282 
MOORE’S RURAL MEW-YORKE 
Ihceji gufibamlrg. 
A SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA SHEEP-WALK. 
The following letter comes to me from one 
of the southwestern counties of the Old Do¬ 
minion. It is interesting enough to go into 
the Rural New-Yorker, and so I send it to 
you: 
“Brown Hill P. O., Wythe Co., Va., 1 
"October 8, 1874. f 
“ My Dear Str 1 learn that you are inter¬ 
ested m the wool growing of our country, and 
have been referred to you for information re- 
garding the Ca bmere or Angora goat. Please 
tell uie how much wool or mohair they yield, 
and what Is Its value In the market per pound '< 
Is the w hole fleece saved and sold, or is It only 
the line, soil, fur-like, or dowu-Jiko xuhiitut.ee 
that uuvcrx the skin of the animal ? Any infor¬ 
mation you feel disposed to impart to me will 
be thankfully received. 
“ l or some years 1 have been setting uiy 
farm in order for the purpose of converting it 
into u ‘ sheep-walk ' (as they say in Scotland) 
on an extensive sea c, for tills country. My 
farm will produce winter food for manj, thou¬ 
sand sheep, and for a summer range we itave 
the use ol' fifty thousand acres of mountain 
land. • 
" i desire to commence with from BOO to BOO 
ewes and live bucks of the Merino breed ; bill I 
have not the cash to purchase them with. Per¬ 
haps vou may lie aide to tell me of some one 
who will join me in the business, he furnishing 
the stock and f the land on which to graze 
them, dividing the proceeds equitably. 
“My purpose is to keep a shepherd and ids 
dog constantly with the sheep when the flock 
is large enough to turn Into the mountains; 
hut while tin 1 flock is less than one thousand 
I shall keep them on the farm and attend to 
them well, putting them UP every night. 
“ lu the tun i iicu of a dog law here, enacted 
by our legislature, 1 have enacted a law of my 
own; I shoot every dog that comes on the 
place; hence I have not lost a sheep of the 
few I have. Respectfully, 
Took. Jas. Finnic." 
Reply. —Mr. Finnic has fallen into the 
common error among Americans ol’ con¬ 
founding the two races of fleece-bearing 
goats—the Angora and the Cashmere -winch 
form the subject of his first inquiry ; or, 
rather, ho seems to consider them identical 
They art? not, but are distinct and quite dif¬ 
ferent animals. For his benefit, and as a 
matter of general interest, possibly, 1 repro- 
duee here the following 
DESCRIPTION OF THE TWO BREEDS AND OK 
THEIR FLEECES. 
The description of the Angora given by M. 
Brandt, a European naturalist of high repute 
and Director of the Museum at 8t. Peters¬ 
burg in 1855,"is miuutely as follows : 
The magnificent example of the Angora 
goat which the Museum of the Imperial 
Academy owes to M. Teliihateheff [the 
learned Russian traveler! produces at_ first, 
sight the general impression of a domestic 
goat, when attention is not directed to its 
thick and silky fleece, to its fiat ears turned 
downward, and its inconsiderable size. But 
it is precisely these traits which Impress upon 
this animal a distinct seal, which give it the 
character of a peculiar race, whose origin is 
not the same as that of the domestic goat. 
The extremity of the snout, the checks, the 
nasal and fi’ontai bone, as well as the cars, 
and the lower part of tho lugs below the 
tarsal articulation, are covered with exter¬ 
nal hairs, which arc shorter and thicker than 
those that cover the above-mentioned parts 
in other species of goats. The forehead has 
soft hairs of less length, less applied to the 
skin, and, in part, curled. The hair of the 
beard, which is pointed* and of moderate 
dimensions, being six inches in length, [Ger¬ 
man measurement,! is stiff or than tho ham 
of the rest of the body, but less so than that 
of the beard of tho ordinary goal. The horns, 
of a grayish-white lint, are longer than the 
head ; at their lower part the interior mar¬ 
ginal border turns inward in such a manner 
that in this part they appear broad, viewed 
in front, and narrow when seen exteriorly ; 
at hall' their extension they direct them¬ 
selves moderately backward and turn spir¬ 
ally outward, so that their extremities di¬ 
rected slightly upward, are very much 
separated one from tl;e other, and circum¬ 
scribe a space gradually contracting itself. 
