ALPACA. An animal inhabiting the mount ains of Peru (the Camelus paea of LinnEeus), used as a beast of burden. Tbe wool is particularly valuable, and many attempts have been made to introduce them into various countries, but as a rule not with success. Of the late attempt to introduce them into the United States, Hon. Frederic Watts, Commissioner of Agriculture under President Grant's administration, in his report says in relation to the Alpaca, that, in the latter part of 1875, correspondence was had between the Commissioner and Hon. Francis Thomas, late minister to Peru (since deceased), concerning a small flock of Alpacas which that gentleman had imported from Peru and placed on his farm at Frankville, Alleghany county, Md. In a letter dated October 8, 1875, Mr. Thornas, inelosing a sample of the wool of four months' growth, remarked: The fiber of a fleece of twelve months' growth often exceeds fifteen inches in length, and fleeces average from seven pounds to ten pounds each in weight. The ani inals live to the age of twenty, twenty-five, and sometimes thirty years; are too large and bold to he worried by dogs, and arc very docile and tractable. I think you will concur with me in the opinion that this experiment which I am con ducting- is well worth the expense which I have incurred, especially when we consider the public benefit which would accrue in ease of my suc cess. Attempt,s have been made at various times in this country, in Eu rope and in Australia, to introduce the Al paca, brit generally without profitable re sult. Various causes have contributed to the failure of these efforts.
Sometimes the confine ment on shipboard dur ing a long voyage, with impure air and unae customed food, has al most destroyed the stock. Again, the ani mals, when brought to their destined abode have been placed on luxuriant clover past ure, or other feed, so much richer than the coarse herbaze of their native regions, that dis ease has fastened on the whole flock. The Al paca is indigenous in the mountain regions of Peru, and thrives in the highest inhabited districts of the Andes, where the cold is more severe than in most parts of the United States. Accustomed to the vicissitudes of such regions, and inured to cold, damp, hunger, and thirst, it is especially adapted to bleak hill dis tricts. Yet it is said to do well in most localities where the air is pure, the heat not oppressive, and water for bathing readily accessible. The latter is stated to be indispensable to the health of the animal, which, when deprived of this requisite, soon becomes fevered and infected with scab. While the introduction of the Alpaca into this country still remains a matter of ex periment, there is no known reason why such experiments should not be successful, when properly conducted, in localities affording some approximation to the native conditions of the animal. Not tO mention many elevated situations in the Atlantic, Northern and Central States, the regions lying along the Rocky mountain ranges have been indicated as presenting good opportunities for such trials.