®Ilr i. 1. ItJl ICtbrarg # North (Carolina Bme Ininpraitij C7 TE UNIVERSITY D.H. HILL LIBRARY S00295205 N THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE DATE INDICATED BELOW AND IS SUB- JECT TO AN OVERDUE FINE AS POSTED AT THE CIRCULATION DESK. MAY 14 1986 FEB 1 7 1988 MAR-219SB 4UG 2 8 1992 OCT 2 2 1992 '''dm m4^ 1996 IDEC t 9 1996 jut 5 1998 ^>(/^2 01999 THE ANGORA GOAT X.a THE ANGORA GOAT (published under the auspices of the south african angora goat breeders* association) A PAPER ON THE OSTRICH (reprinted from the zoologist for march, 1897) S. C. CRONWRIGHT SCHREINER Wl TH ILL us TRA TIONS LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1898 All rights reserved TO MY FRIEND, DUNCAN HUTCHEON, COLONIAL VETERINARY SURGEON ; THE SAVIOUR OF THE ANGORA GOAT INDUSTRY IN 1881, AND THE TRUE FRIEND OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN FARMER. 50470 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE The Descent of the Angora from the Wild Goat . . 1 Differentiation of wild species — Ibexes and goats proper — Horn differences — Capra Aegagriis and Capra Falconeri — Capra Aegagrus the wild parent stock — Authorities — Note on sup- posed relationship of Angora to sheep and their hybrid progeny — Theory of descent of Angora from Capra Falconeri — Dr. Hayes' book. CHAPTER II. Early Records 21 The goat in heathen mythology — Of the Swiss lake cities — Fleece- bearing goats among the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans — Curious ideas — Biblical and classical references — The cele- brated goats of Phrygia and Cilicia — Mediaeval and modern references — Theory of recent introduction of the Angora into Asia Minor. CHAPTER III. The Evolution of the Angora 32 Variation under domestication — Influence of climatic and pastoral conditions — Man's controlling influence— Development of fleece — Choice of sires — Tendency of country about Angora to pro- duce long fine hair — Mohair goat gradually localised and per- fected there — Eventually confined to that neighbourhood — Origin of kemp and of mohair^ — Theory of albinism. CHAPTER IV. The Province of Angora 38 The ancient Ancyra — History of town — Description of province — Resemblance to Cape Colony— Rainfall— Population— Number of goats — Compared with Cape Angoras— Superiority of Turkish mohair — Farming in Angora — Poverty of peasant farmer — System of partnership— The Turkish peasant — His limitations as a breeder. an X CONTENTS. CHAPTER Y. PAGE The Original Pure Angora Goat 51 Authorities — Delicacy of constitution — Stamina regained and losses repaired by crossing with the Kurd goat — Summary — Descrip- tion of original Angora — One kid at a birth — In-breeding — Antiquity of fixed characteristics — Its prepotency. CHAPTER VI. The Localisation of the Original Pure-bred Angora . 60 The goats of Phrygia and Celsenfe — Strabo, Tournefort, Conolly, TchikatchefE— Boundaries of the part to which the Angora was confined — Its size — Deterioration of this goat when re- moved to other districts — Detailed description of region — Essentials to production of best fleeces. CHAPTER VII. The Crossing of the Pure Angora with the Common or Kurd Goat 69 Why and when crossing became general — Three varieties of goat — Description of the Cashmere-like goat and the Kurd — First mention of a cross-bred flock — Turkish ideas as to fifth in-bred cross — Early American breeders' opinions of " full bloods " — The bulldog-greyhound cross — Other references to the general crossing — Tradition about the spread of the white Angora — Binns — General indiscriminate crossing — Nearly all flocks still tainted — Cessation of general crossing — Summary — How" oil " came into vogue. CHAPTER VIII. Effects of the Crossing .91 Kemp — Difference between kemp and mohair — Pure Angora kemp- less — Crossing produces kemp — Atavism — Kemp mainly due to Kurd goat — Kemp common in Turkey — Horned and hornless Angoras — Fine undergrowth in some Angoras — Beardless ewes — Shape and size of horns — And ears — Number of kids at a birth — Summary — Effects of the crossing. CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER IX. PAGE The Mohair Area of Turkey 108 Provinces of Angora and Kastamouni— Boundaries and extent of present mohair area — Description of veld and climate — Table of goat districts — Each district characterised by its own variety of mohair— Naming of clips— Origination of different varieties of Angora goat — Effect of food on fleece — Description of sundry goat districts, and mohair typical of each — Peculiar variety found at Koniah— The Van goat — Summary — Best all of one general typa. CHAPTER X. The Farming of the Angora Goat in Turkey . . .127 Size of flocks — Tameness of the goats — The " evil eye " — Bells — Winter shelter — Effect of severe winter on the clip — Pleuro- pneumonia — Feeding in winter — No scientific breeding — Size of rams' horns — Fleece with parting on belly — The Koran on in-breeding — Weights of fleeces — The " evil eye " — A secretly used ram — Purity of blood unknown — Shearing and shedding — Prices of goats between Turks — Prices paid by exporters — How to buy from the Turk — A good trait. CHAPTER XI. The Turkish Mohair Trade 141 Early days — Mohair yarn in Europe — Turkish prohibition against exportation of unmanufactured mohair — Levant Trading Co. — Conolly's account of spinning at Angora — First export of un- manufactured mohair — Rapid decline of manufacture at An- gora—Introduction of cheap machine-made fabrics — First spinning of mohair in England— Last export of mohair yarn from Turkey — Angora's loss Turkey's gain — First separate account of mohair imported into England— The 1851 Ex- hibition — Progressive imports of mohair into England — Salt's mills— Export of Angoras to the Cape— The Cape's rivalry of Turkey — Diehl's account of spinning at Angora — Comparative prices of mohair — England's monopoly— Collapse in the mo- hair trade— Turkish prohibition against export of Angoras — Figures showing import of Turkish mohair to England — Variation in yearly quantity exported ftom Turkey— The world's mohair clip. Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. PAGE Importations to the Cape Colony — The First Importation 166 " Cashmeres or Angoras " — The Cashmere goat — Importations of Cashmeres— First importation of Angoras — Impotency of the twelve rams — The Boer goats — Their effect on the Angora industry — Spread of the Angora blood — Effect on constitution of Boer goat. CHAPTER XIII. Importations to the Cape Colony (continued) — The 1856, 1857 AND 1868 Importations 180 Efforts of the Swellendam Agricultural Society— The second importa- tion — Mosenthal's account— Sale at Graaff Reinet — First pure Angoras seen there — The third importation — Located in Swel- lendam — Foundation stock of pure Angoras in Western Pro- vince — And Midlands — Importation of Alpacas — Fourth im- portation of Angoras — Niland's and Holland's flocks — General remarks on first four importations. CHAPTER XIV. Importations to the Cape Colony (continued)— The Fifth AND Subsequent Importations up to 1880 . . . 194 Blaine & Co.'s large importations — In what goat districts of Turkey the Angoras were purchased — Stewart's importations — Feather- stone's and Cawood's flocks — Blaine & Co.'s further importa- tions — Mosenthal's — J. B. Evans's 1879 importation — The sale — Record prices for rams — The 1880 importations — Pleuro- pneumonia — Some details of the sales^Record average prices for ewes — The importations as a whole — Many very inferior animals — Black kids — The Sultan's prohibitory edict. CHAPTER XV. Importations to the Cape Colony (continued) — The 1895 and 1896 Importations 209 Meeting of Angora goat farmers — The 1895 lot — Gatheral's account of the purchase — Quality of the goats — The sale — The 1896 lot — The sale — Record prices for single ewes — World's records — Quality of the goats — No special distinct breeds imported — Prospect of Cape mohair surpassing Turkish — Fixing the type. CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XVI. PAGE The Pleuro-pneumonia Epidemic in the Cape Colony . 219 The Mount Stewart outbreak— Evans's rams— J. H. Cawood's flock — His compensation — Tlie Bedford outbreak — Kapid spread and deadly nature — Mr. Hutcheon— Inoculation — Slaughter of infected flocks — Total loss of goats — Total cost of eradication — Description of the disease — Criticism as to its introduction. CHAPTER XVII. The Mohair and Angora Goat Industries of the Cape Colony 226 First export of mohair — Quantity and value of mohair export from 1857 to 1897 — Fluctuations in quantity and price — Number and value of goat skins exported from 1885 to 1894 — Numbers of Angoras and Boer goats in 1875 and 1891 — Principal Angora goat districts — Mohair per goat — Principal Boer goat districts — 1894 statistics. CHAPTER XVIII. The Angora Goat and Mohair Industries of the United States of America 235 The first importation — " Angoras or Cashmeres " — Colonel Richard Peters — First Angoras in California — " Billy Atlanta " — William M. Landrum — C. P. Bailey — Subsequent importations — W. W. Chenery — Diehl and Brown — John M. Harris — " Geredeh An- goras " — Cape Colony Angoras imported — U.S.A. Angoras ex- ported to the Cape Colony — Numbers of Angoras in the different States — W. R. Payne — Imports of mohair — Dressed skins — William L. Black's pamphlet — Prospects of the industries. CHAPTER XIX. The Angora Goat and Mohair Industries of Australia . 248 Australia and the Cape Colony — First importation — Mr. Sechel — The Acclimatisation Society of Victoria — Cashmeres — Second importation of Angoras— Mr. McCullough — The Royal Park flock— Sale of the flock— Sir Samuel Wilson's flock— Mr. Price Maurice's importations — No government statistics with regard to Angora goats — The industry now practically non-existent — Imports and exports of mohair — Merino versus Angora. XIV CONTENTS. PAGE PAPER ON THE OSTEICH 259 How many species are there ? — Colour of the plumage — Colour of the unfeathered parts — Colour of the tarsi and toes — The egg ; and size of ostriches — Only one species — The egg and flesh of the ostrich — Its breast-bone and powers of kicking — Leaping and swimming — Waltzing and rolling — The cry of the ostrich — How it feeds, and what it will swallow — How the ostrich runs — Nidification, sexual relations and parental habits — The nest — Laying and sitting — Times of sitting well apportioned — Protecti%'e coloration — The little embankment around the nest — Guarding the nest — Eggs outside the nest — The hatching of the chicks — Newly-hatched chicks — Parents and chicks — Is the ostrich polygamous ? — Why several hens often share one nest — Unattached hens — Large chicks mistaken for hens — Why no chicks result — Evidences for monogamy stronger than for polygamy — Curious and exceptional relations. GLOSSAEY. Hamels. Sheep wethers. Kapaters. Goat wethers. Karoo. A large, elevated, inland tract of country, hot, stony and dry, with small scattered shrubs and an absence of grass pasturage. Kloof. A wooded valley. Kopje. A small hillock, often standing alone. Rand. A long, low elevation or undulation. Veld. Open country, unused except for grazing stock. Up-country. The inland parts : generally far inland. Kraal. A fold for stock. Throughout almost the whole Karoo, and many other parts of South Africa, small stock are kraalled at night, to protect them partly from thieves, but mainly from wild carnivora, and to col- lect their droppings for purposes of fuel. Mist. The droppings of small stock trodden into a solid mass in the kraals. This is dug out in cakes, dried and used for fuel where wood is scarce or unobtainable. Kuif. A tuft on the forehead. Boer. Literally, a farmer. Used to denote the Dutch farmer. Voer-bokken. Fore-goats : goats which lead a flock, generally used of such as are trained to Itad sheep. Brandziekte. Scab, generally of sheep or goats. Very prevalent in South Africa. Izak Bok-Boer. Isaac goat-farmer. E E E A T A. Glossary. For " mist " read " mest ". ,, Fur " voer-bokken " read " voor-bokken ". Page 9, line 7 from bottom. For «' Arauca " read " Arauco ". „ 10, line 7 from top of footnote. " Kaross," a skin rug with the hair on. ,, 11, note to illustration. For " mist cakes " read " mest cakes ". (Since writing this note an Afrikander sheep has been killed at Graaff Reinet, whose tail weighed 28 lb.) _,, 32, line 7 from bottom. For " pastural " read " pastoral ". ,, 33, line 11 from bottom. For " pastural " read " pastoral ". „ 36, line 13 from bottom. "Undergrowth." The word "under- growth " is used here as it is used on pages 97 and 167, and as the word "bottom" is used on page 101, to signifj^ the soft, longish undergrowth corresponding to the "poshm" of the Cashmere goat. It is not used by mu in the sense in which Mr. Hoerle has used it on page 96, to signify the short, smooth coat (like that of a smooth-haired fox-terrier) which is seen on the Angora goat when it has shed its normal fleece. The two meanings of the word should be noted on pages 96 and 97. On page 96 Mr. Hoerle uses it to signify the short coat of the nature of kemp ; on page 97 I use it (as I have used it throughout the book) to signify the fine longish undergrowth of the nature of mohair. Attention is called to this point because some American critics have apparently confused the two meanings of the word. 44, line 4 from top. Fur " £277,619 " read " £527,619 ". 50, top line. For " mist " read " mest ". 79, line 2 from bottom. For " nyj^Tr " read " xTTT^srif "• 90, line 10 from top. For " had " read " has ". 117, about middle of page. For " slippy " read " slipy ". 125, lines 21 to 25 from top. The reference is of course to unwashed hair. 134, line 7 from top. For " to " read " by ". 173, footnote. A reliable farmer tells me he has seen a Boer goat kapater which, killed and cleaned, weighed over 100 lb. Farmers in the district of Hanover, Cape Colony, consider the average weight of Boer goat kapaters, killed and cleaned, should be about 70 lb. Page 173, last word on page. Fur " voer- " read " voor- ". ,, 181, last line. The firm was at that time a Cape Town house, and the 1856 goats were landed at Cape Town. For many years past, however, the firm has been at Porb Elizabeth, at which port all its subsequent importations have been landed. ' 2,161,925 " read " 2,161,937 ". ' 395,502 " read " 397,502 ". ■ 3,695,202 " read " 3,065,202 ". ' 2,073,601 " read " 2,873,601 ". , 244, line 12 from bottom. For " Menard, Co. Texas " read " Menard Co., Texas ". , 249, footnote. For " See Chapter XI." read " See Chapter XII.". , 264, line 2 from top. For "cocks" read "hens," and /or "hens" read "cocks ". . 265, note to illustration. The three photographs on pages 265, 271 and 273 are all of the same ostrich, and were taken on the same day. 269, line 4 from bottom. For "steeplechaser" read " hurdleracer ". S. C. C. S. Hanover, Capk Colony, Fehruarji, 1902. 281. For 231. For 281. For 282. For THE ANGORA GOAT. CHAPTEE I. THE DESCENT OF THE ANGORA FROM THE WILD GOAT. Wild goats are divided into two sub-genera, ibexes and goats proper, and are restricted to the Old World. ^ Geologically, according to Lydekker,^ they appear to be somewhat older than the sheep, remains of certain species having been obtained from the pliocene rocks of the Siwalik Hills of Northern India. In the superficial de- posits of the plains of Central Europe, the remains of a species of ibex have been found. This, as the same authority points out, is a matter of some in- terest as showing how species of goats came to be differentiated. In a remote geological epoch, when Central Eui'ope was much colder than at present, and the mountain ranges inaccessible, being covered with perpetual ice and snow, goats lived on the plains, and were probably homogeneous, or al- most so. With an increase of temperature, they migrated to the various mountain chains, and, ;u\. Angora Goats owned by R. F. Hurndall, Somerville, Aberdeen Road, standing among mimosa trees. From an examination of the specimen Angora goat brought to Russia by Tchikatcheflf, Brandt says that those strands of mohair " corresponding most to external hair have only a third, or, at most, do not attain to half the thickness of the external hair of the common goat ; and that the external EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. 98 hair of the wild and domestic goats is not only closer, stiffer and more massive, but has a more considerable torsion and a less even surface, that is to say, it is rougher and more scaly. He also re- marked that ' the walls of the hair of the Angora goat being thinner than those of the hair of the common goat, the substance contained in the fatty cellules oozes out more rapidly, which renders the hair of the Angora goat softer and more flexible, and gives it the lustre of silk'."^ Dr. Hayes says that mohair is extremely slippery, and has the aspect, feel and lustre of silk without its supple- ness ; that it lacks the felting property of wool ; and that it is dyed with great facility, being the only textile fabric which takes equally the dyes destined for all tissues. Mohair is undulated with a smooth surface, very fine, and of a lustrous appearance, and a living-white colour. Kemp is not undulated ; I have never seen it as long as mohair ; it is stiff", rough, very coarse, and of a pronounced lustreless appearance and a dead-white - colour ; it will not work up with mohair, and will not take the dye as mohair does ; it is never found in locks or ringlets as mohair is, but always as separate individual hairs. The essentially distinct nature of mohair and kemp will be more clearly comprehended from the following observations, by Colonel K. W. Scott, of Kentucky, U.S.A., referred to by Dr. Hayes as *' one of the most reliable and eminent breeders within my knowledge," and by Mr. G. A. Hoerle, 1 The Angora Goat, by Dr. Hayes. 2 Mohair and kemp are also found in other colours. 94 THE ANGOEA GOAT. Corresponding Secretary of the American Mohair Growers' Association, whose letter to the Texas Live Stock Journal shows him to be thoughtful and well posted in the subject. Colonel Scott says : " When the wool ^ of the Angora goat is being shed, the cups or bulbs in the skin which produced the fibres are also shed, as well as the cuticle or outer skin. This is a peculiarity of the Angora goat ; but a still greater one and of far more practical importance, is the capacity of the bucks to transfer, or impart, this rare quality to other goats which do not possess it. ... The kid of an Angora buck, out of a native ewe, invariably has in its skin those bulbs, or cups, which produce and secrete the fine wool of the Angora or wool-bearing goat, while it has the power to secrete the hair - also, as its ancestry, on the dam's side, always had. The wool of goats is finer, longer, or thicker, in diff'erent individuals of the same blood, just as is the case with sheep ; and, like sheep also, the same animal produces finer wool when young than when advanced in life. But the wool of the half-blood kid or goat is of the standard and fineness of full-blood'^ or of pure Angora goats' wool, but it is short. The irool and the hair of the half-blood grow together, and seem to constitute one covering ; but a closer inspection shows the different fibres issuing from the different bulbs in the same skin ; and when the shedding season arrives, the fine wool may be combed out of 1 We should say mohair now. - Kemp. 3 The term " full-blood " was used in America to indicate graded-up goats of the fifth or later generation, in-bred to pure Angoras. EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. 95 the hair on the animal's back, and, on being separated from it, bears a close resemblance to the finest fur, or to Saxony wool, or to the Angora mohair. A friend who was travelling in Europe sent me a sample of mohair, which exactly re- sembles this fine wool of the first cross, having also some of the coarse hair and of the cuticle in it, showing that it had been shed and not shorn. The two products of the half and of the three- quarter blood being nearly of the same length, they cannot be separated by shearing, and to gather it by combing it out of the hair on the backs of the animals is too tedious. The speci- men to which I have alluded is most probably the product of some other species of wool-bearing goat, and not of a half-blood cross of different species." ^ He goes on to say that, as grading up is persisted in, the ivool gradually becomes much longer than the hair, and that eventually goats of the fifth in- bred generation and later "bear wool which in every essential particular resembles closely that of the pure-bred or imported Angora ". The implication here is clear that the bulbs of the roots of mohair and kemp resjiectively are essentially different, and that, when kemp is shed, its bulbs remain in the skin ; while, when mohair is shed, the bulbs are shed too, and must re-form to produce the next fleece. The assertion that whatever mohair may be found upon any cross will always be of the same nature, irrespective of the quantity, quite distinct from kemp, and practically of one uniform degree of fineness, is borne out by 1 The Angora Goat, by Dr. Hayes. 96 THE ANGORA GOAT. a host of independent observers, and is supported by my own experience. Colonel Scott states (it is also implied in the above extract) that mohair and kemp are both naturally shed, but not exactly at the same time of the year. This, I beHeve, is also correct. Mr. Hoerle says : "A really thoroughbred An- gora should have no kemp". Further: "I have not the slightest doubt that any vestige of kemp in the fleece of an Angora goat is itself proof positive of an admixture of common blood of the coarse and long-haired goat type. . . . Here I may men- tion that, practically speaking, kemp is the degener- ated coarse hair of a long-haired common goat.^ It grows less and less and degenerates more the higher the animal is bred up. But it is quite distinct in character from the mohair. Its bulbs or roots have the same shaj^e and character as those of the hair of the common goat, or the undergrowth of the hair of the Angora, and they remain in the skin after the hair is shed, whereas the bulbs of the mohair are shed with the hair, and new ones form in the skin shortly before the mohair begins to grow." He, however, holds that the progeny of a pure-bred kempless Angora ram by a common smooth short-haired ewe cannot possibly have kemp, as the ram cannot impart what he does not possess, and it cannot be supposed (he says) that the short hairs of the common ewe would elongate to form kemp, the short undergrowth of the ram (corresponding to her hair) being even shorter than her own. It will be seen that on this point Colonel 1 The Kurd goat of Asia Minor. * EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. 97 Scott and Mr. Hoerle differ. I agree with Colonel 8cott. I have said in Chapter iii. that I believe mohair is the elongated undergrowth. There can, I also think, be but little doubt that kemp is the liair of the coarse outer coat. It must be remem- bered that all domesticated goats have a common ancestry ; ^ that thus even the purest bred kempless Angora potentially has kemp ; and that, therefore, when crossed with another variety whose hairs, though quite short, are of the nature of kemp (or, in fact, when crossed with any other variety), the forces of atavism come into effect, and there is liability to reversion, to a greater or less extent, to a common ancestor which had kemp. As has been said, the original pure-bred Angora was probably kempless ; it was not innately kempless, but through -a very long course of in -breeding to produce the finest fleece possible, kemp had gradually been eli- minated. Of course, all the Angoras of (say) 100 or more years ago were not kempless, because the Turkish farmers occasionally crossed the rams of the pure race with the common ewes to make up losses, and to impart hardihood to the breed ; but I have very little doubt that there were many which were pure-]3red and kempless. It is probable that re)-i/ few kempless Angoras have ever been imported into the Cape Colony ; there- fore the prevalence of kemp in the Cape flocks may justly be imputed to the imported goats. But experience has also shown that when put to smooth 1 Mr. Hoerle's theory is probably accounted for, in part, by the fact that he held the Angora to be a distinct species, de- scended from Capra Falconeri, though modified by late infusions of other blood. 7 yO THE ANGOEA GOAT. short-haired Boer goats, these imported Angoras have produced progeny more kempy than them- selves. If, therefore, Angoras, when crossed with short-haired goats, produce kempy progeny, it is much more probable that, when crossed with a long-fleeced goat whose hair is not mohair, the off- spring will have kemp, and have it long and in great abundance. If the Angoras that have been imported to this country, chiefly within the last sixteen or seventeen years, and especially if those imported in 1895 and 1896 are to be taken as but fairly representative of the Angoras of Asia Minor, then there can be no doubt that kemp is extremely common there, for not one of these goats was free from kemp, and most had it in large quantities. Believing that the original pure Angora was kemp- less, it follows that, in my opinion, the great pre- valence of kemp to-day in the goats of Asia Minor is due to the crossing of the Angora with the common Kurd goat of that country. Even those who may not believe that the pure Angora was kempless, still acknowledge that it was almost so. In such a case it follows with equal con- clusiveness that the crossing produced the large amount of kemp so prevalent in the Angoras of to-day, which are the product of that cross. Even if it be maintained that the ordinary fleece of the Kurd goat is not identical with, or does not closely resemble, kemp (and I do not know that this can be reasonably maintained), yet, if it once be granted that kemp was, at least, very scarce in the pure Angora, there is but one way to account for the great jDrevalence of kemp to-day, namely, that it is due to the crossing ; for the modern Angora is the EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. 99 product of that cross, and it is incontestable that kemp is very common in the goats of the Kurd race. It is further supported by the fact that the nearer the modern Angora of Asia Minor approxi- mates to the Kurd goat, the more abundant is kemp. Kemp is often found scattered over the whole body, always shorter than long mohair ; but, gener- ally, it is found along the back, and on the hinder part of the body, especially in the breeching, which, when much kemp is present, is usually short, wiry and matted. Kemp varies in length ; it is some- times found shed throughout some of the long locks of a good goat, and is then short and not so coarse ; when long and very prevalent it is never found in a fleece which, as a whole, is long, fine, soft, silky and lustrous. Other things being equal, it is more prevalent in the flat locks, characteristic of what in the Colony is called the Geredeh, than in the round, curled ringlets of the goat with only a small modicum of oil in its fleece. The nearer a goat approximates to the original pure-bred An- gora, the less prevalent is kemp, and already in many instances the modern Angora has been bred almost, if not quite, free of kemp. That kemp can, and will, be entirely eliminated from the best stud goats of our most intelligent breeders I have no doubt whatever. There are other variations in the modern An- gora, due, I believe, to the original Angora having been crossed with other breeds. For instance, Conolly says : "A curious statement made to us at Angora was, that only the white goats which have horns wear their fleece in the long, curly 100 THE ANGOEA GOAT. locks that are so much admired ; those that are not horned having a comparatively close coat ". I cannot add anything to this statement, not having had the point suggested when I was farming goats ; but Mr. Binns says it is devoid of fact. It may, however, be remembered that the female of Capra Aefiagyus is occasionally hornless, though I cannot see that this has any bearing on the statement made to Conolly. It will be interesting if observant men engaged in the industry will notice if hornless goats (which, by the way, are very rare in this Colony) have not, as a rule, the curled locks in so pro- nounced a degree as those that are horned. This peculiarity, if it does exist, may not, of course, be due to the influence of some cross ; the variations may simply be collateral. Further, crossing has been so universal and has had such an overwhelm- ing effect that a variation which might have been pronounced in 1840 (the date of Conolly 's paper) might be almost obliterated now, especially in the Cape, where the Boer goat has exercised such a powerful and far-reaching influence. However, there can be but little doubt that, as a mohair merchant remarked to Conolly, "in Angora, as elsewhere, the finest fleece naturally is that which more readily curls ". ^ 1 The shape and style of the lock are points to which I think great importance should be attached. Since \\n.'iting this chapter, I have met Mr. Amos Crabtree, one of the leading mohair merchants of Bradford. Mr. Crabtree in- sisted very strongly on the necessity of a fleece being in cm'led ringlets, as that style of fleece yields the best mohair; from the manufacturer's point of view it is superior, because it works up best and is preferable to all other types. My own experience as a farmer is that, speaking generally, fleeces EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. 