54 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



ily obtained in five or six years. Thorough-bred bucks should always 

 be used, because the progeny of the so-called 'full-blood' bucks vary 

 greatly, and the upward progress is by no means satisfactory. The 

 Angora is a hardy, industrious, and self-sustaining animal, and can be 

 classed as herbivorous. Being active and vigorous, they roam over wide 

 ranges of country, giving value to worthless vegetation refused by most 

 other animals ; and will feed and fatten at double the distance from 

 water that sheep can, as they travel faster and endure more. I have, 

 for twenty years, bred them largely, and have observed the following 

 rules in my selection of stock bucks : 



" In pedigree, dating back to Asiatic importation. 



" In fleece, weight and length of the long, silky, ringletted, white 

 fleece, and its freedom from kemp, and mane on the back and neck. 



" Inform, size and vigor, long, pendant ears, and upright, spiral horns. 



" If that point has not been already reached, I believe it will be, 

 when, (as in the history of the merino sheep) finer specimens of the 

 Angora, American bred, may be seen here than can be found in their 

 haunts in Asia Minor." 



" I have had great success with the Angoras, and regard them as one 

 of the most valuable acquisitions to the resources of our husbandry. 

 They have yielded me more substantial pecuniary benefit than any 

 branch of my extended stock investments. In 1861, 1 sent out to Wm. 

 M. Landrum, of California, the first Angoras that went there ; where 

 they have laid the foundation of what, I am confident, will be a very 

 extensive and profitable husbandry. There can be no doubt that, in 

 the range of the Blue Ridge, extending from Alabama to Virginia, 

 they would find all the requirements of their nature, utilize a vast coun- 

 try, and prove a source of great benefit and profit to all interested." 



Colonel Watts, on the same subject, uses these words : 



" Let me say, in view of the industrial wants of the country, I think 

 this last-named section of our State [South Carolina], the Blue Ridge 

 mountains, can, with moderate care and expense, most successfully find 

 all the facilities needed for the best combing wools and the Alpaca and 

 Angora goat. In fact, I have no doubt on this point. Even here, 

 seventy-five miles from the mountains, I have, for six years, grown 

 most successfully the Angora goat ; whose flesh I regard as superior to 

 any mutton, and whose fleece, properly handled, could there be made 

 more profitable than any wool-growing. This I can say from actual, 

 careful experience with Angoras of the Asia Minor stock, meeting here 



