Jerry -

I ate lunch at a restaurant, "The Machine Shop," in Olathe, Kansas, several years ago. The "machines" in the decor of the restaurant were harvesting machines and other farm equipment. (I was hoping for lathes and milling machines!) On the wall in one dining room was a large metal sign advertising mule hide roofing for barns and other farm buildings. Apparently that was the largest market for that roofing. It was the tarpaper stuff that barns were roofed with.

A.T. Kott