are tossed into the lime pits come
out with the hair off," objected Peter.

"Bless your heart--the lime does not take the hair off. The men who
unhair them have to do that. They lay the wet skins out on boards and
with sharp knives pull and scrape off all the white hair."

"Why don't they take off the brown or black hair as well?"

"Because only the white hair is removed by hand. That is kept separate
and after being dried is sold to dealers for a good price. The colored
hair is taken off by machinery and is sold too, but it is not so
valuable."

"I suppose plasterers can use hair like that," speculated Peter.

"Yes, and upholsterers," added Jackson.

Peter smiled.

"Carmachel told me nothing in a tannery was wasted," he said. "I was
surprised to find that even the lumps of fat and bits of flesh adhering
to the skins, together with the parings that came off when the calfskins
were trimmed down to an even thickness, were disposed of for glue stock
or fertilizer."

"Every scrap of stuff is used, I can tell you!" assented Jackson.
"Calfskin, you know, is never split; it is not heavy enough for that.
Besides it is more nearly uniform in weight than a skin like a bull's
hide, for instance, which is very much heavier about the head. No,
calfskin is fairly even and therefore, while wet, is just put between
rollers where a thin, sharp blade shaves from the flesh side any part of
it that is thicker than any other. It comes out of equal thickness all
over. Do you understand?"

Peter nodded.

"And now have you this beamhouse process straight in your head so we can
go on?"

Jackson held up his hand and began to check off the successive steps on
his fingers:

"The skins are washed until the dirt and salt are out; they are worked
in paddle-wheels, if necessary, until soft; they are limed; unhaired;
and bated, or puered. By puering I mean that they are put through a
liquid that takes out all the lime; if the lime is not carefully soaked
out the skins will be burned and hard and cannot be tanned properly.
After the puering the short-hairers remove any remaining hairs; the
skins are thoroughly washed again, and at last are ready for tanning."

"How are they tanned?"

"Why, by putting them into paddle-wheels filled with the tanning
solution where they revolve as many as seven or eight hours. This
solution is then changed for a weaker one, and they revolve again for a
couple of hours more. Some skins are tanned in a mi