Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 10.djvu/733

GOAT place in early spring, and is conducted with the utmost care ; the average amount of wool yielded by each animal is about 21:11). The best quality comes from castrated males, the females producing the next best. The annual ex- port of wool from Angora is estimated at about 2,000,000 lb, and its value at £200,000. Large herds are shipped at Constantinople and sent to Cape Colony, where this breed thrives well and is largely propagated, the climate being specially suitable to the perfect development of the wool. A very valuable consignment of these animals arrived in London in May 1879 for transshipment to the Cape, having been procured from different parts of Asia Minor, by means of great personal exertion, by Mr J. B. Evans, a South- African goat farmer. The wool, or mohair, as it is techni- cally termed, of these goats was remarkably long, fine, and heavy, the average weight of the produce of the herd being reckoned at 6 lb per head. So highly is this breed FIG. 1. —Angora Male Goat. esteemed by the Turkish farmers that it was with the greatest reluctance they were induced to sell them, and then only at exorbitant prices, some of the males costing £250 and females £150. £50 and £60 are common prices for these goats at Angora. Fig. 1 is from a photo- graph of the finest male of the flock, the fleece of which was estimated to weigh when shorn full 15 IT). The breed was introduced at the Cape about 1864. In 1878, according to the customs returns, 1,300,585 lb weight of mohair was exported, of the value of £105,313. The Angora is a bad milker and an indifferent mother, but its flesh is better eating than that of any other breed, and in its native country is preferred to mutton. The kids are born very small, but grow fast, and arrive early at maturity. This variety of the goat approaches nearest in its nature, form, and habits to the sheep, even the voice having a strong resemblance. The Cashmere G’oa(.——This animal has a delicate head, with semi-pendulous ears, which are both long and wide. The hair varies in length, and is coarse and of different colours according to the individual. The horns are very erect, and sometimes slightly spiral, inclining inwards and to such an extent in some cases as to cross. The coat is composed, as in the Angora, of two materials; but in this breed it is the under coat that partakes of the nature of wool and is valued as an article of commerce. This under- growth, which is of a uniform greyish—whit.e tint, whatever the colour of the hair may be, is beautifully soft and silky, and of a fluffy description resembling down. It makes its appearance in the autumn, and continues to grow until the following spring, when if not removed, it falls off naturally; its collection then commences, occupying from eight to ten days. The animal undergoes during that time a process of combing by which all the wool and a portion of the hair, which of necessity comes with it, is removed. The latter is afterwards carefully separated, when the fleece in a goo:l specimen weighs about half a pound, being worth 709 between half to three quarters of a rupee. It is sold by the “ turruk ” of 12 IT). This is the material of which the far-famed and costly shawls are made, which at one time had such a demand that, it is stated, “ 16,000 looms were kept in constant work at Cashmere in their manufacture.” Those goats having a short, neat head, very long, thin ears, a delicate skin, small bones, and a long heavy coat, are for this purpose deemed the best. There are several varieties possessing this valuable quality, but those of Cashmere, Thibet, and ‘Mongolia are the most esteemed. About the year 1816 a small herd of Cashmeres was intro- duced into France with a view to acclimatize and breed them for the sake of their wool, but the enterprise failed. A few were purchased and brought over to England by Mr C. T. Tower, who, by careful treatment, so far succeeded with them that, in course of time, he had a shawl made from their fleece, which turned out to be of good quality. At the death of the owner some years later, the herd, which had then deteriorated through in—breeding, was presented to the Queen and placed in Windsor Park. The .V'ubz'an Goat, which is met with in Nubia, Upper Egypt, and Abyssinia, differs greatly in appearance from all those previously described. The coat is in the female extremely short, almost like that of a race—horse, and the legs are very long. This breed therefore sta.nds considerably higher than the common goat. One of its peculiarities is the strongly convex shape of the face, the forehead being very prominent and the nostrils sunk in, the nose itself ex- tremely small, and the lowerlip projecting from the upper. The ears are long, broad, and thin, and hang down by the side of the head like a “double lop ” rabbit. The horns are quite black, slightly twisted, and very short, flat at the base, pointed at the tips, and recumbent on the head. But FIG. 2. —Nubian little was known of this breed in Europe—in the “lest at least—until some ten or twelve years ago, when some were imported into France by the Société d’Acclimatation of Paris, who found its milking qualities to surpass those of all other breeds. Amonrr the goats that are met with in England a good many sliiow unmistakable signs of a more or less remote cross with this breed, derived probably from specimens brought from the East on board ships for supply- ing milk during the voyage. It is no doubt on this account that they often go by the name of “ Indian ” goats. The Nepaul Goat appears to be a variety of the last breed, it havinrr the same arche-.1 facial line pendulous ears, and long legso. The horns, however, are moire spiral. The colour of the hair, which is longer than in the Nubian, is black, grey, or white, with black blotches.

oat.