The whole of the neck, as well ns the trunk, 
is covered with long hairs, which, particu¬ 
larly on the neck and lateral parts of the 
body, are twisted in spiral curls, having tho 
appearance of loosened ringlets, it being ob¬ 
served at the same time that they reunite 
themselves into rolled tufts, a disposition 
which is less marked in the anterior part of 
the neck. The hairs which exhibit the 
greatest length are situated above the fore 
legs, and are almost nine and one-half inch¬ 
es long. Those of the neck are a little short¬ 
er, and are nine inches long, and those of the 
belly eight inches three lines. The length of 
the hair with which the lateral parts of the 
body, as well as the back, are covered, is 
only seven inches six lines, and that of the 
hind legs six inches to seven inches. Finally, 
the slight, stiff hair of the tail is about four 
inches in length. The color of the robe of 
the animal is a pure white, here and there 
slightly inclining to yellow. The hoofs, 
somewhat small in proportion, are, like the 
horns, of a grayish-white tint. The hair is, 
without exception, long, soft and fine ; it is 
at once silky and greasy to the touch, and 
show’s distinctly the brilliancy of silk.” 
Prof. Lowe of England, in his work on 
sheep and goats, describes this goat, which is 
known aa the primitive goat of Angora, a 
district in the central portion of Asia Minor, 
as having “ no undercooling at all. but a 
long, white, silky fleece. The material was 
used in the early history of Asia Minor for 
tents and tent ropes, and ropeB for letting 
travelers down precipice*. It is also made 
into shawls and various fine fabrics known 
us inohair goods. The animal is described as 
having long, pendant ears, short legs, and 
heavy body. Th e fleece hangs in long, spiral, 
silky curls. The horns are heavy and spiral.” 
Mr. Landrum, in his practical and valuable 
treatise on the Angora goat, says there are 
in California “goats answering exactly that 
description.” 
Now, compare these descriptions with that 
of the Thibet or Cashmere goat proper, and 
the difference between the two breeds will 
strikingly appear. 
Accordingly to Mr. Hayes, Secretary of 
the National Association of Wool Manufac¬ 
turers—who has written a treatise on the 
Angora Goat full of learned research—the 
only goaf besides the Angora vvliieh is strict¬ 
ly lanigerous [wool bearing] is tho Cashmere 
or Thibetiau goat, which abounds in Central 
Asia, many thousand miles from Angora in 
Asia Minor, but whose origin is still obscure. 
The size of the Cashmere goat is quite large ; 
the horns are flattened, straight, and black, 
aud slightly divergent at the extremities. 
The ears are large, flat, and pendant. The 
primary hair, which is long, silky, and 
lustrous, is divided upon the back, and falls 
down upon the flanks in wavy masses. Be¬ 
neath this hair there is developed in the au¬ 
tumn a short and exceedingly flue wool, 
from which the famous Cashmere shawls 
are fabricated. 
These descriptions prove conclusively that 
the Angora and the Cashmere are distinct 
aud very different breeds of goats, especially 
in the important particular of their fleece. 
The Cashmere gout yields only nbogt three 
ounce* of this line down to each animal, 
while the Angora produces from three to 
seven, and even nine and ten pounds of 
mohair in exceptional cases. The entire 
fleece of this goat is used. 
Mr. Hayes says, farther, of Cashmere 
shawls and the uses of the true Cashmere 
woo l ; —“ The enormous prices of these [Cash- 
mere] shawls, when extensively introduced 
into France at the commencement of the 
present century—as high as ten or twelve 
thousand franc* — stimulated the French 
lubricants to emulate the Indian tissues. The 
first yarns from Cashmere wool were spun in 
1815, and the bigh numbers were worth 
eight dollars per pound. The peculiar Indian 
texture called ‘ Espouline’ was perfectly 
achieved, and the success in this manufac¬ 
ture was hailed as the most brilliant triumph 
of the textile industry of France. Under the 
patronage of Monsieur, afterward Charles 
X., in 1819, a great number of these goats 
were, imported from Thibet, as many as 400 
being introduced by one manufacturer, 
Baron Teinaux, and much enthusiasm was 
excited In their Culture. Experience, how¬ 
ever, proved that these goats yielded but 
very little milk, and that the raw wool, or 
down, produced from an individual never 
exceeded 180 grammes, usually much less, 
which it was very difficult to separate from 
the coarse hairs, ' yurre ’ and .yielded not 
more than twenty-five per cent, of material 
which could i*e woven. The manufacturers 
also discovered, although they had overcome 
all the mechanical difficulties of fabrication, 
that the raw material, expensive as it was, 
formed not more than one-tenth of the coat 
of a shawl; that the Indian weaver worked 
for one-fifth the wages of a French workman, 
and that the ladies of fashion would pay 
double price for an Indian shawl inferior in 
color, design, and texture to the French 
fabric. The manufacture, which employed 
4,000 workmen in 1834, began to decline in 
1840; and, although an occasional fabric 
may still be made, the manufacture has now 
ceased as a regular industry. * * * There 
is reason to believe that the culture of the 
Caslunere goat will never be. revived in Eu¬ 
rope as a matter of profit, since a perfect 
substitute for the- Cashmere down is found 
in the silky fleece of the new Muuchamps 
sheep, which is declared to be fully as bril¬ 
liant and fully as soft as the product of the 
Cashmere goat, while it costs less as a raw 
material, and requires less manipulation to 
be transformed into yam. 
