=Dry Salting= the hides is an excellent method of curing. As the name implies, it combines methods of drying and salting which are used alternatively. The method is used extensively in South America. A modified form of it is also used for preserving the "E.I. kips," which are cured, however, not with common salt, but with earth containing up to 70 per cent. of sodium sulphate. Dry-salted hides are largely free from the defects of dried hides, but of course are more trouble to the tanner in the process of soaking (see Section II.) than the wet-salted goods. =Freezing= the hides is now a commercial process. On the whole the process is satisfactory, but the expansion of water after freezing may tend to damage the hide fibres. Sterilizing the hides has been frequently suggested, but no method has yet been advocated which does not interfere either with the tanning processes or with the quality of the finished leather. Hides from the European Continent, usually wet salted and well flayed, exhibit much the same variable quality as the home supply, those from highland districts tending to be thick, yet even, well grown, tight textured and smooth grained, whilst those from lowland regions are less satisfactory. Thus hides from the Swiss Alps and Scandinavia have ranked high, whilst the spready Dutch cows are typical of a lowland hide. In the hides which once came from Germany the same features appear. Bavarian highland hides had an excellent reputation, whilst those from Berlin, Cologne, etc., tended to be long in shank and not well grown. French hides are often ill flayed, and Spanish and Portuguese are often subject to scratches. Italian hides have a very good name, being small but stout in butt. The American supply is important. South America yields an excellent class of hide, salted or dry-salted. They are from an excellent breed of animals, slaughtered and flayed with every care, and efficiently cured. A most serious defect in this class of hide is the "brand," which is both deep and large and in the most valuable part of the hide. One side, however, is usually unbranded, so that each hide yields one good "bend." These hides, _e.g._ "Frigorifics," have recently been much more extensively tanned in Britain because of the shortage in the home supply of market hides caused by the European War. South America also yields good horse hides. North American hides are usually wet-salted (_e.g._ packer hides). They are usually good. Central America yields mostly dried hides exhibiting usual defects.