[242] 



The supply of Angora fleece in Asia Minor is limited and 

 precarious; access to it is both difficult and dangerous from 

 the jealousy of the government and the barbarous bigotry 

 of the people ; hence, English and continental manufac- 

 turers are looking to the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, 

 the United States, and South America for an increased pro- 

 duction of this staple to meet their necessities. The value 

 of this entire interest would be enormously enhanced by 

 the opening of an adequate and permanent source of 

 supply. 



In Europe the fleece is spun into yarn, mostly in 

 England, or at Boubaix, in France, thence distributed over 

 Europe for manufacture into cloth. The excellence of the 

 yarn spun in England and Boubaix is due partly to superior 

 skill, partly to peculiar and improved machinery, and partly 

 to natural and artificial humidity of the atmosphere. 



From very transparent motives the process of spinning 

 has been represented by those in the interest of the monop- 

 oly as very expensive and difficult, nay, even a profound 

 secret, known only to those now engaged in the business; 

 but these representations were flatly contradicted by the 

 exhibitions at Paris of a great variety of machinery for 

 carding, scrubbing, spinning, and weaving the tiptik or 

 Angora fleece. This machinery, purporting to have been 

 made largely in Bradford and Koubaix, two great seats of 

 yarn production, entirely exploded the assumption. 



The delicate processes of modern machinery surpass even 

 the quaint and exquisite skill of oriental operatives, while 

 in accuracy of design and cheapness of execution there is a 

 still greater difference. This enables the European manu- 

 facturer to purchase the raw material of Asia Minor, to pay 

 export and import duties, and then undersell the Asiatic 

 fabric, forstalling its entire western market. 



Mr. Diehl visited Angora, and examined the looms and 

 processes of manufacture in use among the natives. These 

 he found to be exceedingly crude and simple. The fleece 



