352 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



older animals . Their hides are manufactured into morocco leather. &quot;When we come to con 

 sider the ease with which these animals are reared, and the ,slight expense involved in the 

 food consumed by them, there is scarcely any animal that returns so much in products for the 

 capital invested. 



Shearing Goats and Preparing Mohair for Market. As with the shearing of 

 sheep, considerable care is necessary to have the wool in a fine condition for market; the 

 same is true respecting the preparation of mohair for sale and the manufacturers use. Col. 

 Robert Scott gives directions for shearing and packing the mohair, as follows: 



&quot; About the 1st of April, in Kentucky, when a somewhat fuzzy appearance in the fleece 

 denotes that some of the goats begin to shed their wool, they should be well washed without 

 the use of soap, in clear water (and the warmest accessible, though not artificially heated), 

 and on a clear and sunny day. The males especially require washing. It may often be 

 dispensed with after a heavy rain, and especially with the females and wethers. For this 

 purpose, place a hog-scalding box, or other box or trough, near a clear pond or stream, and 

 fill with water; submerge the goat to the neck in it, two men holding and rubbing. When 

 the wool is cleaned of any dirt, and of the old skin which is being shed off, stand the goat 

 upon a plank placed across the box, and press the wool with the hands, and let the water 

 drain for a few minutes. 



After drying thoroughly for a week or two in a clean pasture, they may be shorn like 

 sheep, if practicable, cutting off the wool about the ends of the hair, which is then growing 

 out among the wool of grade goats. It is desirable to get as little as possible of the old skin 

 and of the growing hair in the shorn fleece of wool. Each fleece should be carefully rolled 

 up separately, outside out, and tied up securely and closely with small, fine, colored thread 

 or twine. Pack the fleeces closely in a bag which will contain one hundred and fifty or two 

 hundred pounds, and it is ready for market. The female goats should be handled with great 

 care, as, in this climate, they are then heavy with young.&quot; 



Diseases and Parasites of the Angora Goat. This species of goat, as well as 

 most others, is extremely hardy, as will be seen by the following statements from two of the 

 oldest breeders of goats in the country. 



Colonel Robert Scott says: &quot;Though I have been breeding these animals twenty 

 years, and once had over two hundred head of them of all ages, yet there has never been 

 any epidemic disease among them. During this time I have lost several by worms in the 

 nose, as with sheep, and one by a swelling of the glands of the throat. A humor in the cleft 

 of the hoof, like scratches in horses, has given me more trouble than all other diseases. 

 It is caused by wading through high, wet grass, yields readily to strong acids, and never 

 kills. Wash the sore repeatedly in carbolic soap suds, or in turpentine, and then apply a 

 salve made of bluestone, copperas, or tar. A variety of small, long, red vermin is peculiar 

 to them; is not fatal, and can be destroyed mainly by preparations of tobacco, cresylic soap, 

 or camphor, sulphur, etc., applied along the back.&quot; 



Mr. Peters of Georgia also states that: &quot;The Angoras may be classed with the herbiv 

 orous animals. They have not proved to be a success in the Eastern and Middle States, when 

 kept in small enclosures on grass, during the summer, and in winter in close barns, and fed 

 on grain and hay. At my farm, near Atlanta, they have succeeded admirably, being 

 exempt from disease and able to protect themselves from attacks by dogs; but they are 

 allowed to run out, summer and winter, in an inclosure of over a hundred acres of woods- 

 pasture land, which they have greatly improved by killing the undergrowth of briars and 

 bushes.&quot; 



It will be seen by the preceding statements, that goats may be easily reared in a climate 

 adapted to them, that they have few diseases, and under proper management the industry 

 may be made a remunerative one. 



