220 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



of 1851, and hence requires no notice here beyond the remark that it appears 

 to be a fine wool-bearing animal with a double coat or fleece, and is closely 

 allied to the Cashmere or Thibetiau goat, and would no doubt prove as valu- 

 able if captured and domesticated. Efforts are now being made to obtain live 

 specimens to domesticate and breed with the Cashmere, Angora, and common 

 goat, when we shall no doubt obtain more valuable information of their habits, 

 fleece, and value. 



With so much on the goat, its qualities, characteristics, and a few of its 

 vai-ieties, and commending its consideration and culture to such as are circum- 

 stanced to render its keeping convenient and profitable, we next proceed to 

 notice the still more valuable and wool-bearing varieties known as the Cash- 

 mere and Angora goats- 



THE WOOL-BEARING GOAT. 



As in several of its varieties the common goat (CaprahircusJ has become a 

 valuable domestic milk-producing animal, so has it also in several of its varie- 

 ties become a most valuable wool or fleece bearing one, even from remote 

 antiquity. Of this we have the earliest and most satisfactory evidence from 

 the records of the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, whose kings and priests 

 were clad in the fine fabrics made of this wool. The magnificent robe in which 

 the Ximroud monarch is represented as arrayed when receiving the sacred cup 

 from the priests was of this fine fabric, for on no other material less delicate 

 could those elaborate symbolical figures and mythological scenes have been 

 portrayed with such minute correctness and beauty. Moses, in the Pentateuch, 

 speaks of the fine wool of the goats, or " goat's laair ;" and no doubt this was 

 the article from which the curtains of the tabernacle were made, with priestly 

 robes and other fine articles of the Temple, as well as constituting the finer 

 garments of the patriarchs and rulers of that day, as of the shahs, sheiks, 

 pachas, and wealthier inhabitants of the present day. In the eastern world 

 their extensive flocks are largely composed of these wool-bearing goats, con- 

 stituting a source of wealth from time immemorial, and producing articles of 

 manufacture and furnishing employment to the inhabitants. This fine-haired 

 or woolled breed of goats we find exists under many varieties and in different 

 latitudes and countries throughout Asia and parts of Europe, from Kirmau, 

 Persia, on the 30th degree of north latitude, to Tartary and Siberia, on the 

 GOtli degree, and from Mongolia, China, on the east, to Tartary, Cashmere, 

 the Caspian sea, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean, on the -sv^est. At Kirman 

 and Teheran, Persia, most splendid shawls, fabrics, carpets, &c., are made, vieing 

 in beauty, fineness, and value with those of Cashmere itself ; while from Nepaul 

 to Caboul, Teheran, Angora, and Constantinople, similar animals are found 

 and similar articles of manufacture are made. 



Various attempts, with varying success, have of late years been made to 

 introduce these valuable wool-bearing animals into Europe, especially France, 

 England, and Sweden, and lately into our own country ; and by reference to 

 the journals of the Society of Acclimation, ("Societe Imperial d' Acclimation," J 

 we find extended and valuable accounts, but too lengthy for quotation or in- 

 sertion here. Suffice it to say, the French government has considered these 

 animals, their introduction and rearing, of sufficient importance to spend thou- 

 sands of dollars upon the experiment ; and we saw some fine specimens of 

 these, both Cashmere, Angora, and other goats, in the "Jardin des Plants," 

 the zoological gardens of Paris, and at other localities in France, and are 

 assured that they have finally succeeded in crossing the Cashmere and other 

 goats and procuring a valuable wool-bearing animal, from which they get a 

 long, fine, silky fleece and valuable wool, which they now manufacture into 

 the finest and most costly shawls, velvets, worsteds, de laines, challis, threads, 

 &c., heretofore known. The shawls are said to equal the celebrated ones 