101 Some Angoras have a soft, downy under- growth. Mr. C. Lee, senr., for instance, whose son, Mr. C. G. Lee, certamly possesses some of the purest, finest and most remunerative goats in South Africa, recently wrote to the Eastern Frorince Herald, remarking upon this undergrowth in his goats, adding that it is the finest and most vahiable part of the fleece, being used by manufacturers in the place of silk. Mr. Binns speaks of this as " bottom," and says that the Turkish goats pro- duce it as a protection against the intense cold of late winter, but that it is not produced in South Africa, at any rate not to the same extent, on account of our milder climate. It will be remem- bered, however, that round about Angora and Koniah there is a breed of goats whose fleece is characterised by a soft, fine undergrowth ; in this respect resembling the Cashmere, to which, I doubt not, they are closely related. It seems, therefore, probable that such Angoras as have this under- growth owe it to some remote cross with this Cashmere-like goat. Now, the horns of the Cash- mere are not long, and are not siMrally twisted. It would be interesting to observe whether, among such rams as have this fine silky undergrowth, there is a tendency to have lightish horns with no spiral twist, or with a spiral twist less pronounced than in the horns of rams which have no undergrowth at all. Mr. Hoerle, referring to such goats, says : " The downy Angoras are most hkely animals of of the curled ringlet type contain the finest and best quality and longest hair, and that such fleeces are freer from kemp than fleeces characterised by any other style of lock. 102 THE ANGORA GOAT. rather short breeding crossed up with any wild species, or perhaps with the Cashmere ". With regard to another point, Mr. Hoerle, commenting on the " mongrelling up " of goats in Asia Minor, observes : " We find, for instance, fine, well-covered, heavy-fleeced ewes with only a few remnants of a beard left, and also just as fine ewes entirely without beard . . . and I have seen many females of the fourth and fifth crosses (with the common scrub goat of America), as well as so-called ''pure bloods," with absolutely no beard at all, whilst thoroughbred Angora ewes, with the very best points, have heavy flowing beards ". Mr. Hoerle's explanation of this seems to be incorrect. He holds that the Angora is a distinct species, descended from Cajva Falconeri, of which both sexes are bearded ; and that the Kurd goat is descended from Capra Aegagrus, the female of which, he says, is beardless ; and upon this he founds his explanation. More recent observations have shown that the Angora is also a descendant of Capra Aegagrus, and merely one of the varieties of the domesticated goat {Capra Hircus), and that the female of Capra Aegagrus is bearded. This upsets Mr. Hoerle's explanation, but it does not necessarily touch his facts. I can only suppose that the absence of beard is a fortuitous variation which would have some tendency to be hereditary. No beardless goats have come under my own observation ; in the Colony I have only heard once of a few beardless rams, and this statement requires confirmation. Mr. Binns, supporting Mr. Hoerle, says there certainly are some beardless eires, but that he has never heard of beardless rams. How- EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. 103 ever, of this there is no doubt, that the purer bred an Angora is, the smaller and softer should be the beard ; in a very fine goat, perfectly covered up to and under the jaw, the beard is scarcely discern- ible, and is invisible to the casual glance. The " kuif " or tuft of hair on the forehead at the base of the horns should be very soft, silky, curly, and lustrous ; absence of such a tuft, or coarse straight hair in its place, is an indication of common blood. The hair on the tip of the tail, though somewhat harsher and coarser than the beard, should also in a first-class goat be very fine and soft. The " kuif" should be mohair, but the beard and the tip of the tail never are. There is, at times, some considerable variation in the shape of the horns of rams, due probably, to a great extent, to the crossing. Normally, the horns should have a spiral twist, branching back- wards and outwards, and should not be very large; yet frequently rams are found with straight-up horns, with no twist, running close together almost, sometimes quite, to the points ; or with short horns, diverging at the points, with just the slightest half twist ; or with horns of immense size. With regard to the ears, the pure race are lop- eared.^ This is an indication of long domestica- tion. Wild species have prick ears, but, in the long-domesticated and carefully-bred varieties, the ears are pendent, the muscles having become 1 "The Scinde and Syrian goats, especially, are noted for the length of their ears, which are often 22 in. long, and touch- ing and dragging on the ground." — Diehl. Dr. Hayes says that some breeds have ears 19 in. in length and 4^ in. in breadth. 104 THE ANGORA GOAT. atrophied through long disuse. In the modern Angora, though lop ears preponderate, there is much difference in their droop and in their size ; " mouse ears " being by no means infrequent. There are other variations also. As Dr. Hayes says : *' There is a kind of suture or keel-like seam which runs up the centre of the ears of many of them," and it is by no means uncommon to find the tips of ears in some goats turned back and lying as flat and close as though stuck fast. These and many other variations, such as de- fects of covering, style of locks, etc., are evidently in the main due to the Angora having been crossed with the common goat, and to a less extent (at any rate in Asia Minor) with other varieties. The crossing, however, has not only tended to engraft on to the Angora some of the numerous variations of the unstable breed of common or Kurd goat, but it has brought into effect the powerful forces of atavism, and given free scope to fortuitous varia- tion. Another and different effect of the crossing may be mentioned as of great importance, which is that the modern Angora often has two kids at a birth. ^ This is characteristic of the Kurd goat, which seldom has less than two. It is clearly established that it is an extremely rare occurrence for a pure Angora ewe to have more than one kid at a birth, once a year. And it is to be remarked that as Angoras in the Colony are becoming purer and ^ The tendency to produce more than one kid at a birth is further strengthened in such Cape Angoras as have been de- scended from a cross with the Boer goat, which generally has twins, often triplets, and sometimes four young at a birth. EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. • 105 more what they should be, the tendency of ewes to have more than one kid (even now not common in the best stnd flocks) becomes less and less. To sum up : The main results of crossing the ^H^^O^^^^I ■ m^-' 'V^^l iB^^Mi sM'^^ ^^ Bl| Photo. Arthur Green] [Port Elizabeth. Six-tooth Angora Goat Ram, bred by R. Featherstone, Groenfontein, Cradock ; owned and exhibited by R. C. Holmes, Karree Hoek, Pearstou. Champion at Port Elizabeth Agricultural Show, 1895. Weight of fleece, 12 lb. (twelve months' growth). original pure Angora with the common or Kurd goat, in Asia Minor, have been : — 1. To do away with the practically exclusive localisation of the Angora goat industry in its original limited area. 2. To eliminate the original pure Angora and substitute for it a made breed, the product of the 106 THE ANGOEA GOAT. cross between the pure Angoras and the common or Kurd goats. 3. To impair the purity of the breed of Angoras throughout all the mohair districts. 4. To produce a white mohair-bearing breed of goats, the modern Angora, differing considerably from the original pure Angora. (This breed, which is not yet quite fixed, but is gradually tending to become so, is a larger, some- what coarser, hardier breed, with an oilier and much heavier fleece, which, though not attaining to the high level of that of the original pure Angora, is, nevertheless, in the best specimens, of great beauty and excellence, and equal to the most exacting demands of the present mohair manu- facturing trade. ^ As the fleeces combine with in- creased weight a sufficiently high standard of excellence, and as the goat is hardier and healthier, it is the more remunerative breed ; and, when stable at the high standard it has attained to in the hands of the most intelligent breeders, it is superior and preferable to the original pure breed. ) 5. To spread this made breed over other dis- tricts of Asia Minor, where the original j^i^^re Angora could not live, or so deteriorated as, to a ^ It seems likely that, as this type is improved and fixed by careful selection and judicious in-breeding, the oil will cease to be even as pronounced as it often is at present, and will eventually be reduced to just that small, almost inappreciable modicum necessary to hair of the highest excellence. The modern type, having somewhat more oil than the original breed, has, to a great extent, lost that glittering white appear- ance so often commented upon. The ideal goat in Turkey to- day has a leady-white tint of fleece (unwashed), while, in the Cape, the tendency is towards strawrcolour. EFFECTS OF THE CROSSING. 107 large extent, to lose the valuable properties of its fleece. 6. To do away with a close uniformity among Angoras, and to produce different types ; for the made breed, not yet fixed, was rapidly spread over a large extent of country, with widely diverse climatic and pastoral conditions. The style of fleece being largely determined by local conditions, different types of goats have been produced in different parts of the country. 7. To reduce the number of common goats, which, as with the Boer goats of the Cape, have been, to a great extent, ousted in the mohair districts by the more remunerative animal. 108 CHAPTEK IX. THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY.^ Turkey in Asia is divided into Provinces, or Vilayets, or Sandjaks (" flags "). The provinces are subdivided into kazas and nahies, which are again sometimes divided into divans. The area over which the Angora goat is farmed embraces the provinces of Angora and Kastamouni, and portions of the provinces of Broussa, Yozgat, Koniah and Sivas. Its extreme boundaries may be said to be as follows : Nortlt, Kureh, in the pro- vince of Kastamouni, about 186 miles north of the town of Angora, and about 1 8 miles from Ineboli> a port on the Black Sea ; south, Koniah, about 138 1 This chapter has been written mainly from information supphed to me by Mr. Henry O. Binns, to whom I wish to express my indebtedness. Several other authorities have been consulted, but the real value of the chapter is due to Mr. Binns, who has given it his own careful revision. The information is of muchjimportance to Cape Angora farmers, and may be taken, I believe, as reliable, for Mr. Binns was born in Turkey, and learnt the language of the country from childhood. He travelled and lived among the up-country mohair farmers for twenty years, buying and getting up mohair, farming Angoras on a large scale on his own account, and buying goats for exportation to the Cape, Australia, and America. i\.ltogether he lived in Turkey for thirty-eight years, and, in addition, he had the advantage of his father's experience, who had been there for thirty years previously. THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY. 109 miles south of Angora ; east, Sivas, about 260 miles east of Angora ; ivest, Boulou, in the province of Kastamouni, about 108 miles north-west of the town of Angora, and about 40 miles from the Black Sea ; south-east, Yozgat, about 97 miles south-east of Angora ; south-west, Eskischehr, in the province of Broussa, about 120 miles west-south- west of Angora. Thus, the mohair area is, roughly, in its extreme limits, about 324 miles from north to south, and about 380 miles from east to west. But although the wdiole of the mohair area is comprised within these limits, all the territory included within them is not stocked with the Angora goat. Much of the country east and north-east of Angora is not devoted to this industry to any extent. It is pro- bable that not more than 60,000 to 80,000 square miles really constitute the mohair area ; and, practically speaking, it is comprised in the two provinces of Angora and Kastamouni. It must, however, be mentioned that about 900 miles east of the town of Angora is the kaza of Van, with the town of the same name, in the province of Erzeroum in Armenia, where a considerable quantity of very inferior mohair is produced. The mohair area consists mainly of mountain ranges and elevated plateaux, averaging on the whole about 2500 feet above the sea level. Some of these mountain ranges are covered with an abundant growth of scrub oak. On the higher mountains are pine forests. In addition to this the plateaux grow only a scant supply of short tufted grass common to most high levels. In parts, however, there is an abundance of aromatic plants, principally thyme. A characteristic of the 110 THE ANGORA GOAT. area is an extreme dryness, and a very cold winter, when, at times, for two or three months, the earth is covered with snow. Even in the town of An- gora, the thermometer sometimes descends to zero Fahr. ; and in the higher mountains it falls much lower. During the intense heat and dryness of summer, even the short grass is burnt up, and the whole country has a parched, arid appearance. Towards the middle of the area is the great central plateau of Hyman6, covered with the scantiest vegetation. Being a mountainous country there is a great diversity of climate, and consequently a great variety of vegetation. One writer says that, at the end of December, he saw the orange and the lime growing at Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul, and thirty miles away (one day's journey on horse- back) he was almost in perpetual snow, on the lofty Taurus mountains. With such a wide diversity of climate, it cannot be expected that the mohair from the whole area will be of one uniform kind. In fact, about thirty different kinds are produced from as many different localities. These localities I shall call goat districts. The following table gives a list of these different goat districts. Each name is that of a locality which produces its own peculiar kind of mohair. It may be taken as a practically comi^lete list of the principal goat districts. After each name there is indicated, in brackets, whether it is a kaza, which gives its name to the goat district, or a town, a village, or merely a place where a weekly bazaar is held. The distances between many of the localities are given, as well as the distance of each from the town of Angora. These distances are THE MOHAIR AEEA OF TURKEY. Ill II 5a; Angora. Kastamouni. 111 '^ Is s'i |5 1 ^' ... ^'s ' '. •. '. '.^:t^>^^ ■ ■ ■ • ;zi^ ■ ■ ■ -^ ^•— ^ ^ ^ ■>! -M ?5 c ;2 Kastamboul, 150, S. - Ayash, 21, W. Beibazar, 18, W. - Tschihirkhan, 15, W. - Beibazar, 24, S. - Mouhalitsch, 30, S. Chorba, 18, N.W. - Port of Ineboli, 54, S. - Kastamboul, 18, N. - Devriken, 18, N. - Kastamboul, 24, W. - Do. 42, E. - Do. 15, S. Merguzeh, 15, S. - Bostankeui, 12, S. Kotch-hissar, 30, S. - Changura, 36, W. Cherkesh, 40, W. - Kastamboul, 120, S.W. Geivdeh, 18, W. - Boulou, 22, S.W. - Soungourlou, 26, S.E. - Sea of Marmoi-a, 18, K. Sivrihissar, 42, W. 1 c S Angora (town and itch nahie or " inner circle "j - Ayasii (town and kaza) Beibazaf do. do. Tschiliii'khan (village) Nalliklian (town and kaza) Mouhalitsch (village, weekly bazaar and nahie) Sivrihissar (town and kaza)" Soungourlou do. do. Chorba do. do. Yabanova do. do. Tscliiboukova (village and kaza) - - - . Kastaniboul (town and itch nahie) - Devriken (kaza and bazaar) Kureli (town and kaza) Araj do. do. Tosia do. do. Merguzeh (nahie antl weekly bazaar) Bostankeui (village) ...... Kotch-hissar (town and kaza) Changura do. do. ..... Cherkesh do. do. Geredeh do. do. --...' Boulou do. do. Moudournou do. do. Yozgat (capital town) -...-. Koniah do. Broussa do. ...... p]skischelir (town and kaza) - . . - . Sivas do. do. ...... 112 THE ANGORA GOAT. only approximate, but are accurate enough for the purpose to which they are applied. Turkish roads are reckoned by hours, as at the Cape, and the Turkish "hour" is supposed to be three miles (at the Cape it is six). This has been taken as the basis of computation in reckoning the various distances. It is at once apparent from this list that, as has already been said, the mohair area is practically comprised in the two provinces of Angora and Kastamouni ; and one is immediately struck by the fact, how short are the distances that separate many of the different goat districts from one an- other. In some of these goat districts there are district markets, where each of the leading mohair merchants has his agent : these are Eskischehr, Sivrihissar, Beibazar, Ayash, Nallikhan, Geredeh, Cherkesh, Changura, Koniah, Sivas (and Van) ; Angora and Kastamboul being, of course, the two great markets. But every goat district mentioned in the above Hst is characterised by its own par- ticular variety of mohair ; the hair grown in each has some special characteristic which enables an expert at once to distinguish it from all the others. This seems strange, considering the short dis- tances that the various centres are from one an- other ; but there can be no doubt of its correctness, for all authorities are agreed upon it. For in- stance, Mr. Gavin Gatheral, in his paj^er read before the Koyal Colonial Institute in 1878, says that the mohair area (he makes it somewhat smaller than Mr. Binns) produces more than twenty varieties of hair, each of which is easily THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY. 113 recognised by experts, Mr. Binns is very clear upon the point. He says that each district im- presses some local peculiarity upon the hair grown in it. He adds : " Goats in Turkey are constantly being sold round in small lots, so that an inter- mixture continually goes on. Nevertheless, though out of each of many parcels of mohair from every district in Turkey, I could pick out many places which would so much resemble each other as to defy the best expert to tell which was which ; yet, were lots of a few bales of the average mohair of each district placed in a row and cut open at the side, any one of our Constantinople merchants could tell which was which. . . . And we, who have lived some years in the town of Angora, could tell whether a small lot came from Hyman^, Elma-Dagh, Stamos, etc., though in some cases but a mile or two might separate the villages. But this, of course, the Constantinople merchants could not do." ^ Again, regarding varieties of mohair (and necessarily of goats) he says : " One cannot say they are exactly so many types, definitely fixing the number, for there are endless subdivisions ; but a connoisseur in mohair can tell you, from the bulk of the bales when opened, from which jmr- ticular district it has come, provided it has been sent separately from the purchasing centre town of the same name. Each district displays a general type of its own, yet in each or most of them there are again other subdivisions, from the class or type of which a local agent can always tell in a moment where the mohair originally came from." 1 Letter to Midland News, 1893. 114 THE ANGORA GOAT. Again, " each district has its own peculiarities in class of mohair, sufficient to enable a mohair ex- pert to tell at a glance from which district or village a parcel had come ". But there is sometimes a difficulty on the Constantinople market in identi- fying a lot of hair with any particular district, for the hair obtains its name from the town from which it was sent to Constantinople, irrespective of where it was grown or purchased. Thus the clijos get mixed, many different kinds being ranked under one name, for the travelling agents go from village to village making their purchases, and then lump the different clips together, and take the hair to the best market, under whose name all that lot of hair is henceforth known. Thus, if the Angora local market be higher than the Kastamboul market, the hair grown in the kazas in the Ulgaz-Dagh mountains goes there, and rice versd ; and thus a part of the same clip might one year be known as Kastamboul hair, and the next as Angora hair. It seems, therefore, clear that the only reliable testi- mony as to where the hair really is grown, and comes from in the first instance, is that of the local merchants and buyers in the towns of Angora and Kastamboul. It has been shown, in a previous chapter, that the original pure-bred Angora goat was practically of one uniform type, and confined to a limited, well-defined region ; and that, when the European demand for unmanufactured mohair assumed large proportions in a short time, the pure Angora rams were put to Kurd ewes over a much larger extent of country, until that now indicated as the present mohair area was occupied. It was not difficult to THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY. 115 maintain purity and uniformity among the Angora goats, when they were confined to a Kmited area and under conditions which tended to produce uniformity, and when only hair of super excellence was sought after. But when the original pure breed was broken up, when the product of the cross between the pure breed and the Kurd, as yet in an unfixed condition, was scattered over districts of the most diverse climatic and pastoral conditions, under owners unaccustomed to breed the Angora goat and unacquainted with what constituted the special characteristics of the breed, under such ignorant and careless breeders as the Turks, and when every kind of hair was saleable, the demand being so great — under these conditions uniformity was impossible. The breed, in a plastic state, was introduced into localities differing widely from one another ; and these conditions, aided by the idio- syncrasies of the various breeders, rapidly stamped themselves upon the goats, until each district acquired a type of goat differing in some special characteristic from the others, characteristics marked enough to enable an expert to distinguish between them. This is not only thoroughly well established, but it is exactly what might have been expected. Here, at the Cape, where the industry is so young, the same process is in operation. The difference, for instance, between grass veld and Karoo veld mohair is most marked, so much so that in the prize list of the Port Elizabeth Agricultural Society, separate prizes are offered for the two classes. Even on the same farm, grass-fed goats and Karoo-fed goats of the same flocks differ so 116 THE ANGORA GOAT. pronouncedly, that even a comparatively untrained eye can detect the dissimilarity. Again, though there is a tendency for Karoo goats to conform to one type, yet trifling differences of veld and predi- lections of breeders suffice to mark distinct types. It is quite incorrect to say that in Turkey there is more than one breed of Angora goats ; they are all of the same breed ; but there may be said to be different varieties, in this sense, that the character of the fleece is readily affected by local conditions ; so that, for instance, the progeny of a goat in Sivrihissar with a comparatively light dry fleece would, if removed to Dortdivan, in Geredeh, and bred there for several generations, produce a heavy fleece with a great excess of oil. These different varieties are produced by different climatic and pastoral conditions, and are mainly due, as all authorities agree, to diff'erence of food. Mr. Binns says : " Breed has nothing to do with it ; it is entirely due to the accident of food, water, and climate ". He insists particularly on the effect of food, and says that the goats characteristic of one district would soon acquire the distinguishing qualities of another if they were removed to it, bred there, and kept there. 'Tor example," he says, " if a first-class ram from the celebrated ram- breeding village of Bostankeui were taken to Dort- divan, he would, in say two years, from being a radically different type of goat, possess most, if not all the characteristics of the Dortdivan or Geredeh with great excess of oil, it being only a question of time." Again, he says : " None of these peculiar characteristics are due to any breed- ing, but solely to climate and food ". Experience THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY. 117 at the Cape bears out this argument, for the rapidity with which the fleeces of Angora goats are affected by local conditions is remarkable. In considering the special characteristics of the principal goat districts, and the manner in which the goats are affected, it must be remembered that often the differences between the various types of goats are not capable of being made clear through a written description ; to be thoroughly compre- hended, the goats themselves need to be seen. However, this is not the case with all the districts, and nuicli may be learned that is useful to the Angora goat farmer by carefully considering such information as is obtainable. Taking, first, the province of Kastamouni ; the goat of Kastamboul, the best known goat district in the province of Kastamouni, has three special characteristics : its fleece is slippy (that is, it has no " bottom "), very fine, and exceedingly lustrous. Its locks are wavy, and not curled. ^ A good deal of misapprehension exists regarding this goat, owing to the loose use of the term Kastamboul. The town of Kastamboul is the chief market for all the goat districts in the province of Kastamouni. In this market, buyers discriminate between the hair of the various districts ; but, in Constantinople, it is all known as Kastamboul hair. The Kastam- boul goat's reputation suffers in consequence, for the hair forwarded from the Kastamboul market to Constantinople contains much inferior stuff, and is, on the whole, not good ; for instance, the goats 1 Mr. Amos Crabtree tells me that the hair of the Kastam- boul goat does not work up well, and is not in^ good repute among manufacturers. 