When properly tanned, the _skin_ of the goat is manufactured into gloves and other articles of dress. There is a way of preparing these skins by maceration, so as to separate the surface or grain from the coarse under parts, after which they are dyed of various colours for different uses.
_Morocco leather_ is chiefly made from the skins of goats, tanned and dyed in a peculiar manner. The manufacture of this leather was originally invented in the kingdom of Morocco, whence it has its name. The colours that are chiefly communicated to it are red and yellow, the former of which is produced by cochineal, and the latter by a yellow kind of berries. Morocco leather is also dyed black, green, and blue. Until within the last few years, the consumers of this kind of leather in England have depended wholly on a foreign supply: there are now, however, several manufactories of it in the neighbourhood of London, from which the most beautiful moroccos may be had at prices that have superseded the necessity of importing it from abroad. For leather of inferior quality, and particularly for such as is to receive a yellow colour, sheeps' skins are often substituted. The reason why goats' skins have been principally adopted for the manufacture of morocco is, that they take the dye better, and that they are susceptible of richer and more beautiful colours, than those of any other animals.
Goat-skins, as well as the skins of sheep, are sometimes made into parchment. The _skins of kids_ are thin and of beautiful texture; they are consequently well adapted for ladies' gloves and shoes. On the Continent they are made into stockings, bed-ticks, and sometimes into hangings for beds, into sheets, and even into shirts.
Although the _fleece_ of the goat is by no means so valuable as that of the sheep, yet it has been found extremely useful. The long and shaggy coated goat, which is bred in many parts of this country, has, at the roots of the long hair, a fine and beautiful soft wool. The latter, though scarcely known to our manufacturers, has long been used in Russia for gloves, stockings, and other articles of dress, which are highly valuable. About a pound of this wool, in an unsorted state, was, some years ago, sent from Russia to be made into shawls. As the quantity was too small to admit of being manufactured into a web by itself, the chain was formed of silk, and the woof of yarn made from the goat's wool. The fabric, when completed, was compared with the finest Indian shawls; and, notwithstanding the hardness of the silken part, it was decidedly more soft and beautiful than any of these. Of the above-mentioned small quantity of wool three full-sized shawls and one waistcoat were made. Their colour was a dull white, with a delicate and scarcely perceptible glance of red through it; and their texture was so much admired, that Dr. Anderson, to whose care they were consigned, states, that if a hundred of them had been offered for sale, they would have produced at least twenty guineas each.