Hayes.] 432 [March 18, 



earnest attention of the Government, as the best races of the merino 

 sheep have been only secured tlirough the persevering and disinter- 

 ested efforts of governments in Europe. In the absence of any 

 national society for acclimation in this country, a deficiency which 

 ouTht not long to exist, the department of agriculture, under its pres- 

 ent vigorous and intelligent head, offers the best means of securing the 

 desired results. The cost of a single Rodman gun would secure a 

 mao-nificent Hock to serve for prolonged experiment and as a model to 

 our agriculturists. Producers cannot expect to obtain remunerating 

 prices for their fleeces until the manufacture of mohair labrics is estab- 

 ished in tliis country. It must be years before a suflicient supply is 

 grown here to occupy a single mill. The fleeces of over ten thousand 

 sheep are consumed every week in the single establishment of the 

 Pacific Mills. It is probable that there will be a demand for all that 

 can be grown for some 'time, for yarns for braids, and for Astrakhan 

 cloakings which are beiiig made in Rhode Island. The demand for 

 animals of the pure race will increase without reference to the value 

 of the fleeces. There are enough agriculturists of taste and Avealth 

 in this country Avho will readily pay large prices for these docile and 

 beautiful animals simply as ornaments for their farms. 



I am convinced that the greatest obstacle to the permanent acquisi- 

 tion of new resources from any department of nature is exaggt^rated 

 expectations, as to their value and facility of acquirement. Our im- 

 patient countrymen need to be reminded that real progress is the 

 offspring not only of human eflfbrt but of time, and that of acclima- 

 tion esj^ecially it may be said : Non solum liumani ingenil sed tem- 

 poriis quoque Jil'ia est. There is encouragement however in the fact 

 tliat tlie fruits of decades or centuries in older countries are matured 

 here in years. In how brief a time has this vast country been stocked 

 vi'itli all the animal Avealth which Europe had to bestow! How 

 rapidly have we appropriated all the best ovine and bovine races of 

 tlie old world ! Within half a century we have spread the merino 

 sheep over all the prairies of the West, and within a less period have 

 acquired and perfected the cattle of the Durham short horn breed, 

 and even sent them back to ameliorate the parent stock in England. 

 The hope then is not vain that the precious race, whose slow march 

 westward we have traced from the remote East, may at no distant time 

 be fully secured for the western world. 



Mr. Geo. Wm. Bond exhibited samples of Angora wool 

 obtained from animals raised in Kentucky by Mr. B. K. Tully. 

 In his opinion they compared favorably in length of staple 

 and fineness of fibre with any imjjo'ted mohair. He pointed 



