PRACTICAL ANGORA GOAT RAISING. 61 



wethers and does are in good demand. There has 

 existed in America some prejudice against the flesh 

 of the goat. To-day thousands of goats are being 

 consumed annually, but most of them are sold as 

 mutton. Packers and butchers still insist that An- 

 gora venison must be sold as mutton. They pay 

 about one-half a cent to a cent a pound less for the 

 goat than for sheep. 



The goat never fattens as well along the back as 

 the sheep, and hence the carcass does not look so 

 well. The fat is more evenly distributed throughout 

 the animal in the goat. An expert once said that to 

 know whether a goat was fat one should feel the 

 brisket, and if there was a considerable layer of adi- 

 pose tissue between the skin and the breast bone, the 

 animal was fat. 



Some of the American breeders do not send 

 their wethers to market until they get too old to pro- 

 duce valuable fleeces. The animals are then slaught- 

 ered when they have grown a half year's fleece, and 

 the skins are reserved by the breeder. These skins 

 are valuable, and help to bring up the average price 

 of the goat. 



At present some of the packers recognize no dif- 

 ference between shorn and unshorn goats. The 

 price is the same, so it pays to shear the goats before 

 bringing them to market. There is absolutely no 

 strong flavor in prime Angora venison, and this is 



