An enumeration of the arts to which the horns of cattle are applicable, will furnish a striking example of this kind of economy.  The tanner who has purchased the raw hides, separates the horns, and sells them to the makers of combs and lanterns.  The horn consists of two parts, an outward horny case, and an inward conical substance, somewhat intermediate between indurated hair and bone.  The first process consists in separating these two parts, by means of a blow against a block of wood.  The horny exterior is then cut into three portions with a frame-saw.

1.  The lowest of these, next the root of the horn, after undergoing several processes, by which it is flattened, is made into combs.

2.  The middle of the horn, after being flattened by heat, and having its transparency improved by oil, is split into thin layers, and forms a substitute for glass, in lanterns of the commonest kind.

3.  The tip of the horn is used by the makers of knife handles, and of the tops of whips, and for other similar purposes.

4.  The interior, or core of the horn, is boiled down in water.  A large quantity of fat rises to the surface; this is put aside, and sold to the makers of yellow soap.

5.  The liquid itself is used as a kind of glue, and is purchased by cloth dressers for stiffening.

6.  The insoluble substance, which remains behind, is then sent to the mill, and, being ground down, is sold to the farmers for manure.

7.  Besides these various purposes to which the different parts of the horn are applied, the clippings, which arise in comb making, are sold to the farmer for manure.  In the first year after they are spread over the soil they have comparatively little effect, but during the next four or five their efficiency is considerable.  The shavings which form the refuse of the lantern maker, are of a much thinner texture:  some of them are cut into various figures and painted, and used as toys; for being hygrometric, they curl up when placed on the palm of a warm hand.  But the greater part of these shavings also are sold for manure, and from their extremely thin and divided form, the full effect is produced upon the first crop.

271.  Another event which has arisen, in one trade at least, from the employment of large capital, is, that a class of middlemen, formerly interposed between the maker and the merchant, now no longer exist.  When calico was woven in the cottages of the workmen, there existed a class of persons who travelled about and purchased the pieces so made, in large numbers, for the purpose of selling them to the exporting merchant.  But the middlemen were obliged to examine every piece, in order to know that it was perfect, and of full measure.  The greater number of the workmen, it is true, might be depended upon, but the fraud of a few would render this examination indispensable:  for any single cottager, though detected by one purchaser, might still hope that the fact would not become known to all the rest.