THE ANGORA GOAT. Various types of Angora goats have arisen in Asia Minor and Turkey dun.
ing the last half-century, owing to unwise cross ing with the common Kurd stock. The pure-bred' Angora was originally a small, exceedingly deli cate animal, with small, thin horns, suggesting by their spiral form descent from the wild mark hor. It was clothed with "dazzling white, soft, silky, very lustrous mohair, curling in ring lets from 10 to 18 inches long." The continual crossing and recrossing it has undergone has resulted in an animal much larger and more hardy. The type now approved in,the United States (see Plate of WILD GOATS) is strongly built, with a straight horizontal back, short and strong legs, the head like that of a common goat, but less coarse, and the horns heavy, with an inward twist. "Except the fate and legs, from the hocks and knees down, the entire animal should be covered with mohair. Both the belly and throat and even the lower part of the jaws should have a covering of fine, silky mohair in long, curly ringlets." These goats were intro duced into the United States by a gift of nine from the Sultan of Turkey in 1849. Little in crease followed, and all disappeared during the Civil War. Other importations were occasionally made until 1881, when the Sultan prohibited any exportation of the animals. Several were, never theless, obtained for California breeders in 1901. Angoras were scattered through the Southern States, but their raising and keeping did not become an industry until recently, when large flocks were produced on the Pacific Coast, especially in Oregon, and they have been success fully introduced in Iowa and Missouri. So prom ising have been these experiments that an exten sive culture of this breed all over the United States, as well as in southern South Amer ica, is expected; and two clubs for the encourage ment of the industry and the registry of blooded stock were organized in 1900. It is claimed for the
Angora goats that they are among the most useful of domestic animals in a variety of ways. "The fleece, called mohair (q.v.), furnishes some of the finest of fabrics among ladies' goods, and is used in various other manufactures; their habit of browsing enables the farmer in a wooded locality to use them to help in subjugating the forest; their flesh is exceedingly delicate and nutritious; the milk, though not so abundant as with the milch breed of goats, is richer than cow's milk; their tanned skins, though inferior in quality to the skins of the common goat, are used for leather; their pelts make the neatest of rugs and robes; they are excellent pets for children; a few of them in a flock of sheep are a protection from wolves and dogs; their manure is noticeably help ful to the grass, which follows them after they have cleaned away the underbrush." A pamphlet was issued by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1901, containing an account, with illustrations, of the breed, and its qualities and products, and full directions as to feeding, care, shearing, etc. See Bibliography, below.
Goats otherwise have never taken a serious place in the farm property of the United States. The latest agricultural statistics enumerate only 45,500 in the whole country—a number exceeded by such small countries as Cape Verde Islands. and Senegal. The great hulk of the goats in the world, estimated at 36,000,000 in 1893, and 32, 000,000 in 1896, are to he found in the south of Europe, in Syria, and in Northern Africa. All the rest of the world together possesses scarcely a fifth of the total, and goats are almost absent from English-speaking countries the world over.