That leather trimmings from the boot factories, hitherto regarded as absolutely useless, are forthcoming in sufficient quantities to fulfil the claims of the tuft and washer trades have been definitely ascertained. The residue is far more imposing than might popularly be conceived, especially in connection with the production of Service boots. Organized collection alone is required to bring this source of possible supply into contact with the market. From three factories alone approximately 2,300 lb. of trimmings are obtainable every week. Multiply this yield by the number of boot factories in the country, and it will be seen that this leather waste could supply adequate material to allow tufts and washers to be turned out in their millions during the course of the year. Even the manufacture of civilian footwear, especially of feminine fancy boots, yields its quota of waste. But the contribution is not so pronounced as with Service footwear because wider scope exists for working up the surplus. Nevertheless, all waste, no matter what its character may be, has a utilitarian value. The cloth remnants find a ready market for the manufacture of paper. The cork sole cuttings, composed of cork, with cotton and wool attached, are similarly retrieved by the ton. Sorting enables the cork to be recovered for the manufacture of linoleum, the cotton for the paper mills, and the woolly component for shoddy. Finally we get the floor sweepings--a collection of leather, textiles, and other materials recovered by the aid of the broom. So far as Northampton is concerned--the system probably prevails in other boot-making centres--the practice has been for the municipal authorities to collect these accumulations and to remove them to the dust-destructor for incineration. This was regarded as the simplest, cheapest, and most efficient method for their disposal. Salvage experts examined these sweepings. They found a far more utilitarian use for this waste. It was worth £2--$10--a ton for conversion into fertilizer. Seeing that about 1,000 tons a year of these sweepings are recoverable from two or three factories it will be seen that we have been content to send £2,000--$10,000--annually up the chimney of a dust-destructor from sheer lack of foresight and the expenditure of a little thought and trouble during the very period when our land is clamouring for nitrogenous fertilizers.