118 THE ANGORA GOAT. of Devriken, Tosia, and Kureh have been but recently graded up, and yield a large quantity of inferior and coloured hair. This is incorrectly called Kastamboul hair on the Constantinople market, though none of it comes from the Kastam- boul goat. It is important to remember this. Mr. Binns says that to condemn the Kastamboul goat because a lai-ge proportion of the hair from the Kastamboul market is not of superior quality, is as incorrect as to condemn an English South African because the bulk of the people of South Africa are l)lack. Merguzeh, Araj, and the Ulgaz-Dagh mountains (a range running east and west, between Bostankeui and Kotch-hissar) are well-wooded and supply the goats in winter and spring with food and shelter in plenty. Thus the goats escape the weakness common to the flocks of the poorer peasants in the lower lands, who have to hand-feed during the winter, and the shelter of the forests enables the farmers to clip earlier. (These remarks also apply to Chorba and Yabanova in the province of Angora.) Bostankeui is a famous ram-breeding village. Some of the very best goats in the whole of the mohair area are found in Merguzeh, Araj, and the Ulgaz-Dagh mountains, for there men are found who make a speciality of breeding rams for sale. In fact, so excellent is the hair of the goats of the Ulgaz-Dagh mountains, that the Kastamboul buyers pay a higher price for it than for other kinds in the province of Kastamouni, to help them to sell the inferior classes of Tosia, Kureh, and Devriken. Changura produces goats whose fleeces generally have a reddish tinge, partially due to the colour of THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY. 119 the soil, though in some instances the hair itself has this colour (due to the cross with the Kurd). Geredeh is a mountainous district, about 4000 feet above the sea level, the chief town of which is about forty miles from the Black Sea. It is covered in many parts with pine and fir forests, which supply, almost exclusively, the winter food Photo. W. Roe] [Giaaff Reinet. Angora Goat Ram, " Prince " ; with a thirteen months' fleece weighing 16 lb. Bred and owned by C. G. Lee, Klipplaat. for the goats ; and it is extremely cold, the snow in winter lying thick on the ground for months together. Angora goats have been introduced into this district in comparatively recent years, and have developed into a very distinct type, the chief peculiarity of which is a fleece saturated with a great excess of grease, said to be due to pine 120 THE ANGOEA GOAT. feeding. Living in a well-wooded part, which affords abundance of food and shelter in the trying time of winter, the Geredeh goat has a large body, and is strong and healthy ; having been but recently graded up from the Kurd goat, it is coarse, a characteristic accentuated, both as regards its body and fleece, by the quality of its food. Its fleece is coarse, and deteriorates rapidly with age, becoming short and wiry, especially if the goat is removed to other districts whose conditions are markedly different from those of (Tcredeh ; and it has a tendency to be imperfectly clothed about the under surface of the neck and on the belly. The more its feed is confined to pine and fir, the coarser and more oily is the fleece, and when the sub- district of Dortdivan is reached, all those traits which characterise the Geredeh goat are found in an exaggerated degree. The excess of grease is particularly noticeable, Gavin Gatheral describing the fleece as being " so surcharged with grease as to seem almost black " (the colour no doubt being due to the black soil which the grease takes up). This excessively greasy goat is to be found sparsely distributed among the flocks in some of the other subdistricts of Geredeh, but an enormous excess of grease is a peculiarity of the generality of goats in Dortdivan only. Though an excess of grease is the special characteristic of the Geredeh, yet every grade between the non-oily goat (whose fleece has the small modicum of grease natural to the mohair goat when it has a sufficiency and variety of food) and the Dortdivan goat is found in the district, which undoubtedly contains some most excellent animals. The Geredeh mohair known to the trade THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY. 121 in Constantinople is that which is obtained from the whole of the district, and, as in other districts, quantities of the best hair are produced ; but Geredeh hair is not in high repute in Bradford, its reputation apparently suffering on account of the proportion of coarse and excessively greasy hair which it contains. This inferior hair is grown principally in Dortdivan, which produces about one-seventh of the entire clip of the district of Geredeh. The average propoi'tion of what are now called thoroughbred goats is much less in Geredeh than in any of the other good districts ; and the Geredeh goats as a whole, and particularly the Dortdivan goats, are not held in high repute in Turkey ; not to mention some of the goat distiicts of the province of Angora, they are greatly sur- passed by the goats of Araj, Merguzeh, Bostankeui, and the Ulgaz-Dagh mountains. Coming now to the province of Angora ; the two goat districts whose names are most familiar to Cape breeders are Angora and Beibazar, the chief towns of which are about forty-eight miles apart, the town and kaza of Ayash lying between them. The soil of these districts is chalky, which gives a clean whitish colour to the fleeces. There is a considerable difference between the goats of Angora and Beibazar, those of Beilmzar being much heavier and more curly. But the difference is not so much due to climatic and pastoral con- ditions as to enterprise. Mr. Binns says : " The Beiliazar merchants were smart in the early days of mohair going up in price, and made money, which enal)led them to pay greater attention to the improvement of their goats. Their influence ex- 122 THE ANGORA GOAT. tended to Chorba and Yabanova. Being wealthjr men, they feed and look better after their goats, and this accounts principally for the immense im- provement which has taken place in the Beibazar and Ayash goats in the last twenty-five years. The climatic and pastoral conditions of Angora and Beibazar do not much differ. I think it is^ likely that, since the wealth of Beibazar began to be spread around that district, the goats there- abouts have so much improved that there is not the slightest doubt but that the best breeding goats are to be found there, not in Beibazar, but from thence, mainly in the Chorba direction." Ayash is one of the very best districts. Mr. Binns says that in 1877 a brother of his had sixty- three ewes, originally from Ayash, which in twelve^ months clipped o29 lb., or an average of 81 lb. each. Chorba is also one of the best goat districts- of the province of Angora. Here, says Mr. Binns, " almost every variety of food loved by the goats is found in abundance, good grass, wild thyme, scrub- oak, pine and fir. The two last give an increase of yolk or oil to the hair, but as the variety of food is so great, the goats eat so little of the pine and fir that the yolk is generally only sufficient to preserve the hair in the best condition. Over the next rise is Yabanova, where pine and fir are more plentiful, and the goats' fleeces greasier and coarser." Ayash, Chorba and Cherkesh pro- duce the largest proportion of good goats ; they and Mouhalitsch, which is rapidly coming into the front rank, are noted ram-breeding centres. Gavin Gatheral had a particularly high opinion of the goats of Yabanova, Chorba, and Tschiboukova. And THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY. 123 George Gatberal says the best mohair comes from the valleys of the Ala-Dagh mountains to the north of the town of Angora, and instances Chorba, Yaba- nova, Murtad and Assa-Kassaba as producing par- ticularly excellent hair. In Eskischehr, and more especially in Sivrihissar, in the plains, much of the mohair is harsh and dry, for the Angora is a mountain animal and degenerates everywhere in the plains. The white mohair goats of Koniah have no special characteristic, except that they do not throw very true to colour ; for as Koniah lies on the outskirts of the mohair area, the colours of the Kurd goats have not yet been eliminated from the flocks, and coloured goats are common. But there seems to be a variety peculiar to Koniah ; according to Mr. Binns this is a kind of fancy breed, mainly red or black, or red and black, producing, in some instances, exceedingly fine hair. Of this variety Mr. George Gatheral, writing in 1896, says: ''In the Ko- niah district of Asia Minor, twenty years ago, there was another breed of mohair goat, whose fleece was altogether brown. It contained 90 per cent, of brown and 10 per cent, of black. It was called in the trade GingeUine, and was sold for special uses. But it went out of fashion ; rams were brought from Angora, and the produce of Koniah is now all, or very nearly all, white mohair ; it is, however, fine." Lastly, there is the town and kaza of Van, in the province of Erzeroum, 900 miles east of An- gora. " On the frontier of Armenia and Meso- potamia," says Gavin Gatheral, "is a province called Van, which has hitherto supplied a great weight of inferior mohair, more resembling sheep's wool than goats' hair." Mr. Binns describes the 124 THE ANGOEA GOAT. Van mohair goats as of very inferior quality, not far removed from the common goats — hardy, shaggy animals of various and variegated colours, of little value as mohair goats ; but he adds that the black and red goats, which, as in Koniah, seem to be a distinct variety in some respects, must not be included in the general run of the Van goats, as they are, as a rule, considerably superior. " In the province of Van in Kurdistan," says George Gatheral, " a goat existed, and still exists (though much reduced in number), of whose fleece 60 per cent, was white and 40 per cent, brown, black, and mixed colours. The market town where this mohair was sold is Gesireh, but it was known in the trade as Van mohair. This mohair was kempy, exceeding strong, coarse and long, and it was used for quite other purposes than the Angora mohair. It has gone out of fashion in a great measure, and the farmers now breed sheep instead of goats. In later years, the Kurds brought rams from the Angora district so as to improve the breed ; but as prices fell, and the article went out of fashion, the breed was allowed to become extinct." I gather from the information submitted in this chapter, that the mohair area of Asia Minor is an inland elevated region, practically comprised in the provinces of Angora and Kastamouni, characterised by a scanty vegetation, excessive dryness, and a very cold winter, short in the lower lands but long in the mountain parts. The herbage consists mainly of dwarf-oak and scrub-bush, a variety of aromatic plants, and a hardy grass, in the valleys and on the plateau ; while on the higher mountain ranges, pine forests predominate. All the mohair THE MOHAIR AREA OF TURKEY., 125 goats are of one breed, of various types and various degrees of excellence. Each locality which has any marked peculiarity of food and climate, quickly im- presses it upon its goats, which soon come to yield a variety of hair sufficiently individualised as to be at once recognisable by an expert. Where there is a suitable variety of food and a comparatively equable climate, the best hair is produced; mountain veld, with a mixture of grass and oak, is especially suitable for the production of the best hair. Pine feeding produces an excess of grease and coarser hair. Hair grown on mountain veld is superior to that grown on the plains. The local peculiarities of a district are not impressed solely upon the hair ; they also react, more of less, upon the general structure of the animals. The colour of the soil imparts local colour to unwashed hair ; thus, Beibazar hair is clean and whitish in appearance, the soil being chalky ; Geredeh hair is blackish, as the grease takes up the black soil ; that of Changura has a reddish tint; and so on. The same peculiarity is noticeable in the Colony ; for instance, goats from pure grass veld are generally beautifully clean and white, while Karoo goats as a rule tend to have a yellowish, straw-coloured tint. Though each district tends to impress local characteristics upon its goats, and though the goats (I refer now to their fleeces) of each district can, as a whole, be readily recognised by one thoroughly acquainted with the various districts, yet in each district goats with qualities characteristic of most other districts may be found ; so much so, that an expert could not say where they came from. Indeed it is evident that goats which are not reared and maintained 126 . THE ANGOBA GOAT. under quite diverse climatic and pastoral condi- tions, which are not bred scientifically, and are constantly being mixed, cannot possibly acquire characteristics so striking and definite as to pre- clude their resembling, in many instances, the goats of neighbouring and somewhat similar districts. A certain uniformity runs through all the flocks of any one of the districts ; yet no one district possesses any one type absolutely peculiar to itself. In most of the other districts, perhaps in all, or nearly all, there will be found a number of goats, more or less numerous, of a practically identical type. But to say that, because a goat comes from a certain district, therefore it is of a certain type ; or that, because it came from that district, therefore it is ipso facto better than a goat from another district, is quite incorrect. It is true that some districts have a larger proportion of the best goats than others ; thus there may be a proba- bility that a goat from one district will be superior to one from another ; but, practically, the best (foats are all of one type, in whichever districts they may be. There is no difference worth mentioning in the type of the best goats, whether in the provinces of Angora, Kastamouni, or Broussa ; and no district can claim that its l)est goats are different from, or individually superior to, the best goats of other districts. Throughout the goats of any one district there is, as a. whole, a certain uniformity to type ; hut tlie best goats, no matter from which districts they come, are all of one and the same type. This will be seen more clearly when the manner of breeding and farming the Angora in Turkey is explained, to the consideration of which the next chapter is devoted. 127 CHAPTEE X. THE FARMING OF THE ANGORA GOAT IN TURKEY. The number of Angora goats in a flock in Turkey is, on the average, about 300 ; the reason being that it woukl not pay to have flocks much smaller, for a man and a boy generally herd each flock ; and it would not be safe to have them much larger, for the country is bushy and broken, and wolves are numerous. It is calculated that about 300 goats cover the expense of herding, and are as many as a man, or a man and a boy, can be expected to herd safely, even though assisted, as is generally the case, by several large wolf-dogs, which are trained to guard and protect the goats. The great majority of the goats, as has been pointed out, are owned in small lots by the poor peasant farmers. For the sake of economy, several of these peasant farmers run their goats together, until a flock of about the size mentioned is obtained, the expenses of herding being shared by all the owners as a joint €Ost ; or the goats of an entire village will be herded in one flock, each villager owning from about two to twenty head, the flock altogether amounting to 200, 300 or 400. On the other hand, the man who owns (say) 1000 goats (a very wealthy owner may have as many as 4000) will probably divide them into three flocks, so that no herdsman may have 128 THE ANGORA GOAT. under his (;are more than he can safely herd. Thus it comes, that flocks of Angoras in Turkey number^ on the average, about 300 each. There are, how- ever, portions of the country where larger flocks- can be run with safety. In the Steppe of Hyman6, for instance, where the country is so level that the- eye can stretch in most cases for many miles, flocks, numbering as many as 2000 may be found. But this is exceptional. The goats, being owned in such small numbers and receiving a great deal of attention, become very tame and attached to their owners or herds- men. The consequence is that towards nightfall they generally, even if not herded, return to the homestead to sleep — a habit which perhaps an experience of the dangers incurred by sleeping out has partly tended to form. This peculiarity is frequently remarked upon by the owners of the first Angoras in America, who kept them in small lots. The rams, and especially very choice animals, are much valued. They become household pets- and the playmates of the children, and have pet names given to them. Sometimes amulets are fastened on them, or little bags are tied around their necks, containing pieces of parchment on wdiich are inscribed verses from the Koran ta protect them from the " Evil Eye ".^ 1 If a jealous or covetous or " evil " eye is cast upon a goat on account of its superiority over other goats, it is supposed that the whole flock will be blighted ; therefore the Turk makes, away with exceptionally superior rams (unless he can with safety use them secretly), and protects the others, both from the " evil eye " and other dangers, with charms in the shape of verses from the Koran tied on them. FARMING OF THE ANGORA GOAT IN TURKEY. 129 The herdsmen have a custom of attaching bells to the necks of the finest kapaters, and sometimes to fat ewes that are not bearing. The bells are of different sizes and tones, and often in great numbers, and as the goats move about, a monoto- nous musical jingle is produced. The herdsmen are very fond of this " music," and take a great pride in their bells, in whose chime they detect a €ertain nuisical harmony. If the chime is not quite to the herdsman's fancy, he will sometimes pay a considerable sum to procure a bell which strikes the desired note. Mr. Binns gives an interesting- illustration of this custom. He hired a man to herd one of his flocks, numbering about 330. This man at once asked for leave to go and get his bells. On obtaining permission he asked to be allowed to take a donkey, explaining that he required the donkey to carry the bells. He set out and duly returned with 240 bells ; and later he paid £2 for one particular bell, which he said he required to make the chime complete ! The goats are not kraalled. In summer they sleep near the homestead, unconfined ; in winter, when necessary (as is often the case), they are pro- vided with shelter. Such peasants as are very j^oor and have only a few goats, say eight or ten, house them in very severe weather in a room in their own dwelling ; otherwise an outhouse or rough shed is provided. These outhouses, Mr. Binns says, are always built on a slope, so that, though they may become hot and close, they never become very moist or foul ; he also says that it is an extremely rare occurrence for the goats to be neglected, and that he has never seen them standing almost up to their 130 THE ANGORA GOAT. knees in liquid filth, as is often the case in the Cape Colony. Still it seems that a very severe winter has an injurious effect upon the hair. This fact is, by another authority, attributed mainly to the bad housing of the goats, which, he says, are crowded into foul, unventilated and undrained sheds, where the fleeces become damaged and soiled with the liquid filth in which they stand. At any rate, a severe winter does injuriously affect both the goats and their fleeces. If pleuro-pneumonia is pre- valent, the conditions under which the goats are kept during winter afford it every means of spreading, and the consequent losses are some- times enormous. Gavin Gatheral says that in the Liberian winter of 1879 not less than 468,889 mohair goats, or 35 per cent, of the whole, died. The hardships the goats have to endure in winter are augmented by the neglect to which they are subjected in the matter of feeding. Grazing is sometimes impossible, because deej:) snow covers the ground. At such times they are fed on hay or straw, or oak or pine branches which have been cut when green and stocked for winter fodder. Sometimes a little dry barley is given. The hand feeding in winter is, however, in a measure supple- mentary ; for grazing, to a small extent, is generally obtainable, as the bushes are not often entirely covered under the snow, and sometimes the strong winds expose the tops of the hills, and the after- noon sun melts the snow on the south side of the mountains, and the herbage is exposed for the goats to nibble at. But what with insufficient feeding and indifferent shelter, Turkish goats fare badly during the winter. Another reason for the FARMING OF THE ANGORA GOAT IN TURKEY. 131 small flocks is now apparent ; large flocks could not, under present conditions, be fed or housed in winter. Contrary to what might have l)een ex- pected, goats on the high mountains fare best during winter (if their constitutions are robust Photo. G. Watson] [Aherdeeu Road. Angora Goat Ram, bred and owned by R. P. Hurndall, Somerville, Aberdeen Road. enough to endure the great cold), for there pine forests abound, providing excellent food and shelter. Pine feeding, too, is said to develop a great amount of grease in the fleece, which affords an additional protection in snow and rain.^ Among the Turks there is no attempt at 1 Mr. George Gatheral says that feeding on vetches also produces grease in the fleece. It may be added as of interest that scab exists in the flocks of Turkey, and that, at times, the whole country is subject to the ravages of locusts. 132 THE ANGOEA GOAT. scientific breeding ; there are no stud flocks ; goats are constantly being sold round in small lots, and a continual intermixture goes on. In some of the best and wealthiest districts there are men who make a speciality of ram breeding. It must not, however, be supposed that even these ram breeders are such in the scientific sense of the term ; for, in addition to there being no stud stock, and no pedigreed animals, rams are simply selected from the general flock, each being chosen merely on his own individual merit without reference to the qualities of his ancestors ; and, as regards ewes, no selection seems to be exercised at all. Mr. Binns says that the idea of a really first- class thoroughbred Angora ram of to-day is not different in Turkey and the Cape, except as regards the horns. The Cape farmer likes a thin horn ; whereas the thicker and larger the horn is, the better the Turk is pleased. This is an essential point. I incline to the Cape view. Mr. Binns says that, having tested the Turk's view thoroughly, he is convinced that it is the right one, "that the strength of the ram for breeding purposes is in- creased by the size of his horn ; the thicker the horn and the larger the growth per year, the more ewes he can serve. Light thin horns are essentially characteristic of the original pure Angora ; but though thick horns are characteristic more of the Kurd goat than the original pure Angora, yet the horns of even the Kurd are very much thinner than those of to-day's so-called pure-bred Angoras. I am therefore inclined to the opinion that the thick horn is a characteristic of genital strength more than an indication of reversion." Now, I FAEMING OF THE ANGORA GOAT IN TURKEY. 133 think it may be granted Mr. Binns is correct in maintaining that a large and thick horn often accomj^anies great sexual vigour; but, though a sire of strongly marked masculine type is always desirable, it by no means follows that excessive sexual vigour is the chief requisite ; and a thin, Hght-coloured horn by no means connotes any de- ficiency of sexual vigour. Excessive size of horns almost invariably connotes common blood and coarseness in body, head and fleece — a general inferiority ; smallish, fine, light-coloured horns generally connote refinement (not necessarily delicacy) of body, head and fleece — a general superiority ; and my own experience is that, as regards sexual vigour, the thick-horned animal has no material advantage (if any at all) over the thin-horned. Gavin Gatheral says that many splendid rams have a parting down the middle of the mohair on the belly. ^ I have seen a typical example of this in a ram bred from imported stock on both sides by the late Frank Holland, which, however, was far from being a splendid animal. Mr. Binns says he has never seen such a ram in Turkey which could be correctly described as " splendid ". Cape breeders, at any rate, will rightly have no such rams. As regards the weight of fleece of goats in 1 This must not be confused with a bare or imperfectly covered belly. There is simply a perfectly defined parting down the middle of the hair on the belly, like a well-marked parting on the human head. When the goat is thrown on its back, the hair opens in a straight line down the middle, and falls, evenly divided, to opposite sides. 134 THE ANGORA GOAT. Turkey, rams clipping over 14 lb., and ewes over 8h lb., at twelve months, when full grown, are con- sidered exceptionally good ; yet these weights are often obtained. It seems strange that 14 lb. should be often reached and but seldom exceeded ; yet this is the case ; and it is satisfactorily accounted for to the peculiar ways of the Turk. Many of the wealthier breeders produce rams clijDping this amount, and when they do, they boast of it ; yet a ram is not used for more than two years in one flock, from fear lest he should serve some of his own progeny, the Koran strictly prohibiting incest. These circumstances are against the full benefits being derived from such exceptional rams. On the other hand, it hapi)ens at times that a ram is produced yielding more than 14 lb. ; but here again the evil influence of the Koran, from the stock-farmer's point of view, is felt. The Turk would not feel uneasy if other farmers had rams equally good, but fears to have one greatly superior to theirs ; and this is why one seldom hears of 14 lb. being much exceeded. He believes that if he has a ram superior to those of his neighbours, and this is known, it will bring the " Evil Eye " on his whole flock. So, if his flock produces such a ram, he will try to prevent its being known among his neighbours ; if successful, he will generally use it as a sire for two seasons, secretly, and then cas- trate it. If, however, there is a danger of its being known that he has such a very superior animal, he will castrate it as soon as he is himself aware of the fact, from fear of the " Evil Eye ". Any scientific breeder will at once see how powerfully these two facts (the prohibition against close in- FARMING OF THE ANGORA GOAT IN TURKEY. 