38 



BUEEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



sorts have been called upon very extensively in j^reference to that grown in South 

 Africa. * * * l am stating a plain fact that Bradford users do not think that the 

 Cape clip is as yet within 25 per cent of the general excellence of that grown in Asia 

 Minor, and that much remains to be done before users here will avail themselves of 

 that produced in Cape Colony in preference to that grown in Turkey. 



The encouragement is not in the fact that the Cape mohair is so 

 much poorer than the Turkish product, but because ours is no worse 

 than that of the Cape. Although the annual product of the Cape of 

 Good Hope is about 12,000,000 pounds and ours only 1,000,000 pounds 

 approximately, the growers there recognize the importance of the 

 American industry. Mr. W. Hammond Tooke, after discussing the 

 Australian possibilities in this industry, says "the United States of 

 America should give us more concern." In the same article, published 

 in the Agricultural Journal of the Cape (May 25, 1899), he states that 

 the ])reeding of goats here for mohair is no longer considered an experi- 

 ment, and that the mohair is ' ' muc^h like a large part of that produced 

 in the Cape, consisting of rather low grades, short and crossbred, and 

 only suitalile for combination yarns and for mixing with Turkey hair." 



As illustrative of the superior value of the mohair from Angora 

 vilayet and Cape of Good Hope, the following table and statement are 

 copied from Schreiner's work (p. 14). The figures represent the aver- 

 age of the four years 1891 to 1891: 



Angora. 



Cape. 



Mohair goats number 



Mohair pounds 



Per goat pound 



Total value of mohair -.pounds sterling 



Per pound 



Money yield of mohair [ler goat 



1,230,000 

 3, 360, 000 



200, 000 

 ls.2id. 

 3s.3id. 



2,891,233 



9, 982, 709 



a3J 



419,601 



alOr'xd. 



2s. Hid. 



a Nearly. 



The superiority of the Turkish hair is at once apparent, there being a difference in 

 its favor in the above figures of nearly 4d. per pound, and also a difference in its 

 favor in the net return per goat of nearly 4d., although the Turkish goats shear 

 three-fourths of a pound of mohair less per goat tlian the Cape goats. 



Mr. George B. Goodall, of the Sanford Mills, Sanford, Me., points 

 out, in a recent letter to the Bureau, the defects of the American- 

 grown mohair taken as a whole. His mills consume more than a mil- 

 lion pounds of mohair annually, some being the domestic product and 

 some the Turkey product, and thus he speaks from large experience. 

 He says: 



Before the domestic mohair growers can expect to get any where near Turkey prices 

 they must do away with kemp and aim for a fine stapled hair instead of breeding 

 for coarse, heavy fleeces, as many do. The coarser the fiber, the lower the value to 

 the spinner. We often get small shipments of domestic fleeces as choice and fine as 



