SHEEP, SWINE, AND OTHER DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 461 



fourtli generation scarcely distinguishable from pure breads. 

 Says the American Agricultwist : " Rocks that goats will not 

 climb, foliage that they will not eat, bark that they v/ill not 

 gnaw, are things hard to find. Still, these propensities to 

 overstep bounds, and do what we would rather they would not, 

 may all be controlled, and their silky fleeces made available to 

 the comfort and pleasure of man. We have been much inter- 

 ested in examining samples of the fleece of different pure 

 blooded and grade animals of this breed, if so it miiy be called, 

 as well as the animals themselves, and are convinced from tho 

 diversity of form in the animals, and of fineness of the wool ov 

 hair, that there is in the stock great capacity for improvement. 

 These goats impress their characteristics with great certainty 

 and power upon their offspring, when crossed with common 

 goats. The fleece consists of the long, often very tine, silky 

 hair, and beneath it, very close, fine wool, which coats the 

 animal in the winter season, and affords a most efiicient protec- 

 tion from the cold. By careful breeding, doubtless either of 

 these kinds of fleece may be increased in quantity. The fine 

 Cashmere shawls are made from the soft, fine wool; and, though 

 experiments in inl^roducing the fine haired goats of Cashmere 

 and Thibet into Southern India, to produce this fine fleece, have 

 failed, yet the Cashmere introduced into this country, and their 

 descendants, are said not to deteriorate in this respect." 



A still further recommendation of these animals is that they 

 are not subject to rot, grub, and other diseases, to which sheep 

 are liable. The cut we give is from a goat owned by Messrs. 

 N. P. Boyer & Co., of Parkesburg, Pa. {Fig. 91.) 



The Dog. • The late H. W. Herbert published a work, of six 

 hundred and sixty-three pages devoted to the breeding, break- 

 ing, training, and diseases of dogs, yet the number of worthless 

 ours has continually increased. There is nothing so worthless 