135 breeding, and the fear of the " Evil Eye ") must militate against the best results in breeding, and how heavily they must handicap continuous ad- vancement towards the production of better goats. Mr. Binns gives an interesting account of one of these secretly-used rams. It happened that a Turk who felt himself under an obligation to him wished to please him, and, knowing his fondness for a good goat, told him he knew of a ram in the Geredeh district which clipped 16 lb. 13 oz. of clean hair. This man had been sent by the owner of the ram into a cellar to get some wood. Curiosity prompted him to go furthei" afield, and he saw the ram, which the owner was using secretly for fear of the " Evil Eye ". Mr. Binns rode some 200 miles to see this animal, knowing that, if the tale were true, it must be a very rare and valuable specimen. The owner at first denied that he possessed such a ram, but, finding Mr. Binns per- sistent, he feared his neighbours would get to hear of it and bring the "Evil Eye" on his flock; so offered to show it to him. Mr. Binns went down to see it, and " found the brute chained to a manger, in a cellar where he was stall fed — an ungainly, vulgar-looking beast, with hair like wire ". The owner jokingly asked if he would give £30 for the ram, and was much disgusted when Mr. Binns re- plied that he would not give 30 paras (Ud.). It would seem that 14 lb. for rams and 8i lb. for ewes are about the maximum weights of really first-class fleeces ; and that if these weights are much exceeded, the quality of the hair is inferior, and a good deal of the weight is due to oil and dirt. " In Turkey," says Mr. Binns, " 14 lb. of 136 THE ANGORA GOAT. first-class clean hair from a ram in any district, for instance in Beibazar, Ayash, Cliorba, or else- where, has been proved over and over again to return more money to the farmer than the same weight of even washed hair from rams of the Dort- divan type, the goat with fleece so surcharged with grease as to seem almost black." It must not, however, be imagined that these weights are common ; they represent the clippings of the very best animals. If an adult ram of first-class quality clips from 11 lb. to 13 lb. at twelve months, he is considered very superior. It thus appears that the Turks farm their goats, from the breeder's standpoint, in the most slip-shod and unscientific manner. When one considers that the great majority of the goats are owned in very small numbers ; that frequently the goats of different owners are herded in one flock ; that goats are constantly being sold round in small lots, and that thus an incessant intermixture is taking place ; that there are no pedigreed stock and no stud flocks ; that in-breeding is prohibited ; that an exceptionally superior ram is held to bring the "Evil Eye," and is therefore quickly castrated — when one considers all these facts, it is clear that, the goats having become mixed, purity, in the scientific sense of the term, is unknown ; it seems hopeless to expect that fixity of type which only in-breeding can produce, or that continual im- provement among the goats of Turkey, which might with every reason be expected, if the goats were under more competent management. From the scientific breeder's standpoint, there is thus but little uniformity, and throughout the whole area, FARMING OF THE ANGORA GOAT IN TURKEY. 137 generally speaking, the goats are almost inextricably mixed. Shearing takes place in April or May, and the hair is not sorted ; the farmer merely removes and puts up separately the soiled ends and breechings. If the goats are not shorn, they shed their hair as the summer heat comes on. The kapaters are seklom kept after they are six years old, but are sold or slaughtered, Conolly says (1840) that " surplus he-goats and barren females are killed in the beginning of winter, when their flesh is par- fried and potted by the smaller classes as a store for the cold season ". Prices paid for Angoras by Turk to Turk average about £3 to £4 for a good ram, and up to £5 for a really first-class one, while a fancy animal will generally realise a fancy price. Ordi- nary selected rams are worth about Sj'2. Ewes range from ISx. to 35.s*. With regard to the amounts paid for rams for exportation, Mr. Binns's information is peculiarly interesting, as much mis- conception prevails in the Cblony on the point. It is clear that an experienced buyer in Turkey should be able to procure the goats at a not much higher price than that ruling in the country. Most of the goats imported to the Cape would probably be classed as " ordinary selected " (as above), and be worth about £2 each for rams and '20s. each for ewes ; though, undoubtedly, many have been good and some first-class. In confirmation of this, it may be stated that Mr. Binns, who bought a great many of the goats which were iinported to the Cape, was limited to £2 a head, taking the average all round, free on board at Constantinople. To 138 THE ANGORA GOAT. this sum, in some cases, would be added the Con- stantinople merchant's charges. Still it is clear that a very exaggerated idea of the actual prices paid for Angoras by the exporters in Turkey exists in the Colony. Mr. Binns says : " Let alone £25 a head, not even as much as £o a head has ever been paid in Turkey for a lot of rams all i'ound, though £25 has been paid in individual cases. There is little doubt, however, that sham sales have been affected and the invoices shown to gull the importer." Yet, he says, it must be thoroughly understood that a foreigner would not obtain goats at the price at which Turk sells to Turk if he A\'ent about it in his own way. It is necessary to under- stand the Turk if you are to buy from him without suffering. Mr. Binns gives an account of his own method of purchasing, which, as illustrating the character of the Turkish farmer, is interesting. " Whenever I went to buy goats," he says, " I used always to enlist privately the head men of the district, and then profess to be going to see some goats further on, when any one who had goats would suggest that he had as good goats himself. I would ridicule this till he would fetch them out to show me, and then, while talking of one thing and another, I would gain a lot of information as to who, in the district or out of it, was reported to have the best goats. As the Turks themselves say : ' When you go to purchase any tiling, talk of everything else than what you want to buy, and let trade come of itself; it is only the fool who cannot get to the point when the time comes '. The Turk is not only very superstitious, but greedy and exacting in his bargains, and the idea of a FARMING OF THE ANGORA GOAT IN TURKEY. 139 foreigner coming to his feet to ask him to sell his goats, is so strange to him that it causes his goats to have a fictitious value in his eyes. Those of the Turks who go out of the way to purchase rams for themselves (and they are such strong fatalists that this is rather rare) usually go to the districts around Ayash to obtain them." Further, he says : '' The most potent influence in securing good animals is business pressure. The more in- fluence you have, and the less anxious you appear to buy, the sooner and better does the business get done. As an example, in the summer of 1867, the Hon. Israel Diehl ^ was sent by the U.S.A. Govern- ment to look over the land of Angoras, and we travelled twenty-eight days, during which he had, against my protest, tried the American way of making buyer and seller meet, and only succeeded in buying ten goats, which we only obtained through my happening to hit on a man I knew, who bought mohair for me in that particular district. At last, Mr. Diehl, getting disgusted with our want of success, placed himself in my hands. It took us only a few hours to ride to the nearest town (Beibazar), where I was well known, and in an- other hour I had all the wealthier men collected ; and I simply stated that I had a traveller who was anxious to get home to his family, l)ut could not until he had 140 more goats. Within a few hours all their best flocks were collected within a space of four or five miles, and we were invited to take our pick, which we did, and Mr. Diehl went away happy. The curious part of it was that where I 1 Mr. Diehl made two trips, in 18G2 and 1867. 140 THE ANGORA GOAT. expected them to ask, and Mr. Diehl fully expected to have to pay, at least £5 a head (as we had picked), when we went to fix the price the Turks all said : ' It is not a question of price, but of your helping a friend to get his traveller home ; let some one else fix the price '. A third jmrty was called, and on the matter being put to him, he said : ' That being the case, Mr. Binns, pay them 30.'«?. each, and some day, when any of them happens to be in a corner, you can help him'. The Turks simply said : ' The Lord be praised : He put us in the world to help one another ; you have spoken ; so let it be ' — to the intense relief of Mr. Diehl. The Turks are a curious people, and need a lot of management in the case of a buyer coming to buy their goats. While out seeking goats, we were asked £35 for cross-bred goats on many occa- sions." 141 CHAPTEK XI. THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. The manufacture of mohair into articles of apparel prevailed in Angora from very early times. When the industry was conducted on only a small scale, the women of each family spun the mohair into garments for themselves. Later, there were people who made it their business to sj^in yarn and weave textures, and gradually a local manufacturing in- dustry sprang up in the town of Angora. Later again, an export trade in spun mohair yarn followed. This yarn became known and used, first in Western Europe, and gradually through the rest of the Continent, until, at latest by the middle of the seventeenth century, it was known in England. In 1554, the first European record of the Angora goat appears. In that year, Busbek, the Dutch ambassador of the Emperor Charles V. at Constan- tinople, procured a pair of Angoras, and sent them as a present to the emperor, strongly advising that an effort should be made to introduce the breed into Europe ; but nothing came of it.^ Mohair yarn was, however, known in Western Europe before this date. ^ Dr. Hayes says that it was not until the year 1555 that the Angora goat was distinctly made known in Europe through Father Belon, who had travelled in Asia Minor, by a brief but sufficiently characteristic description. 142 THE ANGORA GOAT. In 1655, Tournefort wrote about the Angora goat and the mohair industry of Turkey in his Voyage to the Levant, ?iiteY\\?i\m^ travelled through Asia Minor. He remarks that the Turkish Govern- ment " does not suffer the fleeces to be exported, because the people of the country gain their living thereby. The thread of this goat's hair is sold for from 4 livres to 12 or 15 livres the oke.^ The workmen of Angora use this thread of goat's hair without any mixture, whereas at Brussels they are obliged to mix thread made of wool ; for what reason I know not. In England they use up this hair in their periwigs, but it cannot be spun." It thus appears that, by the middle of the seventeenth century, mohair yarn was spun into textures at Brussels, and no doubt at some other European cities. Mohair goods were, however, not known in England until early in the eighteenth century, although, as Tournefort shows, the yarn was worked up into periwigs there at least fifty years earlier. As a knowledge of the beautiful fibre grew in Europe, and the splendid camlets imported from Angora came more into use, the demand for mohair goods increased, and the supply of yarn was scarcely adequate to the demand. Recog- nising, as it thought, the importance of pre- serving its monopoly in mohair goods, the Turkish Government had made it a capital offence to export "tiftik" (as the unspun fleece is called in Turkey) ; and mohair was only allowed to be exported when spun into yarn or woven into 1 A livre is a franc, and is equal to 10-69 pence. An oke is 2| lb. THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 148 fabrics. The Levant Trading Company was formed about the- middle of the eighteenth century, with headquarters at Smyrna, one part of its business being to secure mohair yarn. It purchased and exported to Europe the yarn spun in Angora. In course of time, as the trade grew, a number of EngHslimen and Dutchmen were sent out by the Company to superintend the spinning of the yarn. These men had eventually to leave, as the Turks became restless, and their lives were in danger. Some of them had taken Greek wives : these women with their children remained in Angora, where their desc'endants are to be found to-day. There still exists a record of these people in the old Armenian Church at Vank, two miles outside Angora, where two tombstones, inscribed in Latin, bear the names of a Mrs. Van Lennep and a Mr. Black, who died there about 1774. There is fortunately an account of the process of spinning the mohair yarn in Angora, and of the weaving of mohair textures from this yarn. Cap- tain Conolly, whom Thomas Southey {On Colonial Wools, 1848) describes as the highest authority on this particular su])ject which could be quoted, wrote a paper in 1839, read l:)efore the Asiatic Society in 1840. He says that after the goats have com- pleted their first year they are chpped annually in the spring, in April or May. The females' hair is considered better than the males', but both are mixed together for the market, with the occasional exception of the two-year-old ewe's fleece, which is kept with the picked hair of other white goats (of which, perhaps, 5 lb. may be chosen from 1000) for the native manufacture of the most 144 THE anCtOEA goat. delicate articles. In 1839 an oke of good common tiftik was selling in the Angora bazaar for about Is. S^d., while the finest picked hair of the same growth was realising 2.*?. 8^. When the tiftik fleeces have been shorn in spring, women separate the clean hair from the dirty, and the latter only is washed, after which the whole is mixed together and sent to market to the various villages of the mohair area, Angora receiving the largest supply. In these various villages the mohair is spun into yarn. The tiftik is bought by the women of the labouring families, who, after pulling portions loose with their fingers, pass them successively through a large- and a fine-toothed iron comb, and spin all that they thus card into skeins of yarn called " iplik " ^ of which six qualities are made. ' Con- olly's paper proceeds : " The women of Angora moisten their carded goats' hair with much spittle before they draw it from the distafi", and they assert that the quality of the thread much depends upon this ; nay, more, that in the melon season their yarn is incomparably better, as eating this fruit imparts a mucilaginous quality to the saliva. ' Divide,' they say, ' a quantity of tiftik into two parts ; let the same person spin one half in winter, and the other in the melon season, and you will 1 The common Turkish word for all thread. -Conolly says: "An oke of Nos. 1 and 2 now (1839) fetches in the Angora bazaar from 24 to 25 piastres, and the like weight of Nos. 3 to 6 from 38 to 40 piastres. (A piastre is about 2jd.) Threads of the first three numbers have been usually sent to France, Holland and Germany ; those of the last three qualities to England." THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 145 plainly see an important difference.' In winter, they added, the thread cannot be spun so fine as in summer, as, owing to the state of the atmo- sphere in the cold season, it becomes more harsh (crisp)." The yarn thus spun in the various villages is forwarded to the looms at Angora, which has H ■ U ■ p." -'^m hH ^^1 ^H I^H yflHKlBi^H^M PUHI I^HH '^ 'jPHjHj^l^Hpi^^'' '***:i» 'ImT™- ^^^ -Si^' Photo. W. Roe] [Gniair Ituinut. Young Angora Goat Rams, bred by John Rex and the late J. B. Evans, from the Reitfontein Stud Flock (now dispersed). always been the chief, if not the only, town in which tiftik has been manufactured into cloth. The yarn then passes into the weaver's hands, but before he uses it, it is well saturated with a gelatinous liquor called " chirish," made from a root like a radish, which comes to Angora from the neighbourhood of Koniah. This root is dried and pounded, mixed with water, and well shaken in a bag. Then the liquor is strained off, and small 10 146 THE ANGORA GOAT. skeins are steeped in it, while large hanks are watered by the mouth, when they have been spread out, according: to the following process, as witnessed by Conolly : " We found the workmen before sun- rise on a level space by the banks of the Angora stream. Upon a centre and two cross-trees was rather loosely stretched a double web of yarn seventy feet by seven, which was kept extended and separate by sliding cross-sticks. Two men walked up and down the sides of this frame at the same time, nearly opposite to each other, holding bowls of chirish liquor made into a thin yellow mucilage ; of this they continually squirted, or rather blew out, mouthfuls in alternate showers all over the web, while others followed them to press the threads together for a moment, and then to change their position relative to each other, by means of the sliding cross-bars mentioned, so that all might be equally moistened, as well as to rebind any threads that had given from the tension. The chirish liquor had a sweetish and not unpleasant taste, but the squirters complained that it totally destroyed their teeth, and showed bare gums in proof They distributed their jets with singular dexterity, in broad casts of the minutest drops, and exjiressed doubts whether, considering the clammy nature of the liquor used, any watering pot could be made to do their work as well, and save them from its inconvenient effects. This operation is repeated several times. The work is always commenced in the cool of the morning, so that it may be completed ere the heat of the sun can operate to dry the thread quickly. A long web, like the one described, having been sufficiently THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 147 moistened, its threads are divided into breadths of the sizes ordered ; the weaver sends his comb that one end of a portion may be fitted into it, and carries the rest away, rolled upon a stick, to be drawn out as his work advances. " The women of Angora knit gloves and socks with the tiftik yarn, working them both furry and plain, and making some socks of the latter sort so fine as to cost 100 piastres (20*".) the pair. The surplus of this yarn they sell to native weavers of stuffs. The weaver seeks threads of equal thick- ness, and takes the skeins that he matches back to the women spinners, who reel them into one thread, assisting this operation with chirish mucilage. The connected thread being returned to the weaver in large hanks, he, with a hard wheel, winds off small portions through a pan of water on to bits of reed cut to fit his shuttle." Southey said he saw some of the articles made at Angora, which Conolly sent to the Asiatic Society — gloves, so ingeniously wrought that it puzzled the manufacturers at Leicester to find out where the workmanship began or ended ; and children's socks so skilfully made that the manu- facture quite puzzled some of the Enghsh hosiers. " The clothes woven from tiftik," says Conolly, " are of two kinds, ' shalli ' and * sof,' or twilled and plain cloth, and the manufacture of these is con- fined to men. The weaver sits with nearly half his body in a small pit, at the bottom of which he works two or four treadles with his feet, according as he wishes to make plain or twilled cloth. Part of his loom is fixed to the floor before him, and the rest is suspended over it from the ceiling. He 148 THE ANGORA GOAT. contracts to work a piece of 30 ' piks,' or rather more than 21 yards, for a sum which varies, according to the texture required, from 15 to 100 piastres ; and, by working steadily, he may finish a piece of this regular measure in six days. " These stuffs are dyed at Angora. Indigo and cochineal, with tartar, nitric, and sulphuric acids, were mentioned as articles exported from Con- stantinople and Smyrna. Yellow berry ^ grows to perfection in the neighbourhood, and some spoke of a grass yielding the same colour as indigenous to the soil. Coffee colour, a favourite one among the Turks, they obtain by mixing cochineal with the rind of the green walnut. They remarked that cloth made of dyed thread keeps its colour till it falls to pieces, while that which is dyed in pieces fades with comparative quickness." Such was the state of the industry when Angora was the great manufacturing centre for mohair goods. In her palmiest days, there were in Angora about 1200 looms at work, sending out 20,000 pieces of stuff annually to Europe, in addition to yarn.^ 1 Consul Cumberbatch, in his 1895 report, referring to this berry, says : " The yellow berry, the fruit of a species of buck- thorn {Bhanictis Infectorius), having been formerly an article of export of great value for dyeing purposes, much labour and expense were at one time bestowed on its culture, but the uni- versal use of cochineal dyes has reduced its demand to less than one-fourth, and its value to one-tenth, of what it realised twenty-five years ago, so that the cost of gathering the berry is barely covered. Cesare is the principal centre where it is grown." 2 Another authority gives the figures as 1800 looms and 35,000 pieces of stuff. THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 149 The year 1820 is a memorable one in the annals of Turkey, for it was in that year that there occurs the first authentic record of an export of unmanu- factured mohair from Asia Minor to Europe. It is probable that before this, small quantities of mohair had been occasionally exported ; but in 1820 it is first recorded that a "few bales" were shipped at Constantinople for Europe. The raw fibre, however, was so little understood, and so little appreciated, there being no skilled workmen, and no machinery to spin it into thread, that it only realised lOd. per lb. But after that date the European demand for the raw mohair rapidly in- creased ; and the ordinary price, says Conolly in 1839, was ISd. per lb. for many years, though it had fluctuated from IM. to 27d. Up to the date of the Greek Kevolution, it would seem that there was but little demand for the raw material in Europe ; until then, the manufacturing trade of Angora flourished with practically unimpaired vigour. The citizens of Angora, says Conolly, take the Greek Revolution "as a point from which to date their decline, remarking that, be- fore that period, there was a prohibition against the export of tiftik from Turkey, except when wrought up in the form of iplik, or home-spun thread; so that the interests of the native spinners and weavers were protected against the machinery of Europe ". The Turks are no doubt correct in fixing upon this event from which to date the de- cline of the manufacturing industry of Angora, for, owing to British influence, the Turkish Govern- ment was induced at that time to admit machine- made fabrics from Europe, and to permit, as a 150 THE ANGORA GOAT. regular thing, ^ the export of unmanufactured mohair. The introduction of European stuffs into Turkey caused a decreased native demand for shalK and sof, for the Turkish grandees, who used to wear full summer robes of these stuffs, gradually adopted an Euroj^ean style of dress. But though this change of costume, as Conolly says, doubtless had some effect uj^on the Angora manufactures, they were probably chiefly injured by the introduction of cheap French and English merinos into the Turkish bazaars. In 1835 mohair spinning was begun in England at the suggestion of Thomas Southey, and a large European demand was quickly created, for the raw material was already being spun on the Continent, and soon European machinery j^roduced a better yarn than that hand-spun at Angora and at a cheaper price. In 1836, Titus Salt purchased his first bales of alpaca, soon followed by purchases of mohair, and began vigorously to develop collater- ally the manufacturing industry in these two pro- ducts. Owing to these various causes — change of fashion among the Turkish grandees, the introduction into the Turkish bazaars of cheap French and English merinos, the large and growing demand in Europe for raw mohair, and the superiority and cheapness of machine-spun yarn — " the value of Angora shawl 1 It would seem as if, before this date, although a certain amount of raw mohair was exported from Turkey, the exporta- tion was not a recognised industry, even after the strict prohi- bition against it was no longer enforced, but that, at this date, its exportation became a regular and recognised industry on a large scale. THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 151 stuffs declined so quickly and so completely," says (yonolly, "as to entail great loss upon the whole- sale and retail merchants who dealt in them, and little short of ruin upon the weavers, hand-spinners, dyers and others who were connected with the manufacture at Angora itself". The year 1839 was another notable one in the history of the Angora mohair industry, for in that year the exportation of yarn spun in Angora ceased, from that time forward only unmanufactured mo- hair being exported. Date. Bales Yarn. Bales Tiftik. Constantinople, 1836 1837 538 8 3841 2261 1838 21 5528 Smyrna, - Total Turkish export, 1839 1839 1839 — 5679 (about) 1250 (about) 6929 Weight of bale = 180 lb. In 1839, says Conolly, as the European manu- facturers found it more convenient to make their own thread by machinery, the demand for (Angora) home-spun thread had practically ceased, and its value in Turkey had fallen one-half Yarn was then no longer spun in the various villages, as their hair was exported in the raw state ; and Angora itself had so declined that there were perhaps fifty looms employed (in manufacturing fabrics for local consumption) where, in its palmy days, 1200 were employed in weaving largely for export. Thus came about the decline and collapse of 152 THE ANGOEA GOAT. the manufacturing industry of Angora. The in- habitants of Angora felt it keenly, but, on the whole, it cannot be doubted that the change was beneficial to Turkey. As Conolly said : " Though the city has suffered, the province must gain largely by the change, if the Sultan can be made sufficiently aware of his own interest to treat it fairly ". In 1839 the export from the whole of Turkey was about 1,247,000 lb. In 1895 the export was about 11,000,000 lb. This is a result which could never have been obtained under the old conditions. The manufacturing trade of Angora, which was at best but small, has indeed been ruined ; but the gain to the pastoral industry, and to the whole com- munity, has far more than compensated for it.^ For a long time after mohair had been imported regularly into England, no distinction seems to have been made at the ports of entry between it and similar products, such as cashmere, alpaca, etc. ; they appear to have been lumped together. Accord- ing to Southey it was not till 1843 that there is a separate account of mohair, or " goats' wool," im- ported into the United Kingdom, when the amount was 575,523 lb. It was then but little known in England, and was for some time used for the list ends of woollen goods, and did not command much attention. 1 In the early days of the mohair export trade of Angora the hair used to be conveyed in bales on camels' and horses* backs, those carried by camels weighing about 275 lb., those by horses (the great majority) about 165 lb., the average weight being about 180 lb. Now there is a railway from Angora to Constantinople. THE TUEKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 153 In 1844 the imports into England were 1,290,771 lb., of which 97,529 lb. were re-exported to Germany, Holland, Belgium, France and the United States of America. In 1846 she received 1,287,320 lb., of which 48,093 lb. were re-exported. From 1845 to 1846 mohair was realising from Is. Sd. to Is: 8d. per lb. These figures show that England had already thus early obtained, practically, the monopoly of the mohair export from Turkey ; and the fact that she was working up nearly all she received at home shows how rapidly her manufacturing trade had developed. Yet even later than this it may be gathered that mohair fabrics, at any rate of super- fine texture, were not well known in England, for in 1851 the jurors of the great exhibition reported : " There are also goods composed of mohair with cotton warps and silk warps. All are characterised by peculiar lustre and brilliancy, equal in many cases to silk ; they are also remarkable for regu- larity of texture, softness, and fineness. It may be confidently stated that similar goods have never before been produced." In 1853 the total Turkish export was 2,916,509 lb., and in 1858 it was 3,312,012 lb., at '3s. per lb. ; that is, the yield had almost trel^led since 1839. In 1853 Titus Salt erected his works at Brad- ford, now among the largest mohair works in the world. In 1836 " a young man, wandering about the docks at Liverpool, was attracted by a quantity of long-fibred, frowsy stuff", the like of which he had never seen, and the use of which nobody seemed to know. It had come from South America, 300 bales of it, and had been lying in 154 THE ANGORA GOAT. the warehouse for months without a purchaser, and food for rats. The next day he returned and offered Is. Qd. per lb. for the whole lot, an offer which was accepted with alacrity. The stuff was alpaca, and the young man afterwards became Sir Titus Salt."