For a 12 lb. calf skin, take 3 lbs. of terra japonica, common salt 2 lbs.; alum, 1 lb.; put them into a copper kettle with sufficient water to dissolve the whole by boiling. The skin will be limed, haired, and treated every way as for the old process, when it will be put it into a vessel with sufficient water to cover it, at which time you will put in 1 pint of the composition stirring it well, adding the same amount each night and morning for 3 days, when you will add the whole, handling 2 or 3 times daily all the time tanning; you can continue to use the tanning liquid by adding half the quantity each time, by keeping these proportions for any amount. If you desire to give a bark color to the leather, you will put in 1 lb. of Sicily sumac; kip skins will require about 20 days, light house hides for harness 30 days, calf skins from 6 to 10 days at most.

How To Tan Raw Hide

When taken from the animal, spread it flesh side up; then put 2 parts of saltpetre and alum combined, make it fine, sprinkle it evenly over the surface, roll it up, let it alone a few days till dissolved; then take off what flesh remains, and nail the skin to the side of a barn in the sun; stretch tight, to make it soft like harness leather, put neat's foot oil on it, fasten it up in the sun again; then rub out all the oil you can with a wedge-shaped stick, and it is tanned with the hair on.