The skin should be carefully removed from the carcass. Goats do not skin as easily as sheep, and the careless operator is liable to cut the inner layers of the skin if he is not careful. These cuts are called "flesh-cuts," and skins badly "flesh-cut" are comparatively valueless, because "flesh-cuts" can not be removed by the tanner. A sharp knife should be used, and the operator should avoid cutting the skin.
The skin should be well salted, care being taken to see that the salt penetrates every portion of the raw surface. The skins can be cured in the shade without the use of salt, but sun-dried skins are worthless. If the edges of the skin are allowed to roll, so that raw surfaces come together, the part so affected will heat and the hair pull out. It is not necessary to stretch the skins while curing them.
Goats should be killed when their fleece is suitable for robe and rug purposes. Those carrying a six month's fleece, if it is six inches long, have about the right kind of skins. There are some Angora skins imported from Turkey and South Africa.
[Illustration: Prize winners at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893.]
The Angora goat should not be classed with milch animals. As a rule the does give a sufficient amount of milk to nourish the kid or kids. The more common blood there is in the goat the better milch animal she is. However, some Angoras have been milked, and the milk is as rich as that of the common goat. A quart of milk a day may be considered a fair average for a fresh milch Angora doe. It has been suggested that because the milk of the goat contains a heavy percentage of fat, it is a proper substitute for mothers' milk for babies. This is probably a mistake, as that part of the milk which is the hardest for the baby to digest is the protein, and it will be observed that in the following table of analysis submitted, the percentage of protein in goat's milk and in cow's milk is about the same, and that it is considerably larger than in mother's milk. A very desirable feature in goat's milk is that the fat is distributed throughout the milk, and that it does not readily separate from the milk. This would assist in the assimilation of the fat by an infant. Some experiments made with coffee demonstrate that it requires half the quantity of goat's milk to produce the same effect upon this beverage which cow's milk produces. This may be partially explained by the quantity of fat in goat's milk, and partially by the fact that the fat does not readily separate from the milk. The bottom of the can is as good as the top.