^ The manufacture of alpaca goods drew attention to mohair, and, as has been mentioned, the trade in the two was developed collaterally. The mohair trade, in consequence, received a great impetus, and grew rapidly, espe- cially after Salt's mills were started, till at the joresent day mohair has quite outdistanced its rivals, and of all lustre fibres is undisputed king. Salt, who perhaps more than any other man really brought this about, will always occupy a prominent and honourable place in the records of the mohair industry. In 1838 a few Angoras had been imported to the Cape, more as a hobby evidently than with the hope of developing an industry here which was to surpass that of Turkey ; but at the date at which we have now arrived (1853), only their bastard progeny, much deteriorated, siu^'ived. In 1856 Mosenthal imported thirty, desiring to develop the industry here. About the same time, it seems to have become apparent to the English manufac- turers that Turkey could not supply the rapidly increasing demands of the trade fast enough. Most prominent among these men was Titus Salt, who eventually decided to attempt to increase the supply of mohair by developing the industry at the Cape. In furtherance of this idea, in 1857 he sent '^Bulletin of the National Association of Wool Manufac- turers, Boston, December, 1895. THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 155 out some Angoras to the late Hon. Dr. White, with whom he entered into partnership in the venture. These two years, 1856 and 1857, are most memorable dates, not only in the annals of the Cape, but in those of the world's mohair trade. It will be remembered that, at this time, Turkey had an al^solute monopoly in mohair. This monopoly was not to continue much longer. In 1857 there appears the first recorded export of Cape mohair into England, the amount being 870 llx, valued at £10. Ten years later the export was 50,832 lb., valued at £1963. But Turkey's monopoly was practically uninterfered with till 1874, when, after averaging an export of about 650,000 lb. a year for four years, the Cape appeared with the proud record of 1,036,570 lb., which seems to have been about one-fifth of Turkey's export in the same year. From this date the Cape has been Turkey's rival, rapidly gaining on her, until to-day her output is about equal to that of Turkey, and her hair but little inferior. The Cape seems destined at no dis- tant date to take the premier position. America has never been a serious competitor with Turkey, her average yield at the present day being only about 500,000 lb. In 1862 the Hon. Israel Diehl was sent by the United States Government to Turkey, to report on its Angora goats and mohair trade, with a view to the further development of those industries in the States. His report was presented in 1863. The following is a renime of a portion of a paper by him, which appeared in the U.S.A. Department of Agriculture s Report ior 1867. He found the natives of Angora still engaged 156 THE ANGORA GOAT. to a small extent in manufacturing goods from mohair for local trade in practically the same primi- tive manner, and with the same primitive appliances to which their ancestors had been accustomed. He says the fleece was first taken to a running stream, where it was washed by hand and trampled under foot in the water. It was then spread upon the sand to dry and bleach, after which it was assorted according to fineness, length and purity. It was then hackled on a simple, old-fashioned hackle, consisting of a few dozen long iron nails driven through a board. After hackling, the fleece was placed in rolls and spun into yarn, mostly by the women and children. For this purpose a common distaff was used, or a stick from 12 to 18 inches in length, with cross pieces, rendering it about equivalent to a large spool. It was then ready for the loom, which was of the simplest and rudest construction, and of the same unvarying type that had been used by count- less generations. These looms cost from about 21s. to £5 10.S-. each, some of them being ornamented with rude carving. The ordinary expense of a loom was given at £4 6.'?. 8d. per month. A number of these looms were strung along the sides of a house, some houses containing as many as twenty. The process of weaving was necessarily tedious and ex- pensive. It was proposed to import some of the Turkish workmen to America, but it was found that, while they asked higher wages than the workmen of England and France, they accomplished less. The years in which mohair reached its highest prices were from 1858 to 1876. During these nine- teen years mohair was never below Ss. per lb., except THE TURKISH MOHAIE TRADE. 157 for a little while in 1865, when it fell to 2.s\ 9^, and quickly jumped back to 3.^. '2d. ; in 1868, when it dropped to 2s. M., and came back to Ss. 5r/. ; and in 1874, when it ranged from 2^. 9d. to Ss. 9d. ; it was generally between 3s. Sd. and 2s. 9d., and actually went up to 4.y. Id. in 1870 (the highest it has ever been), and Ss. lO^d. in 1875. This was a period of unexamjiled prosperity and activity in both the Angora industry and the mohair manufac- turing trade. The number of Angora goats rapidly increased, the area which they occupied was greatly extended, a large number were exported to the Cape, and the whole industry was in a ferment, which continued until about 1880. For some years, as has been indicated, mohair had been greatly gaining in favour of the fancy trade, and had become an article of much import- ance. In 1867 it became most fashionable for ladies' dresses, and everything on the spot and to arrive was bought beforehand for consumption in England. The U.S.A. Agricultural Departments Report for this year remarked that the demand for mohair was permanent and increasing, and would continue to increase until met by a vastly more copious produc- tion ; and that, as the stereotyped character of the Asiatic industry gave no reasonable hope of an en- largement of the supply from that quarter, England and the other continental manufacturers were looking to the Cape, Australia, the States, and South America for an increased production to meet their necessities; and, it adds, the value of the entire interest would be enormously enhanced by the open- ing of an adequate and i3ermanent source of supply. The mohair was exported mostly to England 158 THE ANGORA GOAT. (to some extent to France), where it was spun into yarn, and then distributed over Europe for manu- facture into cloth. In 1867 it was said that at Roubaix, in France, 140,000 lb. were worked up per week during the season. In consequence of the abnormal demand for mohair, there was much trade jealousy. " For very transparent motives," remarks the U.S.A. Report of 1867, " the process of spinning has been represented by those in the interests of the monopoly as very expensive and difficult, nay, even a profound secret, known only to those now engaged in the business." It was complained that the extraordinary demand at that time was partly due to the attempt of the English monopolists to absorb the entire production of Asia Minor, by sending agents over the whole country to secure the clip as soon as it was shorn ; further, that the English agents kept up fictitious prices in Asia Minor to discourage operations by outside parties. To this end, it was said, quo- tations in Asia Minor were, in some cases, kept fully equal to those in England, leaving no margin for export or import duties, cost of transportation, profits, etc., while the mass of the clip was quietly taken, at very reduced prices, from the shearers, who were kept blissfully ignorant of the telegraphic or newspaper prices' current reports ! However this may be, it is certain that England did eventually obtain, practically, a monopoly of the trade, and her position is now rendered secure by the fact that the Cape, one of her colonies, pro- duces as large a quantity of mohair as Asia Minor does, and will soon produce more than half the world's supply. THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 159 The long period of high prices and phenomenal prosperity came to an end in 1880. There had been warnings of the coming collapse ; for some time, all-wool French cashmere goods had been steadily advancing. In 1875 mohair sold at 3*\ lO^d. per lb. It took its first downward plunge, Photo. Arthur Green] [Port Elizabeth. Two-tooth Angora Goat Ram, property of S. and E. Hobson, Fair View, Aberdeen Road ; bred by W. C. Hobson, Martyn's Ford, Jansen- ville. As photographed in 1897. This ram took : — 1st prize for single ram, Agricultural Show, GraafE Reinet. Port Elizabeth. 1st prize and champion single ram, Grahamstowu. from which it has never recovered, from 1876 to 1877, when it dropped from Ss. 7d. to 2s. Q^d. In 1879 it dropped to l.s\ 6c7., which was lower by 6c/. than it had been since 1856 ; and things wore a very unhopeful appearance. But in 1880, in a manner peculiar to this joroduct, it jumped back at a bound to 2.s'. 9^^^. This was, however, an expiring 160 THE ANGORA GOAT. effort, for in the same year it subsided to Is. 9d., and at about this figure it remained till 1884, when it dropped down and down, touching Is. 2d. in 1885, and ll^d. in 1386, or Q^d. lower than it had been in 1879. With sundry fluctuations, it remained at a little over Is. (except when in 1889 it touched Is. 9ci. and at once fell again) till 1895, when, at one bound, it sprang up to 2.9. 7d. It was, however, in 1880 that the final and disastrous fall took place, when the all-wool French cashmere goods supplanted mohair textures in fashion. The Turks became alarmed at the great fall in price of mohair and the decline of their staple in- dustry, and attributed it to the fact that their Government had allowed and was allowing so large a number of Angora goats to be exported, especi- ally to the Cape — a blind disregard of facts, as the Bidletin observes, as overproduction has never been an element in depressing the price of mohair ; the world's supply being so small, prices depend ab- solutely on the caprice of fashion. However, the Turks clamoured and appealed, until in 1880 the Sultan issued a prohibitory edict, absolutely for- bidding the exportation of any more Angoras. But, even from their point of view, this was too late, for, as we have seen, the industry was firmly established at the Cape, and growing at an extra- ordinarily rapid rate. Through the kindness of Messrs. Thomas & Cook, of London, I am able to give figures show- ing the yearly importation of Turkish mohair into England from 1875 to 1889, inclusive. As Eng- land obtains practically all the Turkish hair, the figures may be taken as closely indicative of the THE TUEKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 161 annual clip, but rather under than over the exact amount. Turkish mohair comes to England in bags weighing about 170 lb. each. 1875 - - 31,300 bags weighing 5,321,000 lb. 1876 - - 26,000 „ 4,420,000 1877 - - 35,200 „ 5,984,000 1878 - - 27,300 „ 4,641,000 1879 - - 34,300 „ 5,831,000 1880 - - 48,500 „ 8,245,000 1881 - - 24,834 „ 4,221,780 1882 - - 53,325 „ 9,065,250 1883 - - 42,688 „ 7,256,960 1884 - - 53,058 „ 9,019,860 1885 - - 37,492 „ 6,373,640 1886 - - 57,796 „ 9,825,320 1887 - - 33,015 „ 5,612,550 1888 - - 44,171 „ 7,509,070 1889 - - 52,024 „ 8,844,080 From 1890 onwards the amounts were as fol- lows : — ^ 1890 - - - 4,120,220 lb. 1891 - - - 6,496,115 „ 1892 - - - 7,774,541 „ 1898 - - - 8,005,887 „ 1894 - - - 6,889,165 „ 1895 - - - 11,000,000 „ 1896 - - - 4,900,000 „ The average value per annum of the mohair for the five years 1890 to 1894, inclusive, was £365,593. In the case of the Cape Colony it was £403,068 per annum over the same period. Messrs. Thomas & Cook estimate the clip of 1 These figures have been obtained from Messrs. Thomas (t Cook, Mr. W. E. Payne (manager to Mr. J. K. Cilley, New Tork), and from the Bulletin for December, 1895. 11 162 THE ANGOEA GOAT. Turkish mohair (all of which, practically, goes to England) at about 7,650,000 lb. per annum, but the yearly fluctuations are remarkable. For in- stance, the 1895 yield was over 4,000,000 lb. more than that of 1894, while that of 1896 was over 6,000,000 lb. less than that of 1895. The yearly chp of Turkish mohair appears to be fairly regular in amount, but the yearly imports to England vary greatly. The reason for these great fluctuations, according to Messrs. Thomas & Cook, is that the article is used to a certain extent as a kind of investment by the local dealers and others in Turkey. It is not unusual for those dealers to carry from 10,000 to 25,000 bags (170 lb. per bag) from one year to another according to the circumstances of the market. They form their own opinions of the prospects of the market from such information as they can gather, and, if they take a favourable view, they hold very tenaciously. For instance, at the beginning of the present year (1897) they held over between 3,400,000 lb. and 4,250,000 lb. of the old clip ; but, when political troubles assumed an acute form, they became very eager sellers, irrespective of the conditions of the trade in England. Mr. George Gatheral, in a letter to me, dated Constantinople, 24th April, 1897, adds some further interesting details. " The mohair clip of Asia Minor," he says, " has been for generations a kind of investment, and the entire stock of the staple is never thoroughly cleared out. We have a familiar proverb among the native dealers that Asia Minor is like an old flour sack, no matter how much you beat or shake it, you will always shake some dust THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 163 out. The term ' clip exhausted ' can never be really true, no matter how high the price may go. " To begin with the peasant. When the clip opens, he is pressed for money to pay his annual goat tax, but if the price be low, he will borrow money at interest and hold a portion of his clip for better prices later on. There are always money- lenders ready to advance on the security of the clip. " Formerly, mohair was the only thing the pea- sant could treat in this way ; at present, with the railway to Angora, he can sell his wheat for export and keep all his clip of mohair, if he likes, for an improvement in prices. So that if prices are low, not more than half of the clip will be sold at clip time. " Then you must come to the small capitalist, dealer or even shopkeeper. They all invest their surplus money in Mohair. The country is insecure, it is unsafe to have money. Mohair is bulky and cannot be stolen easily ; on the other hand it is valuable as compared to its bulk and can always be sold at some price or other. So, for all that very large class, mohair is an investment, and, what between peasants and dealers, the bulk of the clip can be held by natives if they think the price low, irrespective of the ideas of European buyers. The plan adopted by these natives is to buy (say) 1000 okes of mohair ; they do not consider their capital so many pounds worth of mohair, but so many pounds weight, and when they see that they can sell their 1000 okes at a price which will leave them a margin to buy another 1000 okes, they sell, replace, sell, replace, carrying always their 1000 okes till the price reaches a high level and then they will clear out. 164 THE ANGORA GOAT. " You will thus understand how there is always stock held here, and how there is always a surj^lus left over of one clip if the demand in Europe be weak and prices low. This also explains the reason why, when a demand springs up, prices suddenly rise and go on rising, because so many holders just close their hands at once on what they hold, and it is only by successive advances that goods can be obtained. You will see from lists of shipment that in 1890 a surplus was left over of more than half the clip, and that up to 1895 still surpluses were left over. Then came 1895 with its unprecedented demand, when prices rose from 1^. 2^. to 2^. Qd., which led everybody to sell out old stocks. In 1896 demand slackened, prices kept dropping, and we have now before us a clip and a half, or well on to 70,000 bales." ' Average Turkish mohair is worth about 2d. per lb. more than the same quality of Cape hair, but there does not seem to be any marketable difference between the very best from each country. With regard to the yield from the two countries, Mr. W. R. Payne gives the following figures : — 1894. 1895. 1896. ,/ Turkish - - 6,900,000 lb. \Cape - - 9,000,000 „ 15,900,000 lb. /Turkish - - 11,000,000 1b. ICape - - 11,100,000 „ 22,100,000 lb. jTurkish - - 4,900,000 1b. \Cape - - 10,000,000 „ 14,900,000 lb. 1 That is, about 11,900,000 lb. THE TURKISH MOHAIR TRADE. 165 The Bulletin for December, 1895, says that " the present available world's supply of mohair from all sources can be placed at between 18,000,000 lb. and 20,000,000 lb., coming in nearly equal proportions from Turkey in Asia and the Cape, supplemented by about 500,000 grown in the United States ". England receives, in the first instance, not only all the South African mohair, but practically all the Turkish mohair which reaches the market, and works it all up in her own mills, except about 1,250,000 which she annually re-exports to the States. 166 CHAPTER XII. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. The First Importation. Before the Angora goat was introduced into the Cape, efforts had been made to import and breed the Cashmere. Up to the middle of the present century, great ignorance prevailed in Europe as to what were known as " wool-bearing " goats. The Cashmere and the Angora were frequently con- founded ; they were even thought to be identical, and were often referred to as " Cashmere or Angora goats". The Angora goats imported in 1848 into the United States were for a long time known as Cashmeres. Even in circles interested in the trade in goats' hair, it was not generally known from what part of Asia either the Cashmere or the Angora respectively came ; and many were the initial difficulties importers had to overcome before they could ascertain where and how to procure such goats as they wanted. The Cashmere is the nearest relative of the Angora. It is found principally near the regions of perpetual snow, on the cold and dry table-land of Thibet, 12,000 to 16,000 feet above the sea level. More than any other goat it is capable of resisting cold ; in fact, great cold is necessary to bring its fleece to perfection. It has a long, heavy, straight IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 167 fleece of little value, at the roots of which grows a very fine, very soft down, of great value, called '' poshm ". The longer the outer fleece, as a rule, the more abundant the undergrowth. The colour of the Cashmere goat varies ; in white animals the undergrowth is white ; in those of any other colour it is usually a shade or two lighter than the outer coat, and is not so highly prized. The under- growth begins to appear in the autumn, and is shed earlier in the spring than the outer fleece. To collect it, which is a most tedious work, the goats are combed in April (before the long hair begins to be shed), first with a coarse comb, and then with a fine one. Pegler says that the quan- tity obtained from a good goat is about half a pound. The " poshm " generally reaches the market in an unprepared state, and is there sepa- rated by hand from the long hair with which it may be mixed. Yarn for cashmere shawls is spun from only the finest hair, and for the best shawls it is never dyed, each shade being matched to the colour of the pattern required. As indicating the exquisite fineness of this undergrowth, and the beauty of workmanship sometimes devoted to this manufacture by the natives, a correspondent writes to me that the wife of a high Turkish digni- tary showed him a shawl which she said had taken over three years to make, and which, though it was about 14 by 16 feet, she drew through a ring which she took from her finger for the purpose. In 1725, says Mr. D. Hutcheon, C.V.S., the Dutch Company made an effort to establish a breed of Cashmere goats in the Cape Colony. Twenty- four were obtained and sent to the Cape, via India. 168 THE ANGORA GOAT. Of these, only eight reached their destination, the others dying on the way ; and of these eight only one was a ewe, which unfortunately died soon after landing. The seven rams were put to Boer goat ewes and the resulting female progeny cross- mated with their imported sires. Tolerably good hair was obtained from the second cross ; but the imported rams died, and, as no others were intro- duced, the breed, for want of careful selection, deteriorated ; the hair became of little value, and the industry was abandoned.^ The next importation was of a few Cashmeres which came originally from a flock imported into France by M. Ternaux, an eminent shawl manu- facturer. The history of the importation of this flock is almost like a romance.- The return of the troops from Egypt under Napoleon made a taste for shawls general in France ; and Ternaux, desiring to meet the demand, commissioned an agent to attend the great Russian fair at Novgorod, the general mart for all Asiatic productions. There an Armenian exhibited to him a sample of " poshm," and promised to bring him a large pack- age of it at the next fair. The Armenian kept his word, and brought a bale of 60 lb. The exportation of this article being at that time prohibited, it " be- came necessary " to smuggle it away. This small quantity duly reached Ternaux's mills, and served as a basis for encouraging experiments. The war of 1807, however, and the momentous events which followed, prevented the enterprise from being then ^ Official Handbook of the Cajje. 2 This story is condensed from Southey, On Colonial Wools^ 1848. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 169 pushed forward. In 1817 Ternaux, having dis- covered that this hair was the produce of Thibet " shawl-goats," induced a French captain who was going to Calcutta to procure for him some genuine Thibetan " goat- wool " ; and thus was again successful in procuring a supi)ly, though only a few small bales, of this valuable material. This served to stimulate Ternaux to further efforts. In 1819, he and his partner, Jou- bert, assisted by the Due de Richelieu and the French Government, procured from among the mountains of Persia and the neighbouring pro- vinces a large number of Cashmere goats, selected with great care, Joubert himself undertaking the journey. The difficulties that Joubert overcame were enormous, especially on his return journey with the goats, when he was obliged to leave 200 behind in the Ural mountains, and for a consider- able distance had to journey on with seventeen carts with sick and tired ones in his rear. At length, how- ever, he arrived at the Crimea, where he embarked with 568 goats, 240 being pure-bred, the remainder crossed. They were landed in France in 1819. It was from this lot that a Mr. Riley procured some which he imported to New South Wales ; and from which, in 1835, he sent three to the Cape — one pure ram, one pure ewe, and one cross- bred ewe. These goats were purchasetl by Mr. Korsten, of Port Elizabeth. All I can ascertain further about them is from a letter by Mr. F. W. Reitz in the Cape Monthli/ Magazine, in 1857, who states : "I was told they died of scurvy — a dis- ease which the Cashmeres imported by Ternaux were much troubled with ". 170 THE ANGORA GOAT. This was the last attempt to introduce the Cashmere into the Cape. The faihire to estabHsh this breed in South Africa need not, however, be lamented ; for, in the first place, the Angora, a much more remunerative animal, and one better suited to the climate, has been introduced ; and, in the next, it is almost certain that if the Cash- meres had increased here, they would have lost their one valuable property. Their fine soft under- growth is a protection which has been developed to shield them from the intense cold of the snow- clad mountains which are their native habitat. In this warm climate their yield of ' ' poshm " would soon have ceased, or so diminished and deterior- ated that the goats would have been of but little value. The first importation of Angoras into the Cape Colony (or South Africa) was made in 1838 by Colonel Henderson, formerly of Bombay, who was a partner in the firm of Dixon & Co. Mr. F. W. Reitz, writing to the Cape Montldy Magazine in 1857, states : " Colonel Henderson, in the year 1838, imported, by a very circuitous route, and at very great expense, twelve rams and one ewe of the long-haired Angora into the Caledon district. No published account of these animals was given by Colonel Henderson, who, having embarked a considerable sum in the speculation, could not be expected to be very communicative till he had first tried to reimburse himself for the severe loss he must have suff'ered. After his death or departure from the Colony, some of these rams, or their get, fell into the hands of Messrs. Vos, Hopley, and others." Mr. Julius Mosenthal, in the same maga- IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 171 zine, says these goats came vid India, probably from Arabia to India, and were thence shipped to the Cape. Mr. T. B. Bayly says they came by the route of Bassora and Bombay, and adds that more than one-half of the number died, and that the survivors were distributed among farmers in the vicinity of Cape Town. Mr. Reitz further says that Hendrik Yos and W. Hopley, in communicating the results of their experience of Angora farming to the Swellendam Agricultural Society, stated : " It was supposed that something had l^een done to the male animals at Angora to render them in- capable of propagating, as only one male (which was born on the road) proved perfect ". For all practical purposes, as far as South Afri- can goats were concerned, it may be said that, al- though fourteen goats were landed, this first im- 23ortation consisted of two, a ewe and her ram kid ; for the twelve rams which arrived at the same time had all been rendered im^iotent before leaving Turkey. Such is the history of the first importation of Angoras to the Cape Colony. It is to be wished that fuller information were obtainable. That little ocean- born ram kid and his dam were the founders of the South African flocks of mohair goats, the forerunners of that great industry which has been so beneficial to this country. The day on which the little fellow leapt ashore, beside his dam, fifty- nine years ago, at Table Bay, is a memorable date in the history of South African pastoral pro- ducts. Let us glance at their South African relatives, whose future they were so profoundly to influence. 