For information as to prices of mohair Mr. 
Finnic is referred to the Rural New-York¬ 
er for August 15, 1874. If the estimate of 
Lawrence, the eminent wool merchant of 
Boston, he not extravagant, this Southwest 
Virginia flock-master has a locution so desir¬ 
able for wool and mutton growing as to 
make the venture which ho has undertaken 
capable of an immense development and full 
of giant possibilities. Mr. Lawrence ex¬ 
pressed to a New York Virginian of my ac¬ 
quaintance the opinion, that that portion of 
the State lying along the base of the Blue 
Ridge and its spurs, from Washington down 
to the Tennessee line is the best, sheep-raising 
region in the United Slates; and gave as one 
reason for the faith that was in him the 
nearness and accessibility of the best mutton 
markets on the Continent, Washington, Bal¬ 
timore, etc. it is only fair, however, to give 
the opposite of this rose-colored view. The 
Virginian sheep breeders who have practi¬ 
cally tested the pursuit in that State arc not 
so enthusiastic as Mr. L a whence. They 
annually sum up their objections in these 
words ; Too many dogs! 
By enacting all over the State a wholesome 
dog law—such for instance, as Mr. Finnic’s 
— they would pave the way for a big thing 
in sheep, Harrison Gray Otis. 
cJjielrt Chirps. 
CULTURE OF THE TEASEL IN ONON¬ 
DAGA CO., N. Y. 
The Syracuse Standard of a recent date 
contained the following Perhaps there is 
no article for which Onondaga Count}' is 
noted, and about, which the people know so 
litt le as the teasel. Teasel* are raised in very 
large quantities in the vicinity of Skaneate- 
les and Marcello* ; in fact, it i* by far the 
chief production of those two places, em¬ 
ploying more labor and capital than any 
other article. 
A teasel is composed of rather a hard sub¬ 
stance when dry, the color shading on the 
brown, while the heart or core is whitish, 
being soft and spongy. The hooks of this 
vegetable vary in size from one to four inch¬ 
es in length, and from three to seven inches 
in circumference. The smallest are called 
buttons and the largest king*. They are 
sown very curly in Bpring, in rows about 
three and one-half feet apart. As they grow 
they are cultivated and thinned out, leaving 
about one plant to every six inches, and the 
next spring (as it takes two years to get a 
crop) they are cultivated if they have not 
been winter killed, as they frequently are, 
and during the summer they bush out to 
about four and five feet in hight, there being 
fifteen or twenty teasels on one bush or 
plant. As they ripen they are cut by men 
and boys,who use gloves and a short, crooked 
knife. When cut they are so placed that 
the air may have a free circulation among 
them. When they are dry they are boxed 
and sold. Tho buyer taken them out of the 
boxes and places them on a table, where 
they are turned and then hand packed into 
the boxes again in assorted sizes, aud then 
the manufacturer of woolen cloth buys them 
aud uses them to raise the nap on cloth. 
Many men have tried to invent something 
to take the place of this simple article, but it 
seems impossible. 
The best teasel is said to be raised in 
France, and a few years since the duty was 
taken oil, which discouraged a good many 
of cur dealers. The finest piece brought to 
my notice while visiting Skaneateles be¬ 
longed to Willis Platt, is yielding some 200,- 
000 bushels to the acre, while one hundred 
thousand is counted good; also four acres 
belonging to William Marshall, bearing very 
heavy, and a piece owned by Walter and 
Thomas Kellogg, yielding at the rate of one 
hundred and seventy-five thousand to the 
acre. 
Farmers in the Eastern States have tried 
to raise them, but without success, the soil 
around Skaneateles being best adapted to 
tliis plant. 
- *44 - 
TRIFGLIUM INCARNATUM. 
A FEW weeks since there was a question 
in one of the agricultural papers inquiring 
the properties, Ac., of the aforesaid forage 
plant. As I grew it on a lage scale 88 years 
ago, and on a smaller one for a few years 
after, I can say alt about it that can be said. 
