THE ANGORA GOAT 



457 



shoulders and hips of equal height. A sloping rump is very objectionable. 

 The chest should be broad, indicating good constitution, and the body 

 round, legs short and strong. The head should not droop, but be clean-cut, 

 with bright eye and broad muzzle ; avoid a pinched nostril. The horns are 

 grayish, never black ; in the buck they are heavy, with an inward twist, 

 inclining backward and to the outside. The doe's horns rise immediately 

 upward and backward, slightly outward, with very little inclination to twist. 

 In most animals the ears are pendent and from six to eight inches long, 

 with an average width of about two inches, and well pointed. In some 

 animals the ears are fox-like, 

 — short, pointed, and pricked. 

 There appear to be no other 

 differences between the goats 

 having the different kinds of 

 ears. 



The fleece of the animals 

 should be pure white, although 

 there are colored Angoras. 

 No colored spots on the skin 

 should be tolerated. The 

 fleece should cover the entire 

 body, — as dense on the belly 

 and neck as on the back and 

 sides ; should extend to the 

 ears and jaw. While some are 

 breeding for the topknot and 

 for mohair on the face and 

 lower legs, this is not an evi- 

 dence that the animal is better 



than another that may not have the head and face covered. The mohair 

 should grow to the length of about ten inches during a year, and hang in 

 tight ringlets or wavy curls. The curl should extend entirely up to the skin. 



The Angora goat sheds its fleece each spring if not shorn. 

 Some are hornless, though such are rather uncommon. The 

 Angora has no strong musky odor, like the common goat, except- 

 ing in the case of the male during the breeding season. 



The fleece of the Angora goat is commercially known as 

 mohair. It differs from wool in having no exterior scales and 

 not possessing the felting quality. Mohair is somewhat coarser 

 than fine wool, but it is longer and much stronger. An average 

 fleece weighs about three pounds. Riddle & Sons of Monmouth, 

 Oregon, report that their buck Sultan, sweepstakes at the Lewis 

 and Clark Exposition in 1905, sheared a fleece weighing i8.V 



Fig. 2 1 5. Pasha Columbia, a great Angora sire 

 and show buck, costing $1050, at the head 

 of the flock of Mrs. M. Armer, Kingston, 

 New Mexico. Photograph from the National 

 Stockman and Farmer 