172 THE ANGOEA GOAT. When the first Europeans landed in the Cape, they found tlie natives in possession of a short- haired variety of goats, practically indigenous to the country. But no goats are recorded as being in the possession of the colonists till 1691, when the number was 220. These goats, says Mr. Hut- cheon, C.V.S., were very inferior to the common goats of South Africa at the present time, which owe their superiority in size and appearance to improvements effected by repeated importations of high-class goats of the common varieties of Euioi^e. The Boer goat of to-day strikes one as an ani- mal peculiarly South African, as it browses on the arid kopjes of the Great Karoo. It is a large ani- mal with powerful legs, a grand carriage, a bold, free step, and wild, prominent eyes. The coat is short, smooth, and coarse, of almost any colour or combination of colours, frequently being dappled. It is extremely hardy, fattens readily, and carries a large amount of flesh, which, however, is pungent and strong, and unpalatable to a refined taste. But, in up-country districts, in desert-like parts of the Karoo, they are most valuable, for there they are often the only kind of stock fit for slaughter, as they keep fat when other stock are thin or die. In the early days, the Boer goat and the Afrikander sheep were the only small stock possessed by the colonists, and this goat was justly held in high estimation by the old jMoneers, for it increases with great rapidity (trij^lets at a birth being by no means infrequent), and its skin makes very superior leather, as is evidenced by the con- stant demand in the tanneries of the Colony to-day. The Boer goats have in many parts of the Midlands IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 173 and the East been ousted by their beautiful rivals, the Angoras ; but still their number, according to the 1891 census returns, amounted to 3,444,019 or about 250,000 in excess of the number of Angoras. ^ Photo. W. Roe] [Graaff Reiuet. Boer Goat Kapater. The greatest numbers are in Calvinia, Carnarvon, Murraysburg and Hay. However, all over the Colony, except along the Frontier, a use is still found for some of them, even where the Angora reigns with the Merino ; the kapaters are used as " voer- ^ Average value, Angora kapater skins, 9d. each. ,, ,, Boer ,, ,, 3s. to 3s. 6d. each. Average weight, prime Angora kapaters, 55 lb. each. ,, Boer „ 60 lb. to 65 lb. each. (The Angora skins of course being clipped of their mohair.) These weights and values have been kindly furnished by Messrs. Combrinck & Co., Cape Town. 174 THE ANGORA GOAT. bokken," leaders to flocks of sheep, being trained to the work, and understanding certain words of command. It is an odd spectacle to see a coui3le of immense gaily-coloured kapaters marching as directed to the front of a flock, and sedately — one almost imagines proudly — leading the way into a kraal or through a gate with the sheep trooping closely after them. It is almost impossible, says Mr. Hutcheon, to estimate the saving of both time and temper which a few well-trained Boer goats will effect on a large sheep farm at times of shear- ing, dipping, or dosing, when portions of flocks of sheep require to be taken in succession into a small and strange enclosure to be caught ; while their services in leading flocks which have to travel long distances, or across rivers, are simply indispensable. He has seen two kapaters lead a flock of 2000 sheep through a good-sized river in lots of 100 or more at a time. These goats are subject to a very virulent kind of scab, produced by a diff'erent acarus to that which affects Angoras. In the early days, when it was not understood how to cope with scab, and when there were no dipping tanks, it was not un- common in a severe drought for whole flocks to be almost exterminated by this disease. Such are the Boer goats which have supplied the mothers of nearly all the Cape Angoras. The service they have rendered to the Angora industry of South Africa is almost incalculable. But for the fact that there were several millions of Boer goats, thoroughly accustomed to the country, to furnish innumerable ewes for grading-up purposes, the in- dustry would still have been in its infancy. As it IMPOETATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 175 is, instead of increasing our Angoras solely by breed- ing from a few imported animals, we have been able, within a very few years, to grade up some millions from the good old Boer goat mother-stock, whose progeny, already outnumbering the mohair goats of Turkey and nearly as well bred, now yield more hair than Turkey, of a quality, on the whole, nearly ecjual to Turkish, and in many instances quite equal to the very best that Turkey can produce. A number of white ewes of this variety were selected and put to Henderson's ram, which was in-bred to his own progeny by careful selection. The flock thus raised was farmed in the C'aledon district, first by Henderson, and then by De Vos ; and, later, in the Swellendam district, by Franz van Aardt, from whom it passed to Hopley, in the same district. Owing to the fact that the ram's life was a long one, a flock of considerable excel- lence was eventually obtained, yielding in some cases hair of splendid quality. Bastard rams were in the meantime sold to various ftirmers in Caledon, Swellendam, and neighbouring districts, and then further inland. The mohair goat rapidly spread, and, in a few years, there were a great number of bastard Angoras over a large and ever- widening tract of country. The stock thus obtained found its way (says Mosenthal) to the Bokkeveld, the Zwaart Ruggens, the Camdeboo, the Rhenoster- berg, and the Winterveld. In the Winterveld, be- tween Hopetown and Richmond, he saw ' ' a flock of bastard Angoras at Mr. Sinclair's farm, amount- ing to 600 or 700, all white, bearing long hair, but no fresh blood having been imported in the Colony 176 THE AXGORA GOAT. for many years, their wool was coarse and useless ". And be adds : " There are but few farmers in the Eastern Province^ who do not possess a few goats with some of the Angora blood in them. They are easily distinguished from the pure African goat by their lengthy white hair, and the long curve- Photo. W. Roe] Boer Goat Ewe. [Graaff Reiuet. shaped horn. The best bastard Angora wool which I have seen, besides a beautiful sample from Swel- lendam, was from a small flock belonging to Mr. Hendrik Vos, sen., of Graaff Reinet, which he told me he kept at Mr. Rubidge's farm, Pretorius Kloof . . . Bastard Angora wool of the third and 1 Written in 1857. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 177 forth cross has been exported from Swellendam and Caledon, and reaHsed, as Mr. John Barry m- formed nie, Sd. per lb. in England." Mr. A. Bnckly, writing in 1893, says that many years ago (I take it to be in the early fifties) he was anxions to try Angoras as a new industry, and l)Ought up all he could obtain in the Eastern Province. " The best I could get," he states, " ap- peared to be goats one-quarter bred. I made every inquiry as to where I could get good ones ; and, hearing the l)rothers Sinclair, in the Middleburg district, had some good ones, I rode to them in the hopes of getting a supply. But it was a false re- port, they had none. But they told me of a Dutch- man who had a thoroughbred ram. I rode thirty miles to see him, and bought him ; but he did not ap2:)ear more than half-bred. I then heard from Deer and Deitz (of Port Elizabeth) that there were some thoroughbreds in the Western Province. They bought one for me, said to be a thoroughbred ram, from Mr. Barry, fither of Judge Barry, but he was not so good as some afterwards imported by Mr. W. 11. Thompson." T. B. Bayly, after re- marking that Henderson's goats were not remark- ably prolific (he does not appear to have known of the impotence of the twelve rams), says that had they been so, still they were too few in number to acquire a permanent hold on our agricultural sys- tem ; and, as the pure blood was not maintained by subsequent importations, the breed greatly de- teriorated. It is thus evident that, from this one ram and ewe, cross-bred Angoras of different grades had spread far and wide throughout the Colony, from 12 178 THE ANGOEA GOAT. Cape Town to the Frontier, before ever any other importations were made, and that hair of consider- able excellence had been produced. Hair from the progeny of Henderson's goats was actually exported from as far east as Baviaan's Eiver, near Bedford, Qd. per lb. being paid for it in Somerset East in 1857. Indeed, it is remarkable to how great an extent Henderson's importation affected the goat industry of the Colony. The blood of his goats per- meated to some extent most of the flocks through- out the country (except perhaj^s in the far north- west) ; and, although their progeny had seriously deteriorated in parts, and no pure-bred descend- ants seem to have existed eighteen years after- wards, yet it is clear that they prepared the way for the more rapid influence of subsequent importa- tions, which were thus enabled to be crossed in the ftrst instance with goats with a considerable infusion of Angora blood in them, instead of having to be put direct to pure Boer goats. The progress of the industry from 1856 (the date of the second imjDortation) was, in consequence, much more rapid and widespread than it would otherwise have been : more rapid, for the reasons just mentioned ; more widespread, because the first objections to Angora blood had been overcome and its benefits recognised. The Colony is under a deep debt of gratitude to Colonel Henderson. As to the little ram kid, he must always occupy a place of affection in the thoughts of those engaged in the Angora industry, who recognise the far-reaching and beneficial eff'ects of his impress upon the flocks of the Cape. The rapid spread of the Angora goat is not accounted for, however, alone by the fact that IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 179 farmers desired to breed mohair. The infusion of new blood of a distinct variety of goat seems to have had a pronounced beneficial effect upon the constitution of the Boer goats — a fact which per- haps at first, more than mohair considerations, ac- counts for the extraordinarily rapid and extended spread of the Angora cross. All the early authori- ties agree that the Angora blood made the Cape goats less subject to cutaneous diseases, and more able to resist scab ; also that the cross-bred pro- geny arrived earlier at maturity, and yielded a more palatable flesh. For instance, T. B. Bayly, in 1857, states : " Those who tried the cross in former years seem to concur very generally in the opinion that the Angora goat and its progeny are exempt from the skin diseases so common among the goats of the Colony ". F. W. Reitz corroborates this and speaks of " the evident improvement which a cross or two with these goats produced on our Cape breed — in their constitution, earlier maturity, weight and carcass, and lesser lial)ility to cutaneous dis- eases, as evidenced by the flocks of Messrs. Hop- ley, Van Eeenan, T. Myburg, W. Smallberger, and others in the Swellendam district ". 180 CHAPTEK XIII. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY (continued). The 1856, 1857 and 1858 Importations. Seeing the manifest advantages conferred upon the Cape flocks by the importation of the Angora, and the success of the mohair industry, the Swellen- dam Agricultural Society resolved to make in- quiries, and, if possible, to aid in introducing, without delay, fresh blood of the same breed, to improve the cross already obtained, or prevent it from deteriorating. With this object in view, Mr. F. W. Reitz addressed the committee of the Commercial Exchange, London, begging them to obtain the necessary information for the Society. Writing in 1857, he says : " The secretary wrote an immediate answer, dated 21st August, 1848, promising to lay our communication before the committee at their next meeting. But we have never had a word from them since." The Swellen- dam Agricultural Society, through its treasurer, the late Hon. Dr. White, then corresponded with the secretaries of the Agricultural and Horticul- tural Societies of Calcutta and Bombay, and later addressed Messrs. Dixon & Co., whose partner Colonel Henderson had been — all without success. A subscription was next set on foot by the Society IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 181 with a view to offering a reward to the first person who should import a small flock of Angoras, and £70 was subscribed ; but, as the Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society refused to co-operate, and as no similar subscriptions were raised in other districts, this plan was abandoned. Not yet de- S23airing of success, a company was next established, through the instrumentality of the Society, in which shares to the amount of £1200 were taken, the object being to imjiort a flock. A great deal of correspondence followed with, among others, the Colonial Ministers in England and the English Consul -General at Constantinople, but the goats were never obtained. The Russian war was given as a reason for the non-fulfilment of the order. The order, however, was never retracted ; and the company's money remained in the hands of the treasurer until the announcement that Mr. J. R. Thomson, of Constantinople, had entered into a private speculation with Messrs. Mosenthal to import Angoras, when the different amounts were refunded to the respective shareholders. This was the last of the })raiseworthy efforts of the Swellendam Agricultural Society : from this time, the year 1851, the Society abandoned the project. Correspondence was ineffective, for so little was then known in the Colony about the mohair goat, either exactly where it could be purchased, or through whom, or by what route imported. But that which the Society had been unable to accomi)lish was destined to be achieved by the private enterprise and personal adventure of a firm of Port Elizabeth merchants. 182 THE ANGORA GOAT. The second importation of Angoras into the Colony was made by Messrs. Mosenthal in 1856. The story of how this was accompUshed is toid by Mr. JuKus Mosenthal in the Cape Monthly Magazine for 1857. He says that for many years past the benefits of introducing the Angora had been acknowledged by men of experience. This opinion " Avas corroborated by a public subscription, opened at Swellendam and Caledon, where the principal farmers subscribed from £10 to £20 each, for the purpose of raising a fund towards the importation of Angora goats. The money went home, the Agricultural Societies discussed the matter, but the attempt to obtain the Angoras remained unsuccessful." He says he was assured that millions of " wool-bearing " goats could live and thrive in South Africa, and he was convinced that even " the Ruggens, the Karoo, dry and ap- parently barren tracts of land," could give food to endless herds of these animals. His narrative continues : " I was informed that South Africa, more than any other country, is especially adapted, in pasturage and climate, to rear the wool goat ; that the African goat, crossed with the Angora, is not liable to scab (brandziekte), a disease of which many thousands of Caj^e goats perish annu- ally ; and I was gradually convinced that the An- gora goat ought to be procured. We had at that time some lions and tigers to forward to the Earl of Derby, who, we were informed, possessed An- gora goats in his menagerie. We availed ourselves of this opportunity to obtain information from whence and how we could possibly procure the i^oats. The information we received was such that IMPOETATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 183 we foresaw so many obstacles in our way, that we abandoned the idea for a while." After various other unsuccessful attempts to obtain the goats, from Thibet by way of Nepaul and down the Ganges, and from Persia or Asia Minor by way of Bassora' (on the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, in the ancient Babylonia), and otherwise, the firm at length decided that one of the i)artners should go in person to Asia to procure them. So, when peace was declared with Russia, Mr. Julius Mosenthal says his brother Adolph " proceeded to the Orient, having for his object to ascertain whether what we had not been able to accomplish by a port of the south (Bas- sora), we might perhaps obtain by some northern port ". Her Majesty's Government and various other high officials helped him greatly, and he succeeded in obtaining a number of rams and ewes. But, before his journey was completed, cholera broke out in the East, and he had to return to a port on the Black Sea, where he remained with the goats from March to July, 1856, to watch over their safety. " He then succeeded," says Julius Mosenthal, " in shipping them to the Mediterranean, where they had to undergo quarantine, and were ultimately landed in Southampton, from whence they were con- veyed to London, and sent grazing in Victoria Park (August, 1856), until they were in a fit condition to be shi])ped to this Colony. Of these 1 The confusion which existed as to the difference be- tween Angora and Cashmere goats has ah-eady been remarked upon. 184 THE ANGOEA GOAT. we have landed thirty in the Cape of Good Hope."^ Mosenthal must have purchased a considerable number more than he landed, for Bayly refers to " the loss of so many of the goats," but says that the thirty, " when landed in Cape Town, after long-continued privations and perils by land and sea, were, with the exception of being a little low in flesh, in the best of health, and had no signs of any cutaneous disorder, as might have been expected after their protracted confinement, and so long a continuance of dry and heating food ". Bayly further says that Mosenthal's monetary loss must have been considerable, as, in addition to many goats dying before the Cape was reached, the expenses attending their transport from the East to Europe, and thence to the Cape, were heavy. I do not know how these goats were dis- tributed, or what became of them all, except that Graaff Keinet got a large proportion of them. In March or April of the year 1857 there were sold by public auction, on the Church Square of Graaff Eeinet, seven rams and one ewe, the first pure Angoras that had ever been seen in that part of the Colony, which is now the headquarters of the 1 With reference to these goats Mr. Binns writes to me : " I heard, but will not vouch for its truth, that they had been wilfully injured to prevent their being of use as breeders, by some rascally Turks ". There is no further evidence, to my knowledge, of their having been so injured. It seems probable that the remembrance of the itijuries inflicted on Henderson's goats was still prevalent in Turkey, for Mosenthal's were evi- dently quite sound. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 185 Angora industry. The names of the purchasers and the prices obtained were as follows : — P. F. Bower - - - 117 s. d John Meintjes - H. S. Van Blerk - - 97 - - 78 Willem Burger - - - 67 10 Isaac cle Klerk - - - 100 George Murray - Jacobus Blom - - - 69 - - 67 10 P. F. Bower - - - - 60 £656 The average price was thus £82 each. Three months later, three more were sold there : — £ .s'. d. 1 ram - - - - C. J. Eabie - - - - 155 1 ,,---- B. J. J. Burger, sen. - 37 1 ,, - - - - Johannes Botha . - 30 One month later, two ewes were sold there : — £ s. d. 1 ewe - - - - Willem Burger - - - 60 1 ,, - - - - Jacobus Blom - - - 50 And some time later, C. J. Kabie purchased one ewe out of hand for £4.). Thus out of the thirty landed by Mosen- thal, Graaflf Reinet ol)tained fourteen, namely, ten rams and four ewes, at an average cost of al)out £73 15.^. 9c2. each. With regard to these goats sold at GraafF Reinet, Bayly, in 1857, says : " It seems, by the Frontier papers, that some disappointment was ex- pressed there, regarding their inferior size ; whether they were actually smaller than imported animals of the same breed previously known in that Ib6 THE ANGORA GOAT. quarter, I have no means of knowing ". Bayly is in error in supposing that pure Angoras had ever been seen in GraafF Reinet or in that part of the Colony before. These goats of Mosenthal's were the first pure-bred .Ajigoras ever seen there. This may to some extent be inferred from the farmers' complaints as to their small size. Never having seen the pure animal before, and not knowing that it was somewhat small, they evidently expected it to approach in size those large cross-bred goats from Henderson's flock with which they were familiar. The next importation was the third, and was made in December, 1857. It has been shown in a previous chapter how, in consequence of the extraordinary demand for mohair about this time, the English manufacturers saw that the supply from x4sia Minor alone would be inadequate to the demand, and began to con- sider whether the Angora goat could not be ac- climatised in other countries. Chief among these manufacturers was Titus Salt, who, after careful study on the subject, imported a number of An- goras into England in conjunction with the Earl of Derby, hoping to domesticate them there. These were probably the goats referred to by Julius Mosenthal as being in the Earl of Derby's men- agerie. England, however, did not suit them, and Salt's thoughts turned to other countries. Meanwhile, the Swellendam Agricultural So- ciety had been making continuous efforts to obtain an importation of Angoras ; and the Earl of Derby had been applied to for information by the firm of Mosenthal. Thus Mr. Salt's attention was directed IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 187 to South Africa, and he got into correspondence with Dr. White, who was treasurer to the Swel- lendam Agricultural Society. Having heard of the success of Henderson's importation, and of the desire in the Colony to secure more Angoras, he decided to send some out, believing that thus he should carry out his idea of establishing the breed in South Africa, and increase the supply of mohair. Through the courtesy of Dr. White, who, in 1893, placed certain letters at my disposal, it is clear that this importation was a joint speculation between Mr. Salt and Dr. White ; there is an agreement to that effect ; and it is also certain that the goats left London for the Cape on the :>3rd November, 1857. That there were a considerable number, rams and ewes, seems likely from the terms of the agreement between Mr. Salt and Dr. White, for it was stipulated that the breed should be kept pure, and that the " wool " should 1)e sent home, and disposed of by Mr. Cook, of Thomas & Cook, to the best advantage of their mutual benefit. Later, Mr. Salt wrote to Dr. White, sanctioning his putting the rams to common ewes, " to create a stock, the wool of which will, no doubt, be of some value in the market".' The agreement was for seven years, the division of the flock to take place at the end of that period. The date is fixed by a letter from Mr. W. White to his brother, the doctor, dated London, :23rd Nov., 1857, in which he says : " If the steamer meets with pretty fair weather she ought 1 Letter of Mr. W. White to Dr. White. 188 THE AKGORA GOAT. to be in Table Bay by the end of December, a very nice time for the animals. They are well provided and leave by eleven o'clock to-day." The Bulletin states that they stood the two voyages (from Constantinople to London, and from London to the Cai)e) remarkably well ; and that Dr. White wi^ote to Mr. Thomas that there was "not the slightest difficulty with them in any way; that, in fact, they might have been born in the country, their condition was so good, while the fleeces showed no falling off in length, lustre, or otherwise ". These goats were located in the district of Swellendam, and (with those of Mosenthal's which were not sent up country) formed the foundation stock of pure-bred Angoras in the Western Province. A year or two after this, Mr. Ziervogel, of (Iraaff Reinet, purchased some rams from this pure-bred flock of Dr. White's, and took them up to the Graaff E-einet district. These goats of Ziervogel's^ together with Mosenthal's fourteen, formed the foun- dation stock of pure-bred Angoras in the Midlands. But, both in the West and in the Midlands,, there were numerous cross-bred descendants from Henderson's goats, which greatly facilitated and expedited grading up ordinary flocks, the pure- breds forming nuclei for stud flocks. The descent of many of the most noted flocks of the Midlands can be traced to Mosenthal's and White's goats, while some go right back, without a break, even to Henderson's.^ ^Mr. D. Hutcheon, C.V.S., Official Handbook of the Gape, mentions that the Hon. Dr. White, subsequent to this im- IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 189 190 THE ANGOEA GOAT. The next importation — the fourth — was made hj the late firm of W. R. Thompson/ of Grahams- town, about 1858 or 1860, and consisted of from thirty to forty goats. Some of the Angoras were sold soon after their arrival, it would seem. Mr. A. Buckly says he bought half the ewes from Thompson, and the late Frank Holland (who, Mr. Buckly says, was a partner of Thompson's in this transaction) got some ; but Thompson kept some and farmed them himself. These goats seem to have been very pure. They were the foundation stock of Angoras in the Eastern districts. After Thompson's death his estate was realised, and Mr. D. Watson, of Llangollen, Alice, pur- chased all his goats, which had been kept pure. Mr. Watson does not know what part of Asia they came from ; at that time it was kept secret. Their fleeces weighed from 41b. to 5 lb., the hair being very fine, kempless and without oil ; all the kids were pure white (I believe this cannot be said of the progeny of any subsequent importation), and two kids at a birth was a most rare occurrence ; the rams were not heavy-bodied, and their horns were small and fine and white (the same remarks applying, of course, with allowances for sex differ- portation of Angoras, obtained a pair of Alpacas, a male and a female. The latter gave birth to a lamb, but the male killed it. Some time after the female died, being much older than the male, which, becoming distracted at the loss of his partner, wandered away, and was found drowned in a neighbouring river. Thus began and ended the Alpaca industry at the Cape. 1 Not to be confused with J. E. Thomson, of Constanti- nople. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 191 ences, to ewes). With the exception that he pur- chased two rams and three ewes from an importa- tion by Blaine <& Co. in 1868 (which, he says, were inferior to Thompson's goats), Mr. Watson kept his flock quite pure till he sold it to Mr. Tom Niland in 1877 or 1878. What eventually became of Mr. Buckly's goats I do not know, but Mr. Niland's and Mr. Holland's flocks have up to the present day been considered among the very best in the Colony. They do not closely resemble other South African flocks, although their peculiar char- acteristics have been to a considerable extent modified by an infusion of blood of later importa- tions. Mr. Watson says that he was forced to part with his Angoras because the natives were killing them for the sake of their skins, which must have seemed very novel and beautiful to people who had never seen these white goats with long silky ring- lets before. During the kidding season the ewes which kidded during the day were left out at night ; and on one occasion fifteen ewes with their kids were left in the veld. On the herdsman going for them in the morning he found all the ewes killed and skinned, and the kids standing beside the dead bodies. Mr. Watson says that W. K. Thompson did more for the Colony than any other merchant in Grahamstown, and that he also shipped the first bale of wool that ever went from the city. Mr. A. Buckly says that, having bought half of Thompson's imported ewes, he " gave the first impulse to the farming of them by taking the highest prizes for them in the country, sending to England the prize bale, which weighed over 80 lb., 192 THE ANGORA GOAT. and fetched '3s. per lb.". He adds : "By favour of Mr. W. Hume, of Port Elizabeth, I got some of my own mohair manufactured into three different kinds of material, with which all my family were clothed ; and no other material in the country could equal it in wear ". The importations to the Cape Colony may, I think, be divided, broadly speaking, into two classes. The first class comprises the four already mentioned, and is more or less representative of the original pure Angora ; the second comprises the remainder, from 1868 (the date of the fifth importation) onward, and is representative of the modern Angora. Up to the date of the fourth importation there were yet in Turkey a certain number of pure or almost pure Angoras of the original type, but at this date crossing had become very general, and the two types were becoming confused. The best goats were still, however, considered to be those which ^jDproached nearest to the original type. Ten years later the original type had disappeared or gone out of favour, being superseded by the heavier- fleeced modern type ; and the idea of what a really first-class Angora goat should be had changed considerably. In 1838, or even in 1858, no ram clipping 14 lb. or ewe clipping 8 J lb. of really good clean hair could have been found. ^ Such heavy fleeces were a later development peculiar to goats of a later period. Consequently the importations of 1838, 1856, 1857 and 1858, may be taken as of one type, and those of 1868 and later of another type. All I can learn of the goats of the first four 1 Mr. Biuns remarks that this is undoubtedly correct. