CURING AND TANNING SKINS

The boy trapper must know how to take the skins from the animals he traps, and how to treat them to preserve their beauty and value. The skin should be taken off before it becomes tainted, and with greatest care not to injure it. Some skins are exceedingly tender. Be careful to remove bits of fat or flesh; left to dry on the skin, these detract from its value.

No artificial dressing is needed to cure or dry a skin. The fresh skin should be tacked to a smooth board or drawn over a stretcher, fur side in, so that the air can get at it freely. It should not be put in the sun, or rain, or artificial heat.

When thoroughly dry, the skin is ready for market or it may be tanned at home. A boy fortunate enough to obtain a valuable pelt like that of marten, mink, or otter, will certainly want to try his hand at tanning. You want first to be sure to use a mixture which will not injure the fur but will fix it more firmly in its place. Never put any dressing on the fur itself. You also want the skin to be soft and pliable so that it can be made up into some form of garment. The following directions are adapted from "The Tricks of Trapping" by W. Hamilton Gibson, a reliable source of all trapping lore for American boys: "After every particle of loose flesh and fat is removed from the skin, it should be soaked for a couple of hours in warm water. While waiting, prepare this mixture: Take equal parts of saltpetre, borax, and sulphate of soda. Mix with enough water to make a thin batter. Paint the wet skin over thickly on the flesh side. Fold the skin flesh side in and lay in an airy place, for twenty-four hours.

"On the following day prepare a second mixture consisting of two parts sal-soda, three parts borax, four parts castile soap. Melt these together over a slow fire. Apply this mixture in the same manner as the first, twenty-four hours later. Fold skin as before and leave another twenty-four hours. Make a third mixture of equal parts of common salt and alum, dissolved in warm water and thickened with coarse flour to the consistency of thin paste. Allow this to dry on, then stretch the skin lightly and scrape off the hardened paste with the bowl of a spoon. Sometimes a second or even a third treatment with the last mixture is required to make the skin absolutely pliable, after which it should be finished with sand-paper and pumice stone. A skin thus dressed should be soft as velvet. The alum and salt set the hair securely."

APPENDIX
FREE PRINTED MATTER. HOW TO GET IT

There are three principal sources of free printed matter on outdoor work subjects. These are (1) the United States Department of Agriculture. (2) State Agricultural Experiment Stations. (3) Commercial houses who sell supplies for outdoor occupations.

(1) The Farmers' Bulletins are the ones which will be most useful to outdoor workers. They are written in plain language and treat every subject in a practical way. To get them, you should address a postal card thus:

Secretary of Agriculture,
Washington,
D. C.

On the other side of the card write as follows:

Please send me the list of publications for free distribution sent out by your department, and oblige,

Sign your name and address distinctly.

In a few days you will get a printed circular giving the numbers and titles of all the Farmers' Bulletins and other free literature they have. Choose the ones you want and address another postal card to the Secretary of Agriculture. Ask for the bulletins wanted by number and title both, to avoid mistakes.

Some of the bulletins of the United States Department of Agriculture are not for free distribution. They are too valuable. A charge is made to cover cost of printing. To get any bulletin mentioned in this list with its price, address a letter to Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., and enclose the amount in money order or coin. Do not send stamps.

(2) To get the bulletins of your own State Experiment Station you have only to address another postal card; this time to the Director of State Experiment Station, with the name of the post-office and state. If not sure of the title and number of the bulletin you want, tell the director what phase of the subject you are interested in. For instance, one experiment station issues several poultry bulletins. Do you want the one on "House Construction" or the one on "Feeding Pullets?" The more definite you are in your requests the more likely you are to get exactly what you need most.

To get the bulletins of another station than your own is not quite so simple. They have no fund for distributing bulletins in other states. But I have never failed to get them by asking for just the thing I need. It is well to offer to pay for these; the price is always small. Some of them are republished by the United States Department of Agriculture and appear in their free list as Experiment Station Work, I, II, III, etc.

(3) The booklets and catalogues sent out free by seedsmen and other commercial houses are mines of information, condensed and well arranged. You may be sure that the advice they give is good, too, as it is to their interest to have their patrons succeed. You can tell the difference very quickly between the "hot air" of advertising matter and the practical advice to beginners given in catalogues.

I most earnestly advise every one of you who is engaged in a money making enterprise to subscribe for some good periodical. There are good magazines devoted to many of the occupations, and some of the general magazines have special departments which are full of up-to-date suggestions which have not yet been put into books. The latest and best word on your subject is none too good and may make a difference of dollars in or out of pocket. If you devise any new apparatus or discover any time or money saving methods, don't keep these things to yourself. Help the world along by writing to some magazine about it. They are on the lookout for valuable novelties. The stories told by boys and girls in this volume have almost all appeared in a magazine first.

THE OUTDOOR WORKER'S LIBRARY

The following is a list of useful books, magazines, and bulletins on all sorts of outdoor occupations, written by experts. They are here arranged by subjects under eleven of the chapters of this book.

N. B. Some of these books are expensive. Get them from your library if you can. The librarian will usually order a good book which is in demand.