222 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



a fine undercoat like the former, bnt neither po abundant nor so fine as the 

 Angora. In ancient times, when the goat divided the pnlm of usefulness with 

 the sheep, the Syrian goat was no doubt superior to Avhat we now find it in 

 Palestine or Syria, so far as its hairy produce is concerned. 



The following description is given from Sharp's London Magazine : 



" Tho Casbnierc poat is a nobler species of the common goat, descended from the goat of 

 Thibet, which pastures on tho Himalaya. The climate is subject to sudden cbanpe.o. 

 There is little raiu, but much snow, as the cold in winter is below the freezing point. Thilx-4 

 is situated at the northom descent of the Himalayas, and Cashmere of the southeni ; hence 

 tho latter is a little warmer than Thibet. Here the goat is a domestic animal. It is not 

 allowed a verj- liLxuriant pasture. Tho soil is sterile, and vegetation scanty. 



" The favorite food of these animals is buds, aromatic plants, rue, and heath. Tho people 

 of Thibet ahvays give them salt at least once a week, which has always proved a useful ao- 

 companiment to their customary food. 



"The head of the Asiatic goat is large, the horns situated backwards and .somewliat 

 cur^'ed, the legs slender. Proper food and careful tending increases the fineness of tho wooL' 



" The goats of Thibet which pasture in the highest lauds have a bright ochie color. In 

 lower grounds the color becomes of a yellowish white, and still lower or further down, 

 entirely white. 



"The highest mountains here inhabitable by man contain, also, a certain kind of goat 

 with black wool, which in India obtains the highest price. 



" The goats of Cashmere and Thibet have the fine curled wool close to the skin, just as the 

 under hair of the common goat lies below the coarse upper hair. 



" The wool is shorn or pulled shortly before the warm season, the time when the animal 

 naturally seeks thorns and hedges to free itself from the bru'den of its warm covering. All 

 the hard and long hairs are carefully picked out. The wool, thus prepared, is first washed 

 in a wami solution of potash, and afterwards in cold water, in which process felting must be 

 carefully avoided. It is then bleached upon the grass and carded for spinning, and three 

 times dyed to impart to it its brilliant lustre." 



THE ANGORA GOAT, 



The Angora goat, so-called from a province of Natolia or Anatolia, the an- 

 cient Cappadocia, in Asia Minor, and the principal place where the wool is 

 bought, sold, and manufactured, has finally, like Cashmere, given its name to 

 the goat inhabiting a large region of country extending from the Black sea on 

 the north to Diarbekir, on the plains of Mesopotamia, on the south, and from 

 Persia and the Caspian sea on the east to near the Mediterranean on the west, 

 of which Angora foi-ms the centre. This goat, though described as the Capra 

 Angoraensis, is only an improved variety of the " Capra hircus,'^ or common 

 domestic goat, and is closely allied in many respects to the Cashmere, bu 

 readily distinguished from the common goat by the greater size of its ears. 



The Angora goat, and more especially the varieties it has produced, aC 

 probably the most valuable of all the goat family, and have been ably d'- 

 scribed by naturalists, Buffon, Pennant, Hazelquist, and travellers, as good-siz>d 

 animals, generally of a beautifully milk-white color, with short legs and wiiO- 

 ppreading, spirally twisted horns, a good view or illustration of which is luro- 

 with presented, and may be readily recognized either in the pictures heretoore 

 published in this country under the name of Cashmere, or by reference tothe 

 authorities quoted, or a simple view of the animals themselves, now scattred 

 throughout most of the States from Massachusetts to California. 



The wool is described as " a very beautiful curled or wavy hair, of sii'ery 

 whiteness, with a fine downy wool at its base," and this hair is disposed irlong 

 pendant spiral ringlets on the whole body. The horns of the female, i'Stead 

 of spreading as in the male, turn backwards, and are much shorter in j*opop- 

 tion; those of the male are long, spu-ally twisted, but the size and directon are 

 very diflFerent from the common goat, being generally extended fromfifteen 

 to thirty inches in height on each side of the head, while those of thcfemale 

 end near the ears. The hair or wool often sweeps to the gi'ound, ancis from 

 five to twelve inches long, especially in the older bucks, but then no so fine. 