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 193 importations goes to show that they bore a much closer resemblance to the original pure Angora than did those of subsequent importations. Bayly's and Mosenthal's conception of what a pure Angora should be, from their description of the goats im- ported in 1856, shows this ; and Bayly says he saw one of Henderson's goats in 1840, and that it exactly resembled Mosenthal's. All the informa- tion forthcoming with reference to Dr. White's im- portation in 1857 bears this contention out, and Mr. Watson's description of Thompson's goats con- firms it. Finally, it is what might have been expected from what has been shown with regard to the crossing-out in Turkey. 13 194 CHAPTER XIV. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY {continued). The Fifth and Subsequent Importations up to 1880. Importations to the Cape Colony, subsequent to 1858, were as follows : — 1868. Messrs. Blaine & Co., of Port Elizabeth, chartered a sailing vessel, the Grace Darling, to load 376 Angora goats ^ at Constantinople, direct for Port Elizabeth. These were purchased by Mr. Binns, in the Ulgaz-Dagh, Merguzeh, Araj, and Cherkesh districts of the province of Kastamouni, and were mostly rams. The vessel met with very bad weather on the voyage, resulting in great mor- tality among the goats. I do not know how many were landed. A number of these, rams and ewes, were sent to the Zwaart Kuggens to form the nu- cleus of a thoroughbred flock, in which Messrs. Blaine & Co. were jointly interested with the late Mr. J. B. Evans. The remainder, consisting of fifty-four rams and forty-four ewes, were sold by 1 George Gatheral gives the number as 400. Binus says : " The Grace Darling was chartered to convey 400 goats, but, in a fearful storm in the Black Sea, I lost 200 odd in one night ; and obtaining extension of charter-time from H. Blaine, of London, I returned to Asia Minor and bought up as many as I could get in the limited time allowed me ; thus I could only deliver 376 ". IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 195 auction at Port Elizabeth in December, 1868. Mr. Binns got a letter from Mr. H. Blaine, of London, saying these goats were satisfactory and that the Cape farmers were much pleased with them. 1869. In this year Messrs. Blaine & Co. im- ported the largest shipment that ever came to South Africa. The steamer Mary,^ chartered di- rect for Algoa Bay, loaded at Constantinople 806 Angora rams and ewes, of which 7:20 were landed at Port Elizabeth. These goats were purchased by Mr. Binns, in the Ulgaz-Dagh, Merguzeh, Araj. Cherkesh, and Geredeh districts of the province of Kastamouni, and in the districts of Angora and Beibazar, in the province of Angora. They were sold by public auction at Port Elizabeth in Novem- ber, 1869, the sale lasting over three days. The total outlay in connection with this importation was £13,000. At the sale there were representa- tives from Natal and the Orange Free State (where Angora farming had hitherto been comparatively, if not altogether, unknown), as well as from almost every district in the Cape Colony. Mr. Binns says that three experts, Messrs. John Seager, J. R. Thomson, and Gulbenkion, were appointed to examine the goats before they were finally taken over at Constantinople, and gave him a certificate that they were a particularly good lot. 1869. Messrs. A. C. Stewart & Co., of Port Elizabeth, received an importation of 100, consisting of seventy rams and thirty ewes, purchased by John ^ " The Mary was to have come with the 806 goats, but the Melvina, a similar, but smaller boat, was substituted." (Binns.) 196 THE ANGORA GOAT. Seager, who had an interest in the venture. Binns says they were purchased in the Ayash, Cliorl^a, and Beibazar districts, that they cost Seager, in the first instance, about £2 15.^. each, and that, not being limited to price, he had a free hand and was thus enabled to obtain animals of great excellence. He also says that everything conspired to make this an exceptionally good lot : Seager was interested monetarily ; he was one of the largest buyers of mohair in Turkey, and consequently could bring business pressure to bear on the Turkish flock owners to induce them to sell animals which they would otherwise not have sold ; and the goats were obtained in the very best districts. He adds that this lot contained " the largest proportion of good goats " of all the shipments he was acquainted with. These goats are still spoken of by many leading Angora farmers, and always as something most exceptionally good. Two, at least, of the leading stud flocks, those of Mr. E. Cawood and of Mr. R. Featherstone, are descended almost entirely from the goats of this importation. 1870 (probably : the date may have been 1869). Messrs. J. O. Smith & Co., of Port Elizabeth, re- ceived about forty, purchased by Mr. Eutichides, agent at Angora for the late Mr. J. Binns. 1870. By several steamers, in lots of from 200 to 250 at a time, there were shipped 750 rams and ewes — 515 to Blaine & Co., the remainder to Good liffe, Smart & Searle, of Cape Town. They were purchased by Mr. Binns in Ulgaz-Dagh, Merguzeh, Araj, Cherkesh, and Chorba. I know nothing further of Goodliffe, Smart & Searle's lot except that they were landed in Cape Town. Of Blaine IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 197 & Co.'s, eighty-seven were lost on the voyage out, and some sixty died after landing ; the remainder were in due course sold and dispersed throughout the Colony.^ 1871. Towards the end of 1870, Mr. Binns de- livered 385 Angoras nominally to Mr. Parry of Constantinople. These goats had been selected from his own flocks in Chorba, Ayash, Beibazar, and Ulgaz-Dagh. They arrived in Constantinople in September, 1870. At this point there was a hitch in the negotiations, and as no agreement could be come to about a first lien on the sale of the goats, Mr. Binns decided to pick the very best and ship them himself. From these 385, he selected five rams and 183 ewes, and with these started from Constantinople in the beginning of October, having arranged with Blaine & Co., of Port Elizabeth, for an advance of £2 10^*. per head. In the Medi- terranean Sea a severe storm was encountered, and twenty-two tons of hay were lost, and twenty-six goats drowned. He landed at Gibraltai' with 162 goats. Ten days later the Good Hope called and picked up Binns, his Bulgarian shepherd and the 162 goats. After a long and tedious voyage of forty-nine days, they reached the Cape, thirty-nine goats having died on the journey. During the passage one of the stewards had died 1 Binns' version of this lot is different. He says that one John Parry, of Constantinople, having purchased 3000 goats from him, shipped 1200 rams to Blaine & Co., and Goodliffe, Smart & Searle, by the Union Company's steamers, in lots of 100 to 200 at a time. Gatheral says 750 were shipped ; 515 were for Blaine, the others were for Goodliffe, Smart & Searle. I can learn nothing further of the other 450 mentioned by Binns. 198 THE ANGORA GOAT. of small-pox, and, in consequence, the Good Hojm on reaching the Cape was placed in quarantine. Owing to these protracted delays, the ewes kidded on board ship, and, having only dry food, had not a sufficient supply of milk for the kids, which all died except one. Binns at length landed at Port Elizabeth in March 1871, with 119 ewes, four rams, and one kid, which had proved to him a very expen- sive lot. He nursed them for three months at Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage ; but when the time came to sell, about two-thirds had cast their hair. In the end he left the goats with Blaine & Co., who, I be- lieve, eventually sold them by public auction. There were probably some very choice animals among them. The ill luck which had attended Mr. Binns in this venture did not cease yet. After an absence of twenty-two months at the Cape, he returned to Asia Minor, to find that out of his flocks, numbering altogether about 2000, there remained but 125, the others having been swept off by an epidemic of jileuro-pneumonia. 1871-1873. Gatheral sent some sixty or eighty goats from Angora, in two lots, to the Cape Copper Mining Company. 1873. Gatheral sent sixty goats, twenty rams and forty ewes, purchased in the Angora, Beibazar, and Geredeh districts, to Messrs. Mosenthal, Sons & Co., of Port Elizabeth. 1875. Gatheral sent 110, mostly rams, pur- chased in the same districts, to the same firm. 1876. Gatheral sent 120, mostly rams, from the same districts, to the same firm. 1877. Gatheral sent 110, mostly rams, from the Beibazar district, to the same firm. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 199 1879, The late Mr. J. B. Evans, a well-known Angora farmer, of Graaff Reinet, proceeded to Asia Minor to purchase goats, accompanied from An- gora by the late Mr. Gavin Gatheral. He visited various goat districts, and finally purchased twenty- three rams and seven ewes in Dortdivan, a sub- district of Geredeh, in the province of Kastamouni, about ninety miles north-west of the town of Angora. The district of Geredeh, and its sub- district of Dortdivan, together with the distin- guishing characteristics impressed upon the An- goras there by local conditions and other causes, have been dealt with in considerable detail in a previous chapter. It is sufficient to say here that the essential peculiarity of the Geredeh goat (a peculiarity yet more pronounced in the goat of Dortdivan) is a fleece with an abnormal excess of oil, " so surcharged with grease as to seem almost black ". Mr. Evans is said to have conveyed his goats from Dortdivan to the coast, through deep snow, on mules' backs, each mule carrying two goats ; provender for the goats being conveyed in the same manner. Mr. Evans says that the goats as they stood in the docks at London (twenty-seven in number then) cost him £1000, exclusive of his time and trouble in procuring them. One ewe seems to have died during the journey from Dort- divan to the coast, and nine more during the re- mainder of the journey. Twenty of these goats (seventeen rams and three ewes) were landed at Port Elizabeth in December, 1879, consigned to Messrs. Blaine & Co. They were sold by public auction (Mr. C. A. Neser being the auctioneer) 200 THE ANGORA GOAT. at Graaff Reinet, on 13th March, 1880, as fol- lows :— 1 ram, 1^ years, to J. B. Evans - £60 1 ,, ,, „ Maasdorp Bros. - - 140 1 ,, ,, ,, G. Jordaan - 175 1 „ „ „ W. J. Edwards - - 400 1 „ 2 „ ,, J. H. Featherstone - 40 1 „ „ „ J. Eex - - - - 120 1 „ „ „ C. J. Eabie 125 1 ,, „ „ T. Plewman 130 1 „ „ „ R. Kingwell - 145 1 ,, 24 ,, ,, H. van der Mei-we - 150 1 ,, 3,, „ J. H. Featherstone - - 270 1 ,, ,, ,, T. Plewman - 450 1 ,, 3| ,, ,, Maasdorp Bros. - 120 1 „ ,, „ T. Hartzenberg- - 140 1 ,, ,, „ J. B. Evans - 160 1 ,, ,, ,, W. Rubidge - 240 1 ,, ,, ,, P. J. van Heerden - 395 17 rams ; average, £191 15s. M. £3260 1 ewe - - - W, Edwards - - £70 1. ,, - - - J. H. Featherstone - 75 1 ,, - - - Minnaar & Eetief 85 3 ewes ; average, £76 13s. Ad. £230 Mr. Neser says that the two rams which real- ised £60 and £40 respectively " were sick and looked miserable" on the day of the sale, hence their comparatively low price. £450, £400 and £395 are the highest prices that have ever been paid for An- gora rams in South Africa, and the average price of the rams has never been approached. This was, therefore, monetarily, the most successful sale of Angoras ever held in South Africa, however in- ferior some of the goats may have been. They were well advertised, and, being represented as a IMPOETATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 201 new breed, created a great sensation. Goats had been imported from Geredeli earlier than 1879 ; for instance, in 1869, 1873, 1875 and 1876 ; and it is certain that oil was quite common in the An- goras of the Cape long before this shipment of Evans's arrived ; but it would seem as if nothing quite like some of these goats, with dense fleeces black with oil,' had been seen out here before. There have been keen, and at times acrimonious, controversies in the public press as to the effect of these Geredeh goats (and of a similar importation in 1880) upon the flocks of the Colony. It seems to be granted that the effect was very marked where they were used, that they increased the weight of the fleeces of the flocks into which they were introduced (some of the very best stud flocks have none of their blood), but shortened and coar- sened the hair. Whatever purpose the Geredeh goat with abnormal excess of oil may have served in the past, he has quite fallen into disrepute with leading stud breeders now, and would meet with severest condenmation if exhibited at any of the leading agricultural shows to-day. Mr. Evans appears to have purchased these goats more as a speculator than as a breeder, for he sold all except two (which he bought in at the sale for £60 and £160 respectively), includ- ^ " I may state that the first shipment of goats hy Mr. J. B. Evans were not all yolky goats, as the goat I bought for £400 was distinctly a non-yolky animal, as well as several others of the same lot. The goat I bought of the last lot for £295 was just of opposite type, large frame well covered all over with long staple, but bad head." — Extract from letter to me by Mr. W. J. Edwards, Klipfontein, Graaff Eeinet. 202 THE ANGORA GOAT. ing the best and highest priced rams and all the ewes. 1880. The prices realised by Evans's goats in- duced sundry firms to at once set about procuring other importations, and Mr. Evans himself, in con- junction with Messrs. Blaine & Co., ordered another consignment from Geredeh. In this year Mr. Gath- eral shipped two lots at Constantinople for Port EHzabeth. On 26th October 200 were despatched as follows : fifty rams, probably mostly from Bei- bazar, to Messrs. J. Mosenthal & Co. ; sixty rams, from Beibazar, to Messrs. J Mosenthal & Co. ; fifty, namely, forty rams and ten ewes, probably mostly from Beibazar, to Messrs. J. Searight & Co., J. O. Smith & Co., and Holland ; forty, namely, thirty rams and ten ewes, from Geredeh, to Messrs. Blaine & Co., and Evans. And on the 31st October 218 were despatched as follows : 178, namely, 128 rams, fifty ewes, from Geredeh, to Messrs. A. C. Stewart & Co. ; forty, namely, twenty rams, twenty ewes, probably from Beibazar, to Messrs. J. Mosen- thal & Co. The goats were consigned to the firms men- tioned ; but other firms and individuals were in- terested, e.g., J. O. Smith & Co., J. A. Holland, Frank Holland (of Adelaide), H. David & Co. (of Somerset East), and Adler & Co. Mr. Binns, who saw^ the goats of the first shipment, and examined them on board ship at Constantinople, says that less than one-fifth had a great excess of oil ; the major- ity being non-oily. Those imported by Evans and Blaine seem to have been, as a lot, the oihest. The 178 of the second shipment, purchased in Geredeh, were not goats with a great excess IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 203 of grease, though there may have been some in- dividuals that were. But there is no doubt what- ever that, in addition to those imported by Evans and Blaine, many other goats with grease, some with a large amount, were imported in these shipments of 1880, and in other shipments previous to 1879. Photo. Arthur Green] [Port Elizabeth. Two out of First Prize Pen of three Angora Goat Rams, the one on the right having taken the Champion Prize at the Port Elizabeth Agricultural Show in 1897. Bred and owned by J. Hobson & Sons, Graaff Reinet. It is well to bear this in mind, for it is still con- tended in some quarters that oil in South African Angoras was unknown previous to 1879, that it is due solely to the Geredeh, and solely to those Geredehs imported by Mr. Evans in 1879 and 1880. This contention is not only unsupported l)y facts : it is completely contradicted by them. Oil was 204 THE ANGOEA GOAT. known in the Colony previous to 1879 ; the Gere- deh itself was imported as early as 1869 ; oil has never been singular to the Geredeh ; many of our most noted flocks have, as far as is known, no Geredeh blood at all in them, and certainly not a drop of the blood of the two lots of 1879 and 1880. The two large shipments of 1880 came rid Southampton, and reached Port EKzabeth within a few days of each other, about the middle of December. Pleuro-pneumonia was introduced in- to the Colony by some of these goats ; by Evans's in Graaff* Reinet, and by H. David & Co.'s in Bed- ford.^ I have not been able to trace exactly how many reached the Colony, nor how they were all disposed of; but it appears that A. C. Stewart & Co. sold forty-seven at Port Elizabeth on 12th January, 1881, for £3233; that H. David & Co. sold sixty at Somerset East on 26th January for £4707 10.*?. ; that J. B. Evans sold thirty at Graaff Reinet on 26th February for £3172 ; that J. A. Holland sold forty- eight at Port EHzabeth on 21st January for £1633 10^\ M. for J. O. Smith & C^o. ; that Blaine & Co.'s were sold by Kirkwood, Marks & Co. at Port Elizabeth ; that a portion of Adler & Co.'s were sold at Port Elizabeth by J. A. Holland ; that the market was over-stocked, and J. A. Hol- land took a lot of those he had in partnership with Adler & Co. to Cradock, where they were sold by George Armstrong ; and that another lot of Adler's were sent toward Victoria West. Details of some of these shipments furnish in- teresting information. 1 See Chapter xv. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 205 The forty -eight Angoras imported for joint account of J. O. Smith & Co., J. A. Holland and Frank Holland were purchased, probably in the district of Beibazar, by or through Gavin Gatheral, British vice-consul at Angora, Frank Holland ne- gotiating the purchase from this end. It is evident that Holland gave Gatheral minute and careful instructions to purchase the best class of animals ; for, writing to Holland under date 17th July, 1880, Gatheral says: "I am pleased to note you reduce your order one-half, because the goats you require are somewhat of a fancy breed, very diffi- cult to find and still more difficult to buy when found. The Turks know their value just as well as any Cape grazier, and it is only the fearful weight of taxation and the absolute need of ready money that make them part with them to the hated but indispensable Giaur, as they choose to call all Europeans. I think I shall be able to secure forty rams and ten ewes of the ' unique breed,' as they are called, quite equal to those of Evans's ; ^ and, as the purchase will be made at a much more favourable season of the year, I have good hopes of improving even on that purchase. I should have preferred if you had decided on having the 'ten- pounders,' as they are easier and more profital)le to buy, but as you have decided on having the best, I shall take care that you get full value for your money. I note with care the points you insist on, and shall pay close attention to them in selecting. I have found, in addition to those points you men- tion, that Cape graziers pay great attention to the belly being well covered with mohair without the 1 The 1879 lot. 206 THE ANGORA GOAT. parting division which many otherwise splendid rams undoubtedly have. As such choice rams are generally household pets on the Turkish farms, they have names, and these I shall take note of and send you with the literal translations. Many of them are extremely humorous and appropriate. They have also amulets, pieces of parchment in- scribed with verses from the Koran, to prevent them from the ' evil eye '. With a little care these also can be procured, and would, I suppose, be appreciated as curiosities at the Cape." This consignment consisted of forty rams and ten ewes, purchased at a first cost in Asia Minor of £25 each, or £1*250 for the lot.^ When shipped at Southampton for the Cape (all expenses paid, including agents' commission, in all £480 19^\ 1^.) the goats cost £1730 19.^. Id. Two were lost, and the purchase amount and other expenses, together with insurance, amounting to £62 7.s'. od., were re- funded. Thus the forty-eight goats shipped at Southampton cost £1668 ll.y. lOd., or £34 15.^. Sd. each. Their total cost landed in Port Elizabeth, per s.s. Roman, was £1762 ^s. "M., or £36 14,s\ 4^^. each. The landing charges are dated 16th Decem- ber, 1880. Sold in the colony on 21st January, 1881, they netted £1633 10.^. 4^., or £34 0.^. 7\d. each, ' entailing a loss to the importers of £128 185. 10^., or £2 \Zs. Q\d. each. By the same steamer Roman there were shipped at Constantinople the thirty rams and ten ewes, j^ur- 1 Mr. Binns wrote to me as follows with regard to this state- ment : " It is all nonsense to say that the goats were lyurchased at <£25 each, though Gatheral may have obtained that as his price for them ". IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 207 chased in the Geredeh district, consigned to Blaine & Co. and J. B. Evans. These were sent up country to Mr. Evans's farm, near Graaff Reinet. Some of them had contagious pleuro-pneumonia, and caused an outbreak of that disease at Mount Stewart. After some httle delay Messrs. A. F. du Toit & Co. sold the lot, consisting then of twenty- two rams and eight ewes, by public auction at Graaff Reineton Saturday, 26th February, 1881. The rams averaged £109 12.^. each, and the ewes £95 each. The average for the rams was second only to that obtained by Mr. Evans's 1879 importa- tion ; and the average price for ewes is the highest ever obtained. One ram was purchased by Mr. W. J. Edwards for £295, and one by Messrs. Maasdorp Brothers for £250. Seven other rams realised from £115 to £162 10.s\ each, and the re- mainder from £55 to £95 each. One ewe was purchased by Mr. Walter Rubidge for £150. one by Mr. J. B. Evans for £140, one by Messrs. Draper & Plewman for £135, while the remaining five realised from £45 to £85 each. Taking the importations of Angoras to the Cape as a whole, a very large majority of the goats were sold to farmers in the Midlands : Graaff Reinet, Aberdeen, Jansenville, Somerset East, Bedford, Fort Beaufort, Cradock, and Willowmore ; and there is no doubt that though, on the whole, they were eagerly bought up, really first-class animals were scarce, and that many, especially in the 1880 importations, were simply worthless mongrels. Nor was there any uniformity to type as to style of hair or quantity of oil. In many cases coloured kids, often quite black, were born, even when the parents 208 THE ANGOEA GOAT. were both imported. So evident was the Kurd blood, even in some of the most expensive and most fancied goats, that, in one season, a selected stud flock of Geredeh goats is stated to have thrown nearly fifty per cent, of coloured kids, some of them black. Many of the last importations were purely speculative, both on the part of the purchaser in Turkey and the Cape importer. The desire was not so much to introduce first-class animals as to make money on the transactions. In addition to this, extensive crossing with the Kurd goat had been resorted to in Turkey to meet the extraordin- ary demand for mohair, and Angoras were, more or less, in a state of transition there. The same complaint of red and black kids from imported stock was made in America. In 1880, as has been shown, there was a sudden and great decline in the price of mohair. The Turk- ish peasants erroneously attributed this to over-sup- ply, seeing the large numbers of Angoras exported, especially to the Cape. They became alarmed. An agitation was set up, which resulted in 1880 in the issue of an edict by the Sultan absolutely prohibit- ing the exportation of any more Angoras. It seems clear, however, that, notwithstanding this prohibi- tion, Angoras might have been obtained surrepti- tiously. But the Cape did not want any more ; the market was over-stocked ; money had been lost on some of the 1880 importations ; and it was evident that, as the price of mohair had so declined, it would not pay to import to the Cape. So the C'ape went steadily on grading up its flocks by careful selection, improving, in many cases, on even the best animals that had been imported. 209 CHAPTER XV. