670 



SHEEP 



least. In 1919 the better grades sold on the ranch at from 50 to 

 60 cents a pound with the more common fleece from 40 to 45 cents. 

 The weight of the Angora goat is considerably less than that 

 of an average-sized sheep. From sixty to one hundred pounds is 

 regarded as a satisfactory range of weight. 



The Angora as a producer of mutton has grown in importance 

 in recent years, though not regarded from the same point of view as 

 that produced by sheep. The flesh of the fat young Angora makes 

 excellent mutton, and in recent years large numbers have found 



their way into the mar- 

 kets, where the carcasses 

 have been sold as lamb. 

 Some Angora breeders are 

 enthusiastic over the supe- 

 rior quality of .the mutton. 

 Wethers may be shorn for 

 some years and then fat- 

 tened and sold for mutton. 

 In the stockyards these 

 goats usually bring a lower 

 price than sheep. 



The Angora as a reno- 

 vator 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 brush 

 land have been pastured to flocks of goats, which have materially 

 reduced the cost of clearing the land for farm purposes. From 

 four to six goats are used per acre, and in two or three seasons 

 they will destroy the brush, and grass will take its place. 



The prolificacy of the Angora goat is not marked. Rarely more 

 than one kid is dropped a year, though twins and even triplets 

 may occur. Thompson states that on the southwestern ranches 

 the average percentage of kids is about seventy, with instances of 

 flocks attaining 1 20 per cent. Coaklin Brothers of California, in a 



Fig. 315. Pasha Columbia, a great Angora 

 sire and show buck, purchased by Mrs. M. 

 Armer, Kingston, New Mexico, for $1050. 

 From photograph, by courtesy of the National 

 Stockman and Farmer 



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