[grintlforal 



INCLUDING 



THE INTRODUCTION OF NEW BREEDS OR SPECIES OF ANIMALS, NOTICES OF IMPROVEMENTS 



IN THE TREATMENT AND GROWTH OF STOCK, THE PRODUCTION OF ANIMAL 



FIBROUS SUBSTANCES, DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMALS, ETC. 



On the Introduction of Foreign Domestic Animals into South Carolina. 



R. DAVIS, of Columbia, S. C., furnishes to the Patent Office 

 the following communication respecting the introduction of 

 various breeds of foreign domestic animals into the Southern 

 States, especially South Carolina : 



The want of calcareous u^ in nearly all of the soils of the 

 Southern States, together with the heat of the sun. renders 

 them unfit for perennial grasses for grazing; hence they are 

 more suitable for browsing, as both tend to originate shrub- 

 bery and weeds. In 1836, having had some experience in the 

 importation of short-horned, Devon, and Ayrshire cattle into 

 the South, I then summarily advanced an opinion, "that all 

 cattle brought from a Northern to our Southern climate must 

 necessarily degenerate to the peculiarities of our location, and that it would be easier to im- 

 prove cattle already acclimated, or import animals from a still warmer region." In my late 

 sojourn in Asia and the East, I had reference to this observation in importing Cashmere, 

 Scinde, and Malta milking-goats, as well as the Brahmin ox, or Nagore, of India, the Asiatic 

 buffalo, or water-ox, and other animals. 



The Cashmere, Persian, Angora, and Circassian goats are one and the same animal, changed 

 in some respects by altitude, though but little by latitude. They abound in all this inac- 

 cossible territory, and are the eating, milking, cheese and butter-making and clothes-making 

 animal of the whole country. They are finely developed for the table, much disposed to 

 fatten, very white and beautiful, with long fine wool or curly hair, yielding about four to four 

 and a half pounds to the fleece. They can be easily procured by an energetic man, acquainted 

 with the peculiarities of the population, and at a cost of $4 to $6 each on the spot. I 

 brought to the United States, in 1849, seven females and two males. They have kids only 

 v. -ry spring, usually two at a birth. The full breeds have increased only to about thirty, 

 from the accidental circumstance that in nearly every instance the issue has been males. 



In locating these animals in different sections of South Carolina, I can see no difference be- 

 tween those reared here and the imported, with the exception that those reared in this State 

 are finer and heavier fleeced than those imported. 



On my arrival, I immediately procured a number of our little diminutive native female 

 g-oats, and crossed them upon a Cashmere buck. Their progeny had hair very fine, but little 

 longer than that of the does. I again crossed the females of this progeny upon the other 

 Cashmere buck, and it was difficult to distinguish these from the pure breed ; and the subse- 

 quent cross cannot be detected. In the spring, I contemplate effecting still another cross. I 

 consider this a most valuable and useful experiment, as I made an arrangement with ama- 

 teurs to sell pure bucks at $100, and to exchange annually, so as to furnish them with the 



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