56 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



to have had exceptional opportunities for observation, in a 

 paper read before the Victorian Zoological Society, says : 



" Some think the preferable plan of starting a flock of Angoras is 

 to commence with a few pure goats, and trust solely to their increase. 

 By this process, considerable time must elapse before a large number 

 could be raised ; while, by commencing with the common goats, you can 

 obtain, by crossing, in six years, a valuable flock, only limited by the 

 number of common goats procured at the commencement of the opera- 

 tions. It is urged, as an objection to this system, that you can never 

 reach absolute purity. Theoretically, this is self-evident ; but, practi- 

 cally, you can eliminate every trace of base blood. By constant use of 

 pure sexes, and by judicious selection, a standard would be reached, at 

 least as pure and as certain to breed pure to type as that of the im- 

 proved Leicester sheep, the modern fox-hound, or what we call the 

 * thoroughbred ' horse." 



The writer of this paper has, for a long time, made a special 

 study of the Angora goat. In 1869, he prepared an elaborate 

 essay on the subject, which was published in the Proceedings 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History, and subsequently 

 was translated and published in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society of France. In that essay, he held the 

 view that the characteristic qualities of the fleece could not 

 be secured by breeding the Angora on the common goat. 

 This opinion he has been compelled to modify. While be- 

 lieving, with Mr. Peters and Mr. Wilson, that a pure-blooded 

 sire should be always used, he must admit that good fleece- 

 producing animals may be founded on the common goat. The 

 conclusive fact establishing this is the statement of the Messrs. 

 Bowes, in their statistics of wool for 1878, a very high 

 authority. They say: 



" We may refer to the acclimatization, in the Cape of Good Hope, 

 of the Angora goat, on which mohair is grown. The progress made 

 during the last dozen years has been very satisfactory, not only as 

 regards the quantity produced, but the quality, which has been very 

 much improved. The first shipment made was in 1865, and consisted 

 of 6,804 pounds ; in 1869, 245,000 pounds were shipped ; and, in 1876, 

 the quantity reached 1,298,455 pounds." 



