398 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 



then shorn. The legs of the goat are then tied together, 

 the strap removed from the neck, and the sides of the 

 table dropped, so that one has a plane surface on which 

 to shear the rest of the animal. An untrained man can 

 shear 100 goats a day with a shearing machine and such 

 a table." 



Few breeders wash their goats before shearing, and if 

 the animal has been properly cared for during the winter 

 and early spring, washing is not necessary. Breeders find 

 it to their advantage to ship the mohair in as clean a con- 

 dition as possible. Colored fleeces, tag locks, mohair that 

 is clotted and that which is dirty, should be packed sepa- 

 rately. As kid hair is usually the finest, it should be 

 packed by itself ; the doe hair and that from the wethers 

 may be placed together. Fleeces should not be tied with 

 twine, as parts of it are likely to adhere to the fleece, and 

 can be removed only by great care and effort. Fleeces 

 from Turkey and Cape Colony are not tied at all, but are 

 simply rolled up inside out ; this is the condition in which 

 the mills desire to receive them. 



489. Uses of Angoras. The Angora goat is considered 

 one of the most useful of the domestic animals, and has 

 been so held from remote times. This usefulness is mani- 

 fested in many ways. 



The mohair. The fleece, called " mohair," is used 

 extensively in the manufacture of plushes. It is not 

 generally known that practically all of the plushes used in 

 railway passenger coaches and street cars are made of 

 mohair. Besides these plushes, which are usually plain, 

 large quantities of frieze and crush plushes are used in 

 upholstering furniture. The designs for the frieze plushes 

 are limited only by the ingenuity of man. The carriage 

 robes, couch covers, sofa-pillow covers and rugs are dis- 



