Bisbee daily review., 1911-08-29
MEXICO SENDS US TONS
 OF GOAT SKINS

Mexico has a bigger goat industry than most people know about. aud under certain conditions the business Is likely to increase. A conservative estimate places the output of Mexican skins at 2.e00.000 yearthe United States for the past 70 years being
 the principal outlet and American concerns entirely handling the manu- fracture of the leather.
 On the hills and cacti wales of Mex leo, through bracing winters and tor rential summers, millions of goats continually wander. From hacienda to hacienda they rome, feeding on berries and scrub bushes and on cac. tus if no other fodder abounds. Where the grazing is good and the weather favorable they prosper; in the barren lands they suffer from dis ease. mange. starvation, thirst, and in difficult lands are torn and scratch ed by thorn and brush.
 The business or raising goats is a general one. The poorest native of the hills will have his flock, the great. est Don his innumerable herds. As one goat will produce several in a year, small capital is required to start on and fortunately it is a busi. ness that demands few office hours. Once or twice a year, or oftener, ac- cording to the output of the sections, which vary tas for instance in the leveler climate of northern Mexico the output of skins continues the year around) the goat herd adjusts his serape, dons his sombrero, saliies forth and corrals his flock for the killing.
 Life of Ease.
 Take the remote owner of a small herd and his business life presents vast possibilities for leisure. When the rainy season ends he does his kill ing, dries primes or buries the meat for his own use or sends it to the nearest market with the blood and in- terns which haveia food value among the peons, and prepares tho hides fer the traveling agents sent out from shipping points by the big firms toi buy up skins for a few cents each.
 The entire family-beautlful, brown I picturesque groups that would delight the American Blessed DamoZei as par. Tor ornaments in bronze-work to prepare the skins and cure them against the rayages of Nermin. In . the northern and central sections the curing is done with dirt Gigantic | mud pies are made in the alkaH soil, ! the hides lightly covered with the paste and dried under the simmer ing sun. About Oxbaka, Tehuacan and Puebla the curing is done with ar senic dissolved in water. into which the skins are dipped. Then the Ior1 Of the adobe returns to his siesta, the rolling of innumerable cigarettes and dreams Of pleasant profits.
 They are. for him. not Tremendous. Sometimes the agent trades for the skins or ha u,ill saz= l===t fan eanls4 for very young kid skins. which are all shipped to Europe for =aIfey ieath- CTS and sell to the manufacturer at about S1. 50 a dozen. He pays the herdeT, in whatever coin, according 10 the size and conditions of the hidesI and this in turn depends in no small measure upon the section Of the cOun- try. For H.stance, skins from south ern Mexico bring better prices to owner and manufacturer than those of the north. Not only are climatic con ditions more favorable, producing an animal with a shorter, finer hair and therefore skin that makes finer grade of leather, but the grazing is better and the skins froer from scratches, which are inevitable in the cacti lands of the central and oth- CT regions.
 Some Drawbacks.
 Not only scratches" and careless a ..1..- A. skins. but So does the weil-being of the creature before it is killed. Mange, starvation, thirst and such ills as the goat is heir to will place his skin in the "cuIl" class when it Is judged commercially, for the sIuplea reason that all such defects become aprar ent after the hide is manufactured into leather. Death by starvation 5r sickness makes the peiI of an animal very thin and andesi a ble, becemingl what the dealer calls ~papery'' or "tinny' leather, commanding small commercial prices by tue manufact uTer.
 It is owing to these many liabilitiesi and the expense of transportation through the country by donkey and bullock that the native border is con-l tent to sit in his doorway and await the coming of buying agent, rsthefl than market the produce himself. But there are throughout Mexico faisers who could cultivate their nerds on a large scale, raising thousands 3f ani-l mais and shipping directly to the United States, in their greater inter ests taking little account of the cost Of overland carting.
 Goat raising on this scale has it's sure rewards, for the meat is the sta pie food of the Mexican and next in i value to the skin. As the slaughter, 1, fer the most, takes place at set sea sons. it follows that the general mar ket is oTerstocked with fresh gosE meat. and it must be smoked. dried ard DrlESG and preserved for the resf Of the year even as the native her5er stocks his iardeT.
 For steady values as an animal crop the goat of Mexico is no risk. In the Iaitea States he does not seem to reach. however. that happy perfection ,.F t,f4a rrhfcE he arfaiue there Texan