[237] 



ber of goats. As the wild natural subsistence is consumed 

 in one locality the range could be changed. Temporary 

 shelters facing southward and enclosed on the north and 

 west sides as wind screens, would furnish protection from 

 rain and snow. By keeping rock salt in the vicinity of 

 these shelters, the goats would return at night from the 

 range without the assistance of herders. 



With an experience covering twenty years in breeding 

 Angoras, they have proven universally healthy and free 

 from the diseases and contagions that so often decimate 

 flocks of sheep. There is but one ailment to which they 

 are subject, and that, an inflammation of the hoof, resulting 

 from running on grass sod ; this would not occur, or, if so, 

 only to a limited extent on rocky, dry ground, free from 

 grass. The application of pulverized bluestone in the cleft 

 of the hoof, and coal tar afterwards, is a prompt and certain 

 remedy. This inflammation lames but seldom ever proves 

 fatal, and never when treated in due time. 



The Angora goat probably more than any other domestic 

 animal demands freedom and perfect ventilation, and suc- 

 cumbs to close confinement in imperfectly ventilated quarters. 

 For this reason he is enabled to endure the inclemency of 

 winter far better, and will obtain subsistence under circum- 

 stances fatal to sheep. 



By nature this goat is organized for high, dry, rocky al- 

 titudes; can subsist for a much longer time without water 

 than sheep, and this attribute, with his capacity to subsist 

 on scant vegetation, suits him for vast areas in the extreme 

 West subject to annual visitations of drouth, and unsuited 

 to any other industry. There are many portions of Western 

 Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New and Old Mexico, whose to- 

 pography, climate, temperature and hygrometric conditions 

 are the same as the home of the Angora in Asia Minor, and 

 where the native Mexican goat can be had by thousands at 

 fifty cents a head as a basis for crossing with Angora bucks. 

 The mountains of Tennessee, North Carolina and North 



