Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Part I.—HIDES FOR HEAVY LEATHERS Section I.—THE KAW MATERIAL OF HEAVY LEATHERS The term " hide " possesses several shades of meaning. In its widest sense it applies to the external covering of all animals, and is sometimes used derogatively for human skin. In this wide sense, it is almost synonymous with the term " skin." The term " hide," however, has a narrower meaning, in which it applies only to the outer covering of the larger animals, and in this sense is used rather in contrast with the term " skin." Thus we speak of horse hides, cow hides, camel hides, and buffalo hides. It is used in this sense in the title of Part I. of this volume. As such hides are from large animals, the leather which is manufactured therefrom is thick and in large pieces, and is therefore commercially designated as " heavy leather." From the standpoint of chemical industry hides are amongst the most important of animal proteins, and their transformation into leather for boots, shoes, belting, straps, harness, and bags comprises the " heavy leather trade," which is one of the largest and most vital industries of the country. The heavy leather trade predominates over other branches of leather manufacture, not only because of the comparatively large weight and value of the material handled, but also because the resulting products have a more essential utility. There is also a still narrower use of the term " hide," in which it applies only to the domesticated cattle—the ox, heifer, bull and cow—which use arises from the fact that the hides of these are both the largest and most valuable portion of the raw materialof the heavy leather industries. In a very narrow sense the term is also sometimes applied only to ox hides, which for most heavy leathers are the ideal raw material. The Home Supply ...