THE ANGORA GOAT. 21 



DESCmi'Tlt)N OF THE ANGOKA GOAT. 



Mr. Israel S. Diehl, bearing a commission from the Commissioner 

 of Ao-riculture, visited the province of Angora in 1867 to investigate 

 the mohair industry. Here, where there were once in operation 1,700 

 to 1,800 looms working up the mohair fleeces, he found but a few hun- 

 dred remaining, struggling hopelessly against the fatal competition of 

 European machinery and the aggressive policy of the European Gov- 

 ernments. The fleeces were exported to Europe for fabrication, thus 

 rendering Turkey tributar}- to the monopol}^ then existing in this 

 industry in Europe. The European demand for the raw material was 

 so great and the facilities to fabricate it so much better and cheaper 

 that Turke}" was compelled to export the raw mohair. In order to 

 meet the demands for manufactured mohair the Turkish growers, 

 without wise foresight, began the practice of crossing the Angora 

 upon the common Kurd goat of that country. The inevitable result 

 of such a polic}^ was to bring about to a large extent the conditions 

 which have obtained in the United States, namely, a breed of Angoras 

 of uncertain purity. This fact, coupled with the belief that proper 

 care was not exercised in selecting the animals exported to this coun- 

 try and that they have been carelessly bred here, has led some excel- 

 lent judges of Angoras to express the belief that there are really no 

 purebred Angoras in the United States. 



These conditions have produced various types of Angoras, even in 

 Asia Minor, and a minute description of one would not apply to all. 

 Some strains have fox-like ears, while others and generally preferred 

 ones have long pendent ears. In this country care must alwa3^s be 

 exercised to cull the oficolored kids out of the flock. These may be 

 the result of atavism, where a cross was made upon a common goat 

 either red or black; but it is reported by some that different colors are 

 found in the province of Angora among what were supposed to be 

 purebred animals. Mr. Gustav A. Hoerle, one time corresponding 

 secretary of the American Mohair Growers' Association, and an author- 

 ity of note on Angora goats, mentions having yellow and red goats in 

 his own herd, and said that "some of the kids became quite a variety 

 show." 



Mr. S. C. Cronwright Schreiner, of Cape Colony, in his excellent 

 work on "The Angora Goat," has compiled the descriptions of almost 

 all writers on Angora goats. He quotes Mr. Henry O. Binns, who 

 spent twenty years in the mohair districts of Asia Minor between 1864 

 and 1886, and who studied them during that time, as follows: 



The pure Angora in his prime is about the size of a five-months-old Cape [Cape of 

 Good Hope] kid, with small thin horns, wooled all over the body, their hair almost 

 covering the eyes; exceedingly delicate, and so subject to disease that no one cared 

 to keep him. What is to-day called the purebred Angora is like the English thor- 

 oughbred horse — the result of crossing and recrossing imtil body, class, points, etc., 

 have attained to what is generally considered that the thoroughbred Angora ought 

 to be. 



