98 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



for this use it affords a valuable fleece, and its flesh is a very 

 desirable addition to our usual bill of fare. 



THE GOAT. 



Another animal, or rather race of animals, closely allied 

 to the sheep, is its congener the goat. This tribe is separated 

 into two distinct classes, the short haired and the long haired. 

 Like the sheep the goat is valued for its fleece, and for its 

 flesh and milk. Its milk is the richest of all animals except 

 the whale (which is not a fish but one of the varieties of 

 the mammalia, or milk giving animals). The whale's milk 

 has far more fat in it than that of any other animal, this 

 being about seventeen to eighteen per cent; the milk of the 

 goat has five to seven per cent of pure fat in it, and is thus 

 highly valued for medical purposes, especially as a diet for 

 consumptives. But it is as a wool bearer that we have to 

 consider it in these pages. The finest wool in the world is 

 the under fleece of the Cashmere goat, renowned as the pro- 

 ducer of that costly staple of which the most highly valued 

 shawls in the world are made. This animal is a native of 

 Asia, and is reared mostly in Persia, and especially in the 

 Province of Cashmere, although most of the highly valued 

 shawls are not made in that swecial locality. This valuable 

 part of the fleece is the undergrowth, which is not sheared, 

 but naturally falls off in the spring and is combed out of the 

 upper fleece when it is loosening at its annual period. This 

 wool is exquisitely soft, fine, and silky, having the elasticity 

 of down. The yearly product is quite small, a full grown 

 animal yielding only a few ounces of the best quality of the 

 wool. 



So far it has never been thought worthy of culture out- 

 side of its native locality, and as it is only profitable for the 

 special purpose of this quite insignificant manufacture, it is 

 scarcely probable that this goat will be worthy of attention 

 here. 



The Angora goat, however, is of a different character, 

 and has already been adopted ns one of our wool or fleece 

 bearing animals. It is a native of one of the Turkish Pro- 

 vinces, and being the basis of a profitable trade it is jealously 

 guarded, and its exportation is forbidden except under spe 

 cial permits by the Government. At one time the demand 



