Not long since there stood upon the banks of the Schoharie Kill, a half-finished church, with a few low, Dutch houses near by, whose occupants were tillers of the ground. Primeval forests, cheifly of hemlock, covered the two great ridges of the Kaatsbregs, which reared their lofty summits on both sides of the valley. The people assembled on every third Sunday, to listen to their spiritual guide who also had the pastoral charge of two neighboring churches, several miles distant. The paucity of their num bers, together with the want of pecuniary ability, prevented regular worship. Such was the condition of the place and people, when the subject of this brief sketch came there to take up his abode. Born October 30th, 1790, at Stephentown, Rensselaer county, of parents who were celebrated for nothing more than honest and industrious habits, Mr. Pratt passed his boyhood amid influences well adapted to call forth the energy of character and persevering industry of which he is now so bright an example. From his parents, he learned the important lesson, that economy and labor are necessary to prosperity, and that whoever aims at wealth and station, may expect to gain them rather by industry and frugality than by fortunate speculation. He accordingly, without any show of parsimoniousness, studied economy from a boy. At an early age, he learned the saddler's trade and was successful, while an apprentice, in forming a small nucleus as capital, to which he afterwards made constant additions by laboring, first as a journeyman for his father and brother, and afterwards for himself, when his income became considerable. He added to this, the business of a merchant, and at the same time carried on successfully the tanner's trade, in company with a brother. The great success which has crowned his labors, both in perfecting the art of tanning leather and the accomplishment of so large an amount of business in that line, has made him preeminent as a mechanic. It was for the purpose of extending his business as a tanner, and availing himself of the most commodious position, that Mr. Pratt, in 1824, removed from Lexington, Greene county, where he buried his parents, to the valley of the Kaatsbergs. One of the first objects which caught the attention of Mr. Pratt was the church in the wilderness. It was speedily rebuilt, and a minister was procured to preach there regularly every Sunday instead of every third week. New life seemed to infuse itself through the place. The old residents began to feel a new impulse urging them forward to active duties; a young and thrifty village sprung up as it were in a day, creating as much surprise among the former inhabitants as is felt at the present moment by those who have always lived in sight of the spot where the magic city of Lawrence, with its ten thousand inhabitants, busy with the manifold duties of life, has but just sprung into existence. Hundreds of acres of those mountain hemlocks soon fell before the hand of industry, both to subserve the processes of tanning and to yield the soil to the hand of culture. We will here give, in Mr. Pratt's own language, a brief account of his great tannery, by means of which the wilderness has been made to blossom as the rose. After some appropriate preliminary remarks, in a communication addressed to the Secretary of the American Institute, he says: "I shall proceed without further digression, to give you a succinct historical and statistical account of my tannery, which I may, I hope, without incurring the charge of egotism or vanity, be allowed to say has been conducted with sufficient energy and skill to realize for me a competency, while it has been the means of spreading comfort and plenty to all directly or indirectly connected with its operations. My tannery is an immense wooden building, 530 feet in length, 43 feet in breadth, and two stories and a half high. Within this area are contained 300 vats, tanning over 60,000 sides a year, with conductors to draw the liquor to the pump, affording about 46,000 cubic feet of room for tanning purposes. A large wing, 40 feet by 80, extending over the stream, contains twelve leaches. six of them furnished with copper heaters, containing about 12,000 feet, and also the bark loft, through which, in the course of the year, passes more than 6,000 cords of bark. The mills through which it is ground are capable of grinding over a cord of bark per hour; and it has connected with it a pump of sufficient capacity to deliver 1,000 feet of ooze, or water charged with tanning, in thirty minutes. The beam-house contains thirty vats, equivalent to 7,640 cubic feet. It has connected with it three hide-mills for softening the dry Spanish hides, and two rolling machines, capable of rolling 500 sides of leather per day. Outside of the building, but cennected with the beam-house by an underground communication, are eight stone sweat-pits, with pointed arches and flues. The pits are of the most approved size, being in area 10 feet by 14, and in depth 8 feet, with a spring of water at one corner. "Since I first commenced business, the gain of weight in con. verting hides into leather, has been increased nearly 50 per cent. That is, that from a quarter to a third more leather can now be obtained from a given quantity of hides, than at the time when I learned my trade at my father's tannery, conducted in the old fashioned way, some 40 years ago. "The great improvement in weight seems to have been gained by the judicious use of strong liquors, or ooze, obtained from finely ground bark, and by skilful tanning. 46 The loss and wastage upon hides, from hair, flesh, etc., may be estimated at from 12 to 15 per cent. In order to produce heavy weights, the hides should not be reduced too low in the beamhouse, and should be tanned quickly, with good strong liquors, particularly in the latter stage of the operation. To green hides, particularly, nothing can be more injurious than to suffer them to remain too long in weak ooze. They become too much reduced, grow soft, flat and flabby, lose a portion of their gelatine, and refuse to plump up.' "On the other hand, however, the effects of an early application of ooze, that is too strong and too warm, to green hides, is very injurious. It contracts the surface fibres of the skin, tanning at once the external layers so dead, as it is termed, as to shut up the pores, and prevent the tanning from penetrating the interior. This renders the leather harsh and brittle. It will, from this, be seen, that in the question of the proper strength of liquor alone, there is room for the exercise of the greatest judgment and the most extensive experience. In the impossibility of adopting fixed rules to the innumerable variety of cases, nothing can be depended upon but the judgment of the practical