66 MODERN MILK GOATS 



mind, and breed the does with reference to the Easter 

 date of the coming year. 



Where feed is plentiful and costs nothing, as on a 

 large range, it might be profitable to carry the buck kids 

 past the weaning age into the fall, and sell them at a 

 weight of seventy-five to one hundred pounds. If this 

 is contemplated, they must, of course, be castrated, an 

 operation that is most successfully performed when the 

 kid is about ten days old. 



Hides. — There seems to be at present no profitable 

 market for goat hides, except for the hides of the long 

 haired Angoras. Yet the United States imports mil- 

 lions of goat hides annually. In our industry, as organ- 

 ized at present, where very few animals are raised except 

 the milkers and the pure bred studs, there would, of 

 course, be no great number of hides to dispose of, except 

 from the male kids destroyed at birth. These tiny hides, 

 if carefully handled and dressed, make a beautiful fur, 

 and if obtained in sufiicient numbers for matching can 

 be used for very handsome muffs, neck pieces, or trim- 

 mings. Aside from these hides, the goat keeper would 

 have ordinarily only the skins of such animals as occa- 

 sionally died in the herd from accident, sickness or age. 



Curing. — The hides, as soon as removed from the 

 body, should be hung in a shady place out of the sun to 

 dry. They should be spread evenly, without creases. 



