HOG BRISTLES FROM CHINA.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 179, 18 March 1902, Page 4

HOG BRISTLES FROM CHINA.

The trade in hog’s bristles is one of the numerous new sources of industry which have been created in China by the opening of the coast harbours to foreign commerce. During the last two decades this export has developed to such an extent that many persons are now engaged in the gathering, buying up, and preparation of the bristles for export. Formerly the bristles were worthless in China. The manufacture of brushes is still in its infancy in that country, as they are hardly known and very seldom used. If one is used it is usually very smsll, and they are only used for cleaning the cloth shoes, as the clothes are dusted with a whisk broom in China. Sometimes brushes are used for cleaning horses, but these are also small, and resemble in shape and size those which are used for applying blacking. Therefore the bristles were not considered of any value in China. When the brush maker needed some he got them from the butcher for nothing, This has now changed. The butchers now gather the bristles and sell them. i Chinese bristles have now become an article much in demand in Europe, especially the long black ones known under the name of Tientsin bristles, which are widely different from the white, short bristles coming from the. South. )