_Manufacture of Leather in Canada_.--It is stated in a recent number of
the _Montreal Current_, that this important branch of manufacture has
wonderfully increased of late. A few years back, the colony was almost
entirely dependent on New York, for supplies of leather. It is now
certain that it can be manufactured in Canada, and brought to market at
as low a price as it can be imported. Canada possesses immense
quantities of hemlock in her woods, and the tanning business having been
introduced so generally, these hemlock forests will probably prove to be
mines of gold. Some opinion of the extent to which tanning is carried on
in Montreal and its vicinity, may be found in the following statement of
twelve tanneries connected with one house in that city:--Cost of
tannery, 15,600_l_.; number of hides manufactured yearly, 40,500;
average weight 30 lbs.; weight of sole-leather produced, 1,215,000 lbs.;
average cost of manufacturing, 4_d_. per lb.; average value per lb.,
1_s_. 3_d_.; total value, 103,437_l_ 10_s_. Besides the twelve tanneries
above mentioned, there are many others in the city and other places, at
which the cost of manufacturing is about the same as those enumerated.
It is added, "This gives a sum of about 70,000_l_. distributed among the
working classes of the district of Montreal, which a few years ago was
expended in the United States."