342 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



advantages of different crosses. In ten days all the pure breeds were taken, with a demand 

 for many more. Even the mixed kids have been readily taken by those determined to infuse 

 their blood with their stock. In these arrangements, however, I have located them from the 

 top of the mountains to the seaboard, both in Carolina and Georgia. Apart from their 

 manifest practical aptitude in all these particulars, there is this ultimate value to* be con- 

 sidered : a Cashmere shawl is worth from $700 to $1500. Why is this difference, except in 

 their intrinsic value from durability as wearing apparel ? I have socks which I have worn 

 for six years, and are yet perfectly sound. 



No naturalist has yet been able to assign a systematic law regulating the acclimation of 

 animals. The Merino* sheep, whenever it has been removed, has generally changed, and in 

 most cases for the worse. Even when crossed upon the best Saxony sheep, it was a deteriora- 

 tion ; but when crossed upon a coarse-wooled animal, it improved the fleece ; and the cross 

 fixed both the character of the wool and the carcass. This fact is observed in many other 

 instances, demonstrating that the constitution of animals must be connected with location to 

 fix the character of the wool or the carcass. In fact, the same temperature, but modified by 

 altitude instead of latitude, does not produce the same results. On all the table mountain 

 and valley plains between Persia and Turkey in Asia, all the animals have fine, long, silken 

 hair, as the Angora cat, grayhound, and rabbits, and I have seen the same in some specimens 

 of the Koordistan horse. To a considerable extent this is the fact on the western part of 

 South America. 



In connection with this part of the subject, I will now mention the Thibet shawl-goat, 

 belonging to the coldest regions. I accidentally came in possession of a pair of these ani- 

 mals, but lost the male. I have a considerable increase from the female, bred with a Cash- 

 mere buck. The Thibet goat has, under a long, coarse hair, a coat of beautiful white wool, 

 which, when combed, makes about a pound to a fleece. I had these specimens with me at 

 the Zoological Gardens in London ; and, in comparing them with a stuffed specimen of a 

 Rocky Mountain goat, I could not discover the slightest difference ; nor do I yet see any 

 change of the fresh cross of the Cashmere buck upon my Thibet doe ; but in the third cross 

 upon the Cashmere, we may expect a valuable experiment by changing the fine under-wool, 

 or down, into a conjoint and uniform covering of wool. In regard to the Scinde goat, so 

 called from the province at the mouth of the Indus, he is a gigantic animal, with pendulent 

 ears twenty-two inches long, is used for the table and dairy, and is very similar to the Syrian 

 goat. The Malta milking-goat is also for the dairy, giving about a gallon of milk in a duy. 

 It may not be uninteresting for me to state a fact observed by me in the malarious sections 

 of the United States and Mexico. In all the similar sections of Asia and the East, they 

 regard cow's milk as being an exciting cause to bilious fevers, as well as to liver complaints, 

 and hence use only goat's milk. The modus agendi, I see, has been a matter under discussion 

 by the faculty of Paris. 



Having given thus much on the subject of goats, I now hasten to the cattle. In referring 

 to the Nagore or Brahmin cattle of India, in Youatt's work on British cattle, it will be per- 

 ceived that they are organized to undergo the fatigues of the hottest climates known, and 

 will carry a soldier six miles an hour for six consecutive hours. I brought but one^ pair to 

 the United States, and, as far as I can learn, my crosses of them upon other cattle are the 

 first known in this country. I crossed this bull upon Ayrshire, Devon, and Durham breeds, 

 as well as upon our common cattle. The offspring is considered, by all who have seen them, 

 far the handsomest animal of the cow kind. They are symmetrical and active, and can keep 

 fat when any other cow would starve. I had this half-breed crossed again upon our cattle, 

 but am not yet sufficiently experienced to report of their milking qualities. As evidence, 

 however, that our agriculturists confide in the appearances, my half-breeds readily sell for 

 $1000 a pair, and the second cross, or half-Brahmin, at from $100 to $300 each. Prefer- 

 ring the mixed breeds to the pure, I sold to Mr. Edes, of Kentucky, the original pair for 

 $4000, as that State would prove a better place to breed and disseminate the stock. As 

 Kentucky is the dependence of the South for beeves, they needed an animal that could come 

 to us in the hot months of summer, and remain healthy and sound. They have from this 

 animal a progeny that will travel thirty miles a day in August ; and the further South they 



