374 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



will get close to the skin, killing ticks, stimulating growth of wool and 

 at the same time to keep flies off and have a tendency to prevent mag- 

 gots about the tail and the depositing of gadfly larvae in the nostrils. The 

 lambs should be dipped shortly after the older sheep have gone through 

 the tank, for the ticks migrate to the lambs at this time and cause much 

 misery. It is also a good plan to make it a practice to dip every new 

 sheep brought onto the farm before allowing it to mix with the home flock. 

 If this were done by every sheep owner there would be fewer outbreaks 

 of scab. The railroad cars and shipping chutes are liable to be tainted 

 with scab mites, so that one is never sure that he is not bringing in the 

 disease with newly purchased sheep, and it is not enough to know that 

 they have been dipped before starting on their journey. When a man of 

 the reputation and 1 experience of Richard Gibson says, "Dip three times a 

 year," he has good reasons for so advising and we hope that our readers 

 will follow his advice. The expense is light, but the gains are oftentimes 

 beyond measure. 



ANGORA GOATS. 



Homestead. 



Modern skill, necessity and ingenuity have made it possible to utilize 

 every portion of the hog except its grunt and squeal, and it is asserted 

 you can sell every part of the goat except its scent. The latter statement 

 is made by Mr. John Collins, who manages an extensive goat farm in 

 Arizona. The number of goats on his farm he could not for the life of 

 him tell, he says. There might be 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000^he had no idea 

 how many. He is considered an authority upon the uses and abuses of the 

 goat. On his farm there is nothing but sage brush and cactus for the 

 goats to live on, yet no man, he claims, ever saw a dead goat, unless he 

 (the goat) came to a violent end. They will live and thrive where nearly 

 every other living thing would starve to death. 



He started with 150 common goats, deriving the profit from the sale 

 of the hides. After a time these were crossed with Angora goats and 

 after two years the cross disappears and a perfect Angora goat remains. 

 The long hair of this goat is made into plush for furniture, sleeping cars 

 and similar uses. The hair next to the skin can be made into valuable 

 shawls. The meat of the kids is delightful when fresh, and is canned and 

 sent to Cuba, the Philippines, China and other foreign countries as canned 

 lamb. One tablespoonful of it equals three of the purest cream. One 

 great virtue of the milk is that it is a deadly foe to tubercula, and con- 

 sumptives by drinking it are often cured of the disease. In fine, no other 

 dumb animal has more valuable qualities than the goat. No stables are 

 required in which to house him. He takes care of himself; looks out for 

 his own shelter if he needs any, and is altogether an independent, profit- 

 able, happy-go-lucky kind of an animal. 



