be added if necessary, and at the end of four or five weeks the operations will be completed. DEXTER’S PROCESS OF TANNING. A few years since, Mr. J. D. Dexter, of Albany, N. Y., discovered a process of tanning, which he claims to be an important improvement. The main feature of the invention consists in a compound of chemicals, by which not only time, money and labor are saved, but the leather thus prepared, possesses more strength than that manufactured in the old way. This compound is called “Dexter’s Electric Process.” A sheep, calf, goat or deer skin is taken in a green state, and in from eight to ten days it is manufactured into leather and is ready for market. From four to six days are consumed in preparing a skin for tanning, in the removal of the wool, hair, &c.; it is then thrown into a tub, and washed in three chemical preparations, which takes from one to two minutes; it is then taken out and dried, and in twenty-four or forty-eight hours after it is taken from the tub it is ready for market. The time occupied in drying depends much upon the weather; but after it is thoroughly dried it can be finished in about twenty minutes or half an hour. Under the old system of tanning, it takes from three to four weeks to prepare the skin, and from three to six months to bark tan and finish it. By the discovery of this new process, a skin is converted into leather, in as many days as it takes months to bark tan, and besides, it is not only stronger and more durable, but the leather is made water-proof. They can manufacture sheep-skins by this process, into leather, in six or eight days, which not only resembles calf-skin, but for boots and shoes it is preferred by those who have worn them, on account of its being more durable, and softer than calf manufactured in the old way. By this method of tanning, there is a great saving. One hundred sheep-skins can be tanned for 37 to 50 cents, while to bark tan them would incur an expense of at least $6. Patent leather is manufactured out of sheep-skins, which is said to be more durable and less liable to crack than that made of bark-tanned leather. FAIR LEATHER.[5] This leather, used for the soles of ladies’ shoes, is made, preferably, from hides tanned with Spanish oak. After having been soaked and scoured, they are separately spread upon a clean table and sponged on the grain side with the following mixture, reduced by dilution with water. Footnote 5: Morfit’s Theory, Chapter L. The proportions for nine and a half pints, which is the quantity required for twenty-five sides, are Crystalized Chloride of Tin, 8 oz. Muriatic Acid, free from Iron, 4 fluid oz. Sulphurized Ether, 8 fluid oz. Alcohol, 32 fluid oz. Water, 40 fluid oz.