NEGLECTED PRODUCTIONS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 6, 28 November 1862, Page 3

NEGLECTED PRODUCTIONS.

\ Pig-Skins. (From the Yeoman.) We would invite attention lo a gr^nt waste of the raw material in th^ practice of scrapinjj, instead of spinning swine slaughtered in the colony. An ingenious Irishman hns lately invented ;■ n*-w method of getting rid of the bristles on the carcasses of pigs. He passes tile dead animal through a highly heated ir< n chamber, of an oval shape, and tlid bristles are thus singed "flf by a process similar to that followed in roasting coffee ; tut it would be much better if skinning were adopted instead of any olher mode of getting rid of the bristles The skin of the hog potses>es considerable commeivia' value, and until skinning is practised we must.be without riding saddles mai'e of colonial pig-skin. A large sum of money is annually thrown away, even in this colony, by neglecting ibis ver}' simple o eration, and overlooking th-* value of this seemingly unimportant product. We have no means of knowing how many pigs are annually s'augluered in this c lonv, but on a rough estimate the commercial value of the s«kin< now thrown away nrty be set dwn at about LIO.OOO, Hngskinare valued according to their length, and the longer they are so much higher is their market p>ice. Skins three or four feet long (we forget which) are reckoned worth a certain number of schillings, and every inch moie adds threepence or sixpence to the price In some p iris of Great Britain pork-l'Utehers, expert in the art of skinning, travel about in tht'C>untrv districts, and it is customary for ilieni to pay several shillings to the owner or: condition of being allowed to take t! e skin. It is not every pork-butcher, however, who can skin a pig ; nnd the skinning knife ased requires to be set in a peculiar manner, the edge being turned fiom the skin, In converting the carca*e into either pork or bacon, there is no advantage gained toy keeping on the hide. Curing is even more easily effected without it. Why should we neglect to m;ike the most of everything? If all countries were to act in thi-s matter a* we do there would be no pig-skin saddles used* It is doubtful whethor a single pig has been skinrted i>; the colony, and we should like to know whether any have been tanned with wattle- bark.