tne gray spots, or tint your hair to any shade from light r old en brown to the deepest brown or black. asy and simple to apply, in stant and sure ia results. ABSOLUTELY HARMLESS and has none of the faults of the oW fashioned "hair dyes."orsoillcd "restor ers, as it is entirely free from sulphur. Icod, silver, mercury. ric aniline, coal tar products or their de rivative. A sample and a booklet will be sent yon (from manufacturers only) upon receipt of 10c Mention shade desired when writ ing or purchasinr- All leadinc drug alorea sell 'Browmtnne." Two aisea. 35o and $1.15. Tha Kentoa Pharmaeal Ce. Suite 401. Coppin cUd. WW. e 4 V D ft! 3