THE HOPE OF THE HERD— THE KIDS 145 



irregular tuft of hair does not indicate horns. The head 

 where the wet hair lies uniformly smooth and even may 

 be safely and thankfully dismissed. The suspected head 

 may be left until the third day after birtli. Then take a 

 pair of curved, blunt surgeon's scissors (a necessary part 

 of every goat keeper's equipment) and clip the hair off 

 one side, where it appears twisted, covering quite a sur- 

 face, and clipping close. If the head is hornless, the 

 stubble of the clipped hair will appear uniformly over 

 the exposed surface. If horned, a bare spot will apjiear, 

 about a quarter inch in diameter. Place your finger on 

 the suspected spot, and push it back and forth. If the 

 scalp moves freely, the kid is hornless. If it is immov- 

 able at that point, it is horned. 



A naturally hornless animal at maturity shows two 

 well rounded bumjis or knobs on the forehead. These 

 rounded knobs sometimes appear slightly developed even 

 in the new born kid, and may be mistaken for coming 

 horns. But the bare, hairless spot and the immovable 

 scalp are the really dependable tests for the coming horns. 



Operation of Disbudding. — Caustic. — The horn 

 grows from the epidermis. If the horn producing cells 

 are destroyed and replaced with scar tissue, no horn 

 grows. There are two methods of destroying this por- 

 tion of the epidermis, burning it with caustic potash, or 

 cutting it out. For the caustic method, have at hand a 



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