By boiling the livers at a somewhat high temperature, "unracked" cod oil is obtained, containing a considerable quantity of "stearine"; this fat, which separates on cooling, is sold as "fish stearine" for soapmaking, or as "fish-tallow" for currying.
The tanning, currying and finishing of leather, an industry largely dependent on the plentiful supply of oak and hemlock bark for tanning, is centralized in the northern and eastern parts of the state, near the forests.
The tanning, currying and finishing of leather ranks second in importance, with a gross product ($10,250,842) 9% greater than that of 1900, and constituting about one-fourth of the gross factory product of the state in 1905; and the manufacture of food products ranked third, the value of the products of the fruit canning and preserving industry having more than doubled in the decade 1890-1900, but falling off a little more than 7% in 1900-1905.
A large fleet is engaged in the fishery; and a great number of factories extract the oil for tanning and currying, and for adulterating other more expensive oils, and manufacture the refuse into a valuable guano.
Whale-oil is principally used in oiling wools for combing, in batching flax and other vegetable fibres, in currying and chamois leather-making, and as a lubricant for machinery.