tanner. "In softening hides, and preparing them for the process of tanning, a great deal also depends upon the judgment of the person superintending the operation, inasmuch as the diversities in the qualities and characteristics of hides render it impossible to subject them to any thing more than a general mode of treatment. "In sweating, the character of the hides, and the temperature, are essential, but ever varying considerations. As a general rule, however, the milder the process of preparing the hides for the bark, the better. Unnecessarily severe or prolonged treatment is inevitably attended with a loss of gelatine, and a consequent loss of weight and strength in the leather. Too high a tenperature is particularly to be avoided. In almost every lot of hides, particularly Oronocos, however, there are generally some that prove very intractable-resisting all the ordinary modes of softening. For such, a solution of ashes, potash, or even common salt, will be found to be beneficial; and peculiarly so in hot weather. As I have said, no precise rule can be given as to the length of time required for the preliminary process of soaking and sweating, so much depending upon the qualities of the hides, and the temperature at which these operations are conducted. "The following table may, however, be found useful in con veying an approximation to a definite idea of the practice in my "I would here remark, that I changed the process from liming to sweating, for the sole leather, in 1836-the only change in tanning I have made for twenty years-and for heavy sole leather it has been proved to be quite as good as liming, if not better, and somewhat cheaper; besides yielding a greater gain of weight, and when well tanned, making leather more impervious to water. Liming and bating, however, for upper and light leather, is preferable; and, if the same improvements had been adopted with the lime process, of strong liquor and quick tanning, it is not yet certain that the same results would not have been attined. "Salted hides do not require more than two-thirds the time to soak; but generally rather longer to sweat. After the hides are prepared for tanning, the next process is, which is commonly called handling, which should be performed two or three times a day in a weak ooze, until the grain is colored. New liquors, or a mixture of new and old, are preferable for Spanish or dry hides-old liquor for slaughter. They are then, after a fortnight, laid away in bark, and changed once in two to four weeks, until tanned. Much care and judgment is requsite in proportioning the continually increasing strength of the liquors to the requirements of the leather in different stages of this process. "The liquors should also be kept as cool as possible, within certain limits, but ought never to exceed a temperature of eighty degrees; in fact, a much lower temperature is the maximum point, if the liquor is very strong; too high a heat, with a liquor too strongly charged with the tanning principle, being invariably injurious to the life and color of the leather. From this it would seem that time is an essential element in the process of tanning, and that we cannot make up for the want of it by increasing the strength of the liquor, or raising the temperature at which the process is conducted, any more than we can fatten an ox or horse by giving him more than he can eat. It may be questioned (if anything may be doubted in the present improving age) whether any patented schemes for the more rapid conversion of hides into leather, will be found, on the whole, to have any practical utility. "I have mentioned the injurious effects resulting from too strong a solution of the active principle of the bark; on the other hand, the use of too weak solutions is to be avoided. Hides tha are treated with liquor below the proper strength, become much relaxed in their texture, and lose a portion of their gelatine. The leather necessarily loses in weight and compactness, and is much more porous and pervious to water. The warmer these weak solutions are applied, the greater is the loss of gelatine. To ascertain whether a portion of weak liquor contains any gelantine in solution, it is only necessary to strain a little of it into a glass, and then add a small quantity of a stronger liquor. The excess of tanning in the strong, seizing upon the dissolved gelatine in the weak liquor, will combine with it, and be precipitated in flakes, of a dark curdled appearance, to the bottom. At the Prattsville Tannery the greatest strength of liquor used for handling, as indicated by Pike's barkometer, is 16°; of that employed in laying away, the greatest strength varies from 30° to 45°. "After the leather had been thoroughly tanned and rinsed, or scrubbed by a brush-machine or broom, it will tend very much to improve its color and pliability to stack it up in piles, and allow it to sweat until it becomes a little slippery from a kind of mucus that collects upon its surface. A little oil added at this stage of the process, or just before rolling, is found to be very useful. "Great caution is necessary in the admission of air in drying, when first hung up to dry. No more air then is sufficient to keep the sides from molding should be allowed. Too much air, or, in other words, if dried too rapidly in a current of air, will injure the color, giving a darker hue, and rendering the leather harsh and brittle. To insure that the thick parts or butts, shall roll smooth and even with the rest of the piece, it is necessary that the leather should be partially dried before wetting down for rolling, and that when wet down, it should lay long enough for every side to become equally damp throughout. "In order to show the amount of business done, I have carefully collected and tabularized from my books, the following statistics of the Prattsville Tannery for twenty years, in tanning about 1,000,000 sides of sole leather: Statistics of the Prattsville Tannery for twenty years-various Materials used and Labor employed. 6.666 acres bark land 10 square miles 18 cords per acre=120,000, at $3 per cord, $360.000 Number of days' work peeling and piling do, days 118,555 Four trees to the cord, trees 475,200 120,000 loads or cords=264.000.000 lbs. 444 acres of woodland-32 000 loads or cords, worth $32,000 135.380 bushels of oats, at 2s. 6d. per bushel, $41,967 12.000 tons of hay, at $8 per ton, $9,600 313.000 days' work in tannery=1,000 years' labor, at $14 per month, $162,000 11,700 Freight of hides and leather between New York and Catskill, $30,000 Equal to 18,000.000 lbs. of leather, at 17 cents per lb. 3,060,000 Lost and worn out about 100 horses, at $75 each, Cost of wagons, at $250 per year, Insurance on stock, Yearly expenses $300,000. Total expenses, about 7,500 5,000 12,000 6,000,000 |