It should be planted in August, or early in 
September, on a stubble after the grain is 
harvested, and it must be understood the 
land most not be plowed; for the firmer the 
soil the better, excepting that harrowing 
enough is done to give loo?e mold on the sur¬ 
face for the seed to start growing in. The 
first year I planted any was after a crop of 
barley, that crop having been preceded by- 
wheat. As the ground was very much 
packed and stony, the harrows did not make 
a seed bed which appeared sufficient to 
cover and protect the seed; so I used a scuf¬ 
fle (a four-horse cultivator), setting it as light 
as it could go so as to lay hold of the earth 
and stir it, which, as the barrows had loos¬ 
ened all the stones, made excellent work. 1 
sowed 115 lbs of seed per acre, for it was then 
very cheap, ubout half the price of clover 
seed. A better set could not be imagined. 
Being the first time I had ever sowed any I 
gave it an extra harrowing after the culti¬ 
vation, and had about three-fourths of an 
inch of mold, and harrowed the seed in that 
with very light and thick set teeth harrows 
which I kept for harrowing in clover seed in 
the spring, &c. 1 had too much, for the 
field was 110 acres, and it came very early; 
and although I tied by the leg upward of 20 
horse* to it (this is done by chains and an 
iron stake to drive Into the ground at one 
end and a strap or smaller chain at the other 
end, which i* fastened around the fetlock of 
the near fore leg), and put 700 sheep on by 
folding them with hurdles, it was so fully 
out in bloom by the 1st of June that 1 had to 
mow about 7 acres for hay. The hay would 
have been first rate had it been cut about ten 
days earlier; as it was, it spent as well as 
clover when that is mowed too late; in 
short, it is altogether like clover excepting 
the flower is lighter colored—the green 
lighter and the growth quicker. But it is all 
over with it after the first crop; like vetches 
there is no aftermath. The only advantage 
to be claimed for it over winter vetches is 
cheapness of seeding the land with 25 lbs. of 
seed compared with four bushels of vetches, 
and that it will grow without manure on 
land that vetches would not. 
A Working- Farmer. 
FORTY BUSHELS OF WHEAT PER ACRE. 
A writer in the Practical Farmer tells 
how he gets big crops of wheat:—“ For the 
past five years I have averaged forty bushels 
per acre of wheat of the finest quality, al¬ 
ways being over-weight, i think 1 am still 
gaining every year, aud attribute this to the 
system pursued and especially to keeping 
sheep. My rotation is corn, barley, with 
clover ; third year, clover ; and fourth year, 
clover plowed down for wheat. I have never 
missed a crop of clover by seeding it with 
barley. It gives the grass seeds a chance 
which oats do not. I raise full crops of bar¬ 
ley which do not nt all interfere with the 
grass, but I think barley rather helps by t he 
slight shading. After the barley is cut the 
clover make*astonishing growth, giving me 
superior late pasture. Owing to danger from 
mice, I pasture it down pretty close. My 
soil'is clay loam. I plow down the rank clo¬ 
ver about nine Inches deep, give it one har¬ 
rowing, then haul out my manure and 
sprekd. This I pi low down shallow, a* I con¬ 
sider it important to have the fertilizer near 
the surface t’or the roots of the w r heat plant. 
I use the drill, putting iu one bushel aud one 
peek to the acre, 1 have never had a wheat 
crop hurt by freezing and thawing, which I 
see vou sometimes suffer in Eastern Pennsyl¬ 
vania. One season, and one oniy, when we 
had a very fine fall of growing weather, the 
wheat grew- so rank that I pastured it some 
during the winter, i have never had any 
attacks of insect enemies on the wheat crop, 
and feel as certain of a crop of about forty 
bushels per acre under my system as that 
spring will succeed winter. It is ten years 
since I moved on this farm, and believe noth¬ 
ing more recuperates a worn-out farm than 
keeping sheep). They spread their manure 
evenly over the field, and I have found the 
truth of what some one said, that “The tread 
of the sheep) is golden.” 
FIELD NOTES. 
Picking Potato Blossoms .—It is a well 
known fact that blooming is a heavy tax; on 
the vitality and vigor of plants, and this is 
still more the case when they are allowed to 
p)erfect their seed. There is no doubt that 
potatoes would be more vigorous and have 
larger tubers if the buds anil blossoms were 
pricked, Whether the advantage would be 
equal to the expense is more doubtful. The 
question is worthy an experiment to decide 
its answer. Tne ‘vitality expended on per¬ 
fecting a- few small but highly vitalized seeds 
would produce a large amount of coarse and 
less vitalized roots.— Western New York. 
Large Mangel Wurtzels are exhibited at 
the American Institute Fair, grown on the 
Beacon Stock farm. Long Island, by Mr. W it. 
Crozier. who has SO acres (we were told) of 
them. The lot on exhibition are reported to 
have averaged 28 lbs. each in weight. When 
more such roots are grown lor winter feed 
for stock we shall have healthier and better 
conditioned stock to look at when they leave 
the stables for the spring pastures. 
JfJiii 
