348 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



The coat is composed of two kinds of hair, the one short and coarse which lies close to 

 the skin, the other long and curly, and partaking of the nature of wool, forming the outer 

 covering of the fleece. Both are used for manufacturing purposes, but the exterior portion, 

 which makes by far the greater bulk, is the more valuable part of the fleece. 



The Cashmere goat has a delicate head, with long, wide, semi-pendulous ears. The 

 horns are erect, slightly spiral, and inclining inward to the extent that they sometimes cross. 

 Like the Angora, the coat is composed of two materials, but it is the under coat of this 

 breed, or that next the skin, that is the most valued in commerce. This under growth is of a 

 grayish- white tinge, is soft, silky, and of a fluffy nature similar to down; the quantity pro 

 duced by a good specimen of the breed will weigh from six ounces to a pound, the average 

 amount being less than half a pound. This under growth of the Cashmere makes its appear 

 ance in autumn, and continues to grow until the following spring, when, if it is not removed 

 from the fleece by being combed out, it falls off naturally, like the feathers of a moulting 

 bird. It is used in the manufacture of the celebrated cashmere shawls. The difference 

 between these two breeds of goats is thus very readily seen. The habitat of the Angora goat 

 is a mountainous region, high and dry, with free range for exercise and browsing the shrubs 

 and coarse herbage upon which it subsists. While the goat will be healthy, and produce a 

 fine fleece in some other localities, it will not be as white and fine as in the cooler and dryer 

 regions. Nevada, New Mexico, Montana, and some portions of California, as well as many 

 other sections of the west, will prove a desirable climate for the Angora goat husbandry, 

 while the Appalachian or Alleghany ranges, from the central portion of Virginia to Alabama, 

 are also admirably adapted to it. Says a recent writer on this subject: 



&quot;The industry in Asia Minor is dwindling away, from oppression, taxation, unusual 

 losses by stress of weather and short feed, and the general inefficiency that marks the decaying 

 Ottoman Empire. It is being successfully transplanted to the English Colonies, notably those 

 of Australia and South Africa. The value of the product has been, at the latter point, 

 increased from $1,625, in 1866, to $650,000 the past year. In the United States the industry 

 has had a precarious existence for thirty years. While in that time the merino industry has 

 culminated, after a previous length of tutelage, in its present magnificent proportions, that of 

 mohair has given very insignificant results, for the time, labor, and expense involved. The 

 reasons are very plain to him who will look at the matter in an unprejudiced way. The 

 Angora goat will not, like the sheep in its various breeds, thrive in most all localities and 

 conditions. Therefore, the attempt to plant the industry amid the rich clover-fields of Bel- 

 mont, in Massachusetts, the vast undulations of Texas, the slopes and adjacent islands of 

 the California coast, etc., has, in most cases, proved a failure. There is no reason whatever 

 to doubt that when the order of nature, as to the home, habits, and food of the animal are 

 observed, the Angora will thrive in the United States as well as in Asia Minor.&quot; 



The illustration represents specimens of the Angora goat from the herds of Col. Robert 

 W. Scott, who has been an extensive breeder of these animals for more than twenty years. 

 The likeness in front is of a pure-bred buck, that on the left of a pure-bred ewe, and that on 

 the right of a full-blood ewe, made by crossing the common goat (five or more times) with 

 the pure Angora bucks. 



Importations of the Angora Goat into the United States. The first im 

 portation of this goat to the United States was made by Dr. Jas. B. Davis, of South Carolina. 

 This gentlemen was, during President Folk s administration, sent to Turkey by the request of 

 the Sultan of that country, to experiment in the culture of cotton in the Sultan s dominions; 

 on his return to Americia, in 1848, the Sultan ordered a selection of nine of the finest speci 

 mens of fleece-bearing goats in his dominions, and presented them to Dr. Davis, to experiment 

 with in this country. Since that time various other importations have been made. Col. C. 

 W. Jenks, of Boston, has recently imported for Hon. Richard Peters, of Atlanta, Georgia, 

 several fine specimens of the Geredeh Angora breed from Asia Minor, to add to his flock of 



