458 



THE GOAT 



pounds, which they claim makes it the heaviest fleece on record. 

 This mohair lies over a short coat of hair known as kemp, which 

 is hard and white, sometimes attaining a length of four inches. 

 Kemp is a very objectionable fiber, as it is coarse and will not 

 take the dyes used with mohair. Its presence in American flocks 

 is materially due to the influence of common goat blood on which 

 the Angora has been much crossed in the past. Very careful 

 selection of breeding sires helps to greatly reduce this difficulty. 

 The prices of mohair differ according to the demand and qual- 

 ity. In Bradford, England, the mohair manufacturing center of 



the world, the price has 

 ranged from 23 to 92 

 cents a pound since 1856, 

 though during the past 

 twenty-five years it has 

 ranged low rather than 

 high. In 1 90 1 the aver- 

 age price in the United 

 States was about 25 cents. 

 Late in 1905 choice comb- 

 ing mohair was quoted in 

 Chicago at 34 to 36 cents 

 a pound. 



The value of the Angora 

 as a mutton producer is 

 not regarded commercially 

 as very important. The 

 flesh of the fat young 

 Angora makes excellent mutton, although comparatively few find 

 their way into the markets. Sold in the stock yards Angoras usu- 

 ally bring a lower price than sheep. Some Angora breeders are 

 enthusiastic over the superior quality of the mutton. Wethers may 

 be shorn for some years and then fattened and sold for mutton. 



The Angora as a renovator of brush land has a distinct value. 

 The goat is naturally a browser and not a grazing animal. In 

 brush lands he is in his element. He eats the slender tips 

 and twigs and destroys young trees and brush very effectually. 

 In Michigan, Wisconsin, and some other states large tracts of 



Fig. 216. Aztec 10664, the champion Angora 

 goat of the 1902 shows. Bred by D. C. Tay- 

 lor & Son and sold for $1 400 to Kemble Bros, 

 of Iowa. Photograph from the National Stock- 

 man and Farmer 