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY {continued). The 1895 and 1896 Importations. In 1895, however, the idea of securing another importation began to be discussed in the Colony, and £1000 was placed upon the parliamentary estimates. The leading Angora farmers were agreed that there was considerable risk in import- ing from Turkey, as the best Cape stud flocks had been brought to so high a state of excellence ; it being recognised that importation was no guarantee of purity or excellence, however superior a goat might appear. At a meeting of Angora farmers, it was decided that it would not be safe to import unless experienced men were sent from the Cape to select the animals. Messrs. R Featherstone and C. G. Lee were chosen for this purpose. Pleuro- pneumonia was also dreaded, and it was recognised that, if any goats were imported, every necessary precaution should be taken to prevent the reintro- duction of that deadly disease. Meanwhile, the prohibitory edict of 1880 had been reissued by the Sultan, the idea of allowing any Angoras to leave Turkey meeting with the most strenuous opposition there. But Mr. George Gatheral, of Constantinople, who had been striving for some years for permission to export, was eventually successful in obtaining it, 14 210 THE ANGORA GOAT. mainly through the influence and untiring efforts of Sir Phihp Currie, who had been appointed H.B.M.'s Ambassador at the Subhme Porte. In a letter to the Eastern Procmce Herald, Port Elizabeth, dated Constantinople, 4th Nov., 1895, Mr. George Gatheral wrote as follows : "In May last, owing to the presence of H.B.M.'s Ambassa- dor, and to a favourable turn in the mind of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, I obtained an Imperial Concession to export Angora mohair goats, and at the same time the Government stated that it would be the very last granted. As soon as the fleece had sufficiently grown to show the quality of the mohair, namely, early in August, I sent my experienced men to buy the goats, and during two months I had an unceasing conflict to get the animals safely out of the country. Immediately that it became known that goats were to be exported again, an influential meeting of all the mohair merchants and dealers took place in Constantinople, and decided to oppose the effort by every means in their power. They wrote to all their agents up country to repre- sent to the farmers that export of bucks meant mohair coming back to 14d. ; that the reason of the late advance was the prohibition of export to the CajDC, which had led to the degeneration of the Cape hair. The dealers also brought influence to bear on the Governors- General of the two provinces where purchases were to be made, and through which the animals had to pass, and these Governors did all in their power to prevent purchase. A mon- ster petition, under the auspices of the Angora Governor-General, was drawn up, signed, and ad- dressed to H.I.M. the Sultan, begging His Majesty IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 211 to save their industry from ruin, and to prohibit export. The Governor, moreover, sent officials to instruct the peasants not to sell any goats. The goats already purchased were to be given back to the peasants, and finally my man was taken off under arrest to the chief town in the district. The Turkish populace were excited, and this arrest saved my man's life. H.B.M.'s Ambassador, however, took the matter up with firmness and promptitude ; urgent telegrams were obtained from the Minister of the Interior to the Governors-General, instruct- ing them to remove obstacles and give my men all needful help. This they at last were compelled to do, and, accompanied by an escort, the further pur- chases were made and the flock protected from brigands and thieves who attempted to seize the animals. After nearly two months, the goats came down just as Constantinople was in a state of ter- ror and massacre, one of my men being knocked down, bayoneted, and left for dead in the street. Finally, the flock which had been selected with so much care and at the serious risk of life, was shipped for Southampton on 16th October last. The flock consists of 115 goats ordered by Messrs. Mosenthal, Sons & Co., and fifty goats ordered by the Right Hon. Cecil Rhodes. The entire ship- ment is the result of a very careful and painstaking selection by experienced judges and chosen from thousands of the very best flocks in the very best districts of Asia Minor. These animals should l^lease your judges, I think. I have always pleased them hitherto, and these, in my opinion, are the finest that have ever been sent to the Cape." It will be seen from this letter that these goats 212 THE ANGORA GOAT. were purchased not only in several districts but in two provinces. The two provinces referred to, and which may be said practically to comprise the mohair area of Asia Minor, are Angora and Kastamouni. It, therefore, seems that the whole mohair area contributed to supply these goats^ — a conclusion which their entire lack of uniformity would api^ear to justify. The flock, after a journey of seventeen days, reached Southampton on the 2nd November, and left there per the Bucknall Liner Manica on the 5th November, reaching Cape Town on 3rd December, and Port Elizabeth on 6th December, 1895. Very rough weather was ex- perienced from Constantinople to Southampton ; and one goat died on the way out, about five days before the vessel arrived in Table Bay ; the remainder were in excellent condition, under the care of two Armenians and a Turk. Mr. Rhodes's fifty were landed the day they arrived, and con- veyed to Groote Schuur, his residence at Ronde- bosch, near Cape Town; Messrs. Mosenthal's 114 were landed in Port Elizabeth on 6th December, and at once conveyed direct to the show ground. All were j^laced in quarantine to guard against their introducing pleuro-pneumonia. On the whole, the goats were a very inferior lot. There was no uniformity ; they were of widely different types and degrees of excellence ; individ- ual fleeces were generally uneven, backs often faulty, bellies deficiently covered, breeches gener- ally bad, and kemp astonishingly common. The very choicest were inferior to the best goats of leading Cape breeders, and the great majority fell far short of that standard, many being worthless IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 213 mongrels, from a stud-breeder's standpoint. As a lot, they showed distinct traces of common blood, and the taint of the Kurd goat was in several in- stances glaringly visible in blue heads and red legs. There were, however, a few really good animals. Mr. Rhodes, whose goats, on the whole, were said to be inferior to Messrs. Mosenthal's, disposed of his privately. Mosenthal's were sold by public auction, by Mr. J. A. Holland, on Tuesday, the 4th February, 1896. The attendance at the sale was probably the most representative body of Angora goat farmers ever assembled together in South Africa, and among these were men who, it was believed, would have given £1000 for a really exceptionally first-class ram. Many of the goats had cast their hair, but this made no difference to the sale, as they had all been carefully examined in full fleece by intending buyers. When landed, they were infested with hypodermic larvae of the bot fly, but a certificate was read from the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon certifying that they were clean when put up for sale. All were sold, the ninety- five rams for £4581, or an average of £51 1^\ Sd. each ; the nineteen ewes for £808 10.^., or an average of £42 4^\ Sd. each. The highest price paid for a ram was £330 by Messrs. W. Rubidge and G. H. Maasdorp ; another realised £230, and was purchased by Mr. W. Miller ; one was sold to Mr. P. H. Gericke for £195, and eleven more went at from £105 to £175. The lowest price paid for a ram was £6, and three more went at under £10 each ; thirteen between £10 and under £20 ; and thirty-seven at between £20 and £30. The highest priced ewe was sold to Messrs. Miller 214 THE ANGORA GOAT. Bros, for £112 10s. ; no other realised £100 or over. Miller Bros, bought the next for £80 ; and the third was bought by Mr. R Cawood for £65. The lowest priced ewe reaHsed £15. Eleven months later, Mr. George Gatheral sent another consignment of Angoras to Messrs. A. Mosenthal & Co. They were landed at Port Eliza- beth on 6th November, 1896, and consisted of thirty-three rams and thirty ewes/ bearing, on the average, about five or six months' growth of hair. After having been quarantined in the Agricultural Society's show-yard for two months, they were sold at public auction there on 13th January, 1897, by Mr. W. Armstrong. The sale was not so well attended as the preceding one. Thirty-three rams were sold for £2035, or an average of £61 13.*. 4^/. each ; and twenty-seven ewes for £1302, or an average of £48 4.*?. od. each. The highest price paid for a ram was £380, by Messrs. G. H. Maasdorp, W. Rubidge, and W. J. Edwards, of Graaff Reinet ; the next was sold to Messrs. J. Scholtz & Co., of Aberdeen, for £180; eight went at between £90 and £162 ; and eighteen went at under £30, the two lowest prices being i^ll and £10. The highest price paid for a ewe was £205 by Mr. W. J. Edwards ; the next went to Mr. J. H. Featherstone for £157 ; eleven went at under £30, the lowest price being £12. (The Midland News, Cradock, says it is under- stood that two of the rams and six of the ewes 1 The consignment, which came per the s.s. Duke of West- minster, consisted of thirty-three rams and thirty ewes ; but of the ewes only twenty-nine were advertised and only twenty- seven sold. I presume three died. IMPORTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 215 were purchased for a company, per Mr. P. Heugh, that intended to ship them to Nyassaland, where a determined effort would be made to establish Angora goat forming on the highlands of the Interior.) £380 is the highest price that has been paid for a ram since 1879, but it is said that the purchasers of this ram were prepared to pay double the amount they gave for him. £205 and £157 are the highest prices ever paid for single ewes in the Cape Colony, and constitute a South African re- cord. As such high prices are paid nowhere else in the world for Angora goats, £450 for a ram and £205 for a ewe (an extraordinary price) may be confidently taken as world's records. It is satis- factory to know that the Colony possesses goats of its own breeding superior to even these high-priced imported rams and ewes. These goats were, as a whole, similar in type but superior to those of 1895, though there were a number of very inferior animals among them. The ewes were considerably better than the rams, even the best ram being surpassed by several of the ewes. All had kemp ; some very little, others a great amount. The favourite ram was an oily goat, some- what harsh and apparently short in staple ; his locks were wide and flat instead of being round and ringy (curled), and his fleece opened up a little too much on the skin. He was of good medium size, beauti- fully covered, of admirable symmetry, and of refined and thoroughbred appearance all over : an excellent animal. A prominent Angora breeder, and excel- lent judge, who has hitherto held that the goats imported by Mr. J. B. Evans in 1879 and 1880 216 THE ANGORA GOAT. were the best that ever came to the country, wrote to me that the 1896 lot were equal to the goats of those two importations, and that one ram (the one above remarked upon, which sold for £380) was superior to any in either of them. The ewes as a whole were good, a few of them being of rare merit and exceeding beauty. This completes the list of importations to the Cape, as far as my knowledge goes. It is per- haps impossible to say exactly how many An- gora goats have been imported ; but it is safe to say, in all, they number over 3000. They have come from numerous districts in Asia Minor, and are representative of the general run of Turkish goats. There has been no uniformity among the goats imjiorted ; they cannot be said to be repre- sentative of any definite type or types. Each ani- mal stands solely on its own individual merits, and not as the representative of any type. In the future there may be certain fixed varieties among Angora goats, as there are to-day among Merino sheep ; but at present no such varieties exist. Some very superior animals have been imported ; but Mr. Binns says the very best have never left Turkey. A great many mongrels have also been imported, and Angoras are to-day as mixed at the Cape (except the best stud flocks) as they are in Turkey. However, notwithstanding the fact that many thor- oughly bad animals have been imported, so inferior as certainly to injure rather than improve even the average Cape fiocks ; yet, owing to the suitability of the Cape climate and pasture to the Angora goat, and particularly to the superior intelligence of the Cape breeders and their adoption of more modern IMPOKTATIONS TO THE CAPE COLONY. 217 and scientific methods of breeding, the quality of the best stud flocks has been raised to so high a stand- ard of excellence, that Turkey would probably profit by obtaining new blood from the Cape for use in its very best flocks. On the other hand, Photo. Arthur Green] [Port Elizabeth. Full-mouth Angora Goat Ram, bred by R..C. Holmes, Karree Hoek, Pearston, owned by F. C. Bayley, Britstown. Never beaten as a two-tooth (Champion at Grahamstown Agricultural Show, 1895) ; numerous Second Prizes as a four-tooth ; and First Prize as full- mouth at Port Elizabeth Agricultural Show, 1897. As a two-tooth he clipped 9 lb. 1 oz., and as a four-tooth 13 lb. 4 oz. (twelve months' fleece). considering the inferior type of farmers engaged in the industry in Turkey and the primitive and unscientific methods of breeding in vogue there, further importations to the Cape seem wholly un- advisable, unless under the auspices of the Angora 218 THE ANGOEA GOAT. Goat Breeders' Association, and unless two of the very best judges in the Colony go to Turkey to select the goats. Failing this, the Cape industry will best advance without assistance from Turkey. It but remains for the Cape farmer to have a clear conception of what kind of fleece he desires his goats to produce, and then to work unswervingly towards the realisation of that conception. The breed here is in a most plastic state yet, but the leading breeders are gradually and surely fixing it ; and, what is most hopeful, gradually bringing their goats towards uniformity to one type. 219 CHAPTER XVI. THE PLEURO-PNEUMONIA EPIDEMIC IN THE CAPE COLONY. Pleuro-pneumonia, or contagious lung sickness, among goats was introduced into the Colony by some Angoras in a consignment of 200 imported from Turkey. They left Constantinople on 26th October, and came via Southampton, arriving at Port Elizabeth about the middle of December, 1880. Mr. Binns, who examined these goats on board ship at Constantinople, says he took the numbers of some of the best rams and sent them to Cape friends, warning them, however, that " many of the goats had pneumonia when shipped ". One lot from this consignment, belonging to the late Mr. J. B. Evans, were sent by rail to Mount Stewart, arriving there on 23rd December, and were placed on Mr. J. H. Cawood's farm. Jackal's Laagte. Within a few days the disease broke out in a flock of 4(50 belonging to Mr. Cawood, into which the imported goats had been intro- duced. The goats began to die rapidly, and when about 200 had succumbed, Mr. Cawood killed the remainder. Fortunately, this was the only flock running on that part of the farm. The carcases were buried, and the spread of the disease pre- vented. One of Mr. Evans's rams was reported 220 THE ANGOEA GOAT. to have died at Mount Stewart, and several more after their arrival at his farm ; but the disease was not conveyed to any other parts on his farm or elsewhere. This outbreak was hushed up ; and the facts might never have been forthcoming, but that later, when compensation was being paid to the Bedford farmers whose goats had been killed by order of the Government, Mr. Cawood put in his claim. Then the facts became generally known, and Mr. Cawood got ^300 compensation. The other outbreak was of a much more serious nature. It was caused by a goat from the same shipment, and began in the Bedford district about a month later than that at Mount Stewart. Messrs. H. David & Co., a firm of merchants in Somerset East, were interested monetarily in a number of the goats of this shipment. Their goats were con- veyed from Port Elizabeth by rail to Cookhouse, arriving there on 22nd December, and thence by ox- waggon to Somerset East, where they were sold at public auction on 26th January, 1881. At this sale, a Mr. van Niekerk bought a ram which he took to his farm, Brakfontein. The disease, con- veyed by this ram, broke out there on 29th January. Next it appeared on the farm of Mr. Botha, near Goba Drift, and soon on many other farms in the Bedford district. As it spread with great rapidity and deadly effect, Mr. D. Hutcheon, the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon, was sent up to investigate. He at once tried the effects of inocu- lation ; in a few weeks, 30,000 had been treated ; but the ewes, which were then in kid, aborted, and the kids were found affected with a modified form PLEURO-PNEUMONIA EPIDEMIC IN CAPE COLONY. 221 of the disease. Some farmers tried to rear such kids as were not premature, but they communi- cated the disease to the flocks. The number of flocks affected and not inocu- lated was nineteen, containing 7500 goats, of which 5000 died of the disease. The number of flocks inoculated after the dis- ease had appeared in them was twelve, con- taining 12,550 goats, of which 4380 died. The number of flocks inoculated previous to any appearance of the disease, but in which the disease subsequently broke out, was thirty-five, containing 21,500 goats, of which 2860 died. The number of flocks inoculated that were free from the disease when inoculated, and in which the disease never appeared, was eighteen, containing 9950 goats. Thus about 12,340 Angoras perished, exclusive of kids (computed at not less than 20,000), which either died from the disease or were lost by abor- tion. The total number of goats inoculated was 44,000, the total number inoculated a second time was 20,000, and the total number inoculated a third time was 1600, making a total inoculation of 65,600. It will be seen from the above figures that in- oculation was fairly successful as regards the mini- mising of the death-rate ; but Mr. Hutcheon soon saw that the disease would never be eradicated by inoculation, and that, unless it were eradicated at once, it would obtain a permanent hold on South African goats and become endemic in the country. There was only one way to eradicate it, namely, by kiUing all infected flocks. This Mr. Hutcheon 222 THE ANGORA GOAT. advised, and the Government promptly acted on his recommendation. Two prominent farmers were associated with hhn to decide what goats were to be killed and to fix the rates of remuneration. This commission of three, which was granted a free hand, set to work at once, and so vigorously and thoroughly did they fulfil their important duty that in a short time they completely succeeded m stamping out the disease. This was practically accomplished in January, 1882, just a year after the outbreak ; only one flock on the farm of Mr. S. Painter, where the disease appeared again, had to be dealt with (and was promptly and successfully dealt with) after that date. There were killed : — 3514 goats, average compensation value 12s. Shd. each - - - - - . \ £2158 2 2311 kids, average compensation value 5.s. 7ffZ. each - - 653 1 6 17 rams, average compensation value 55s. lO^d. each - - - - - - - 47 10 5842 £2858 13 6 The total amount paid out by Government to farmers as compensation was £3178 13.9. Qd., as follows : — , Paid to Bedford farmers for 5842 goats killed - £2858 13 6 Paid to Bedford farmers as compensation for 320 goatskins - - - - - - 20 Paid to Mr. J. H. Cawood, of Mount Stewart, for 460 goats - - - - - - 300 £3178 13 6 This amount, however, does not represent the whole cost of fighting with and eradicating the disease ; PLEURO-PNEUMONIA EPIDEMIC IN CAPE COLONY. 223 there were other expenses, connected, for instance, with the actual work ; but the total cost to the country was under £4000 — a mere trifle when it is remembered that the Angora goat industry was saved and a deadly disease absolutely exterminated from the country. The total number of goats lost through the disease was about 38,200. The country has not yet forgotten, and never will forget, what it owes to Mr. Hutcheon, though, since the perilous days when he saved the goat industry, he has so served the Colony as to endear himself to every man who takes an intelligent interest in its pastoral and agricultural develop- ment. Pleuro-pneumonia is indigenous to Asia Minor, being most common and dangerous in low-lying and damp situations. It does not exist always in a severe form, but at times it assumes an epidemic character and a most virulent and deadly form, sweeping the Angoras off by hundreds of thousands. There is no record of its having appeared out of the country to which it is indigenous except in the outbreak in the Cape Colony. On its appearance here it was quite unknown to veterinary science, so Mr. Hutcheon had to break new ground. It is a contagious disease, closely analogous to pleuro- pneumonia in horned cattle, and if it had not been promptly stamped out would have obtained a gen- eral hold on the Angoras of this country, and have needed ceaseless combating, just as lung sickness in cattle does. In time, like other diseases which are so deadly on their first introduction to a new country, it would probably have assumed a milder form ; but it needs no argument to prove that Mr. 224 THE ANGORA GOAT. Hutcheon did the country an inestimable service in eradicating it at once. Tiie disease in the Colony was in a most virulent form ; every goat in every flock in which it appeared was attacked, and the mortality, running some- times as high as 80 per cent., averaged about 60 per cent. The death-rate was highest among those first attacked in any flock, probably because they were peculiarly susceptible, and lowest among those last attacked. It is a disease conveyed by direct con- tagion, and not an infectious one. The germs are not conveyed great distances by the wind. The course it runs may be divided into two periods : first, a period of incubation or latency, from seven to ten days ; second, in full strength, from ten to thirteen days, the exact course depending on the susceptibility of the animal. It is remarkable how long the disease was latent in the imported goats. Some of them were observed to have it when the consignment left Constantinople in the last week of October. It did not break out during the voyage, nor was it in the first instance observed among the im- ported goats in the Colony. In both outbreaks it appeared among Colonial flocks as soon as the imported goats were put to them ; at Mount Stewart at the end of December and in Bed- ford a month later — two and three months after the shipment left Turkey. The fact that it did not break out during the voyage, and until Colonial flocks became infected, may perhaps be accounted for on the supposition that some of the imported goats, having had the disease in Turkey, retained diseased lungs ; as is sometimes the case with PLEURO-PNEUMONIA EPIDEMIC IN CAPE COLONY. 225 horned cattle here that have recovered from lung sickness, and yet are capable of infectmg healthy cattle because their lungs remain more or less lo- cally injured and diseased for a long time. With regard to others, it would seem that they had either had the disease and recovered, or that, com- ing from a country where it is always prevalent to some extent, often in a mild form, they were not very susceptible. If the report be true that, after the Mount Stewart outln^eak, several of Mr. Evans's imported rams, which had so far been healthy, con- tracted the disease and died, the above sup^^osition would seem to have strong support ; it would seem to prove that such animals had somehow secured an immunity in Turkey ; but that the disease, having been conveyed to the Cape flocks, had acquired a virulency so potent that the immunity they had hitherto enjoyed was not cajmble of being sustained. But, whatever the explanation, it is certain that those goats brought the disease from Turkey. South Africa should guard itself well against its reintroduction. The facts given in this chapter have been obtained ahnost entirely from the Keports of the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon for 1881 and 1882. 15 226 CHAPTER XVII. THE MOHAIR AND ANGORA GOAT INDUSTRIES OF THE CAPE COLONY. Though Angora goats were imported into the colony in 1838, no official record of any export of mohair appears until 1857. It is certain, however, that, soon after 1838, mohair was sent from the Cape to England, and was exported in small quan- tities, more or less regularly, before any official records were made. Thomas Southey ( On Colonial Wools, 1848) says that before mohair (or, in fact, any lustre goods) appeared in the official returns of imports into Great Britain, it used to come in wool bales with wool and was passed as such. There seems to be no doubt that such mohair as was ex- ported from the Cape to England previous to 1857 was sent in this manner. Writing in 1857, both Mosenthal and Bayly mention that Cape mohair, both of good quality and also bastard hair, had been sold in England at a remunerative price. This is what might have been expected, for a very large proportion of the Colonial flocks had received an infusion of Angora blood more or less strong from Henderson's importation in 1838, before the second and third importations (in 1856 and 1857). In 1857, before the new blood had pene- trated so far, Mr. J. W. Stevens, of Cradock, MOHAIR AND ANGORA INDUSTRIES OF CAPE COLONY. 227 bought two bales full in Somerset East at M. per lb. This hair had been grown by Mr. Izak de Klerk, near Baviaan's River Drift, in the Bedford district, who, in consequence of some pro- minence as an Angora farmer, was locally known as Izak Bok-Boer. It was taken into Somerset East by buck-waggon, loosely wrapped up in a buck-sail. Mr. Stevens had ten canvas bags made to hold it, and then shipped it to London, Photo. W. liov] [tlraaff Reiiiet. Angora Goat Ewes, bred and owned by G. H. Maasdorp, Wiuterhoek, Graaff Reinet. where it realised 1.^. per lb. As mohair was then selling in Bradford at 2s. Qd. per lb. this sample was evidently very inferior. It was a common practice in the early days (the sixties) in the Midlands for the buyer to offer the farmer so much a bale, unweighed (£90 was a frequent offer), to take the lot. The following returns, showing the quantity and value of mohair exported from the Colony 228 THE ANGOEA GOAT. from 1857 to 1897, have been kindly supplied to me l)y the Customs department : — Year. Quantity. Value. Lb. £ 1857 870 10 1858 — — 1859 602 3 1860 385 12 1861 784 61 1862 1,036 54 1863 1,354 73 1864 8,104 608 1865 6,992 368 1866 21,165 986 1867 50,832 1,963 ; 1868 102,570 4,030 1869 260,932 14,746 1 1870 403,153 26,673 1871 536,292 43,059 1872 876,861 58,823 1873 765,719 45,913 1874 1,036,570 107,139 1875 1,147,453 133,180 1876 1,323,039 113,967 1877 1,433,774 116,382 1878 1,358,395 108,353 1879 2,288,116 130,775 1880 2,590,232 206,471 1881 4,146,128 262,660 1882 3,776,657 253,128 1883 4,443,971 271,804 1884 4,329,355 239,573 1885 5,251,301 204,018 1886 5,421,006 232,134 1887 7,153,730 268,446 1888 9,598,768 305,362 1889 9,442,213 351,544 1890 9,235,249 337,239 1891 9,953,548 355,426 1892 10,516,837 373,810 1893 9,457,278 527,619 1894 10,003,173 421,248 1895 11,090,449 710,867 1896 10,001,028 572,230 1897 12,583,601 676,644 MOHAIR AND ANGORA INDUSTRIES OF CAPE COLONY. 229 The Cape Colony now yields about one-half of the world's supply of mohair, or about the same quantity that Turkey yields. The remarkable fluctuations in price disclosed in the above list are due solely to the caprice of fashion ; the scarcely less remarkable fluctua- tions in quantity from year to year are due to an increased or diminished sujjply according as the price rises or falls ; and to the effect of bad seasons, when clips are light, large numbers of goats die, and few kids are reared. For instance, in 1881, before the eff'ect of the great fall in price in the preceding year could be fully felt, the yield was 4,146,128 lb., while the next year, when the fall had reacted on the Angora industry, the yield had actually decreased to 3,776,657 lb. On the other hand, the 1887 and 1888 clips were grown in good seasons, and in each year the yield showed an increase of about 200,000 lb. over the pre- ceding year ; whereas there was severe drought in 1888 and 1889, and consequently the 1889 clip was actually less than that of 1888, and the 1890 clip less than that of 1889. In both these years, 1888 and 1889, a large number of Angoras perished from the drought and inclement weather, especially in 1889, when a couple of days' cold rain in Sep- tember, when the goats were bare, killed in the Somerset East and Cradock districts alone up- wards of 20,000. With regard to the year 1896, the Collector of Customs in his Report to the Cape Parliament says : " The falling off" in Angora hair, both in quantity and value, is to be deplored, evi- dencing as it does a diminished production conse- quent upon the reduction of our flocks owing to 230 THE ANGOEA GOAT. drought, and a fall in price in the European market of this staple article ".^ The following is a return of the number and value of goat skins (l)oth Angora and Boer goats) exported from the C'olony for ten years : — Year. Skiks. Declared Value. 1885 1,202,120 £ 103,209 1886 1,113,023 104,894 1887 1,051,312 99,923 1888 1,340,685 109,068 1889 1,530,799 123,789 1890 1,597,733 142,425 1891 1,577,479 130,454 1892 1,726,528 132,717 1893 1,693,031 131,843 1894 1,619,385 (weigh- ing 5,164,409 lb.) 111,825 In computing the number of goats in the Colony it is safest to be guided by the returns of the Census of 1891 ; for, though other statistics have been taken since, they are not as reliable as those of the Census. 1 Through the kindness of the Collector of Customs, I am enabled, while revising the proof sheets, to give the figures, for 1897, inserted at the last moment in the above table. It will be seen that the amount of mohair exported exceeds that of the highest previous export for one year by 1,500,000 lb. MOHAIR AND ANGORA INDUSTRIES OF CAPE COLONY. 231 Angoras in the Cape Colony, according to the 1875 Census -------- 877,988 Increase within the Colony as constituted in 1875, up to the 1891 Census 2,161,925 Angoras in the Colony as constituted in 1875, ac- cording to the 1891 Census - - - - 3,039,925 Angoras in Griqualand West (annexed in 1880), ac- cording to the 1891 Census - - - - 52,714 Angoras in the Transkei (since 1875), according to the 1891 Census ------ 91,379 Grand total of Angora goats, 1891 Census - - 3,184,018 Other (Boer) goats in the Cape Colony, according to the 1875 Census ------ 2,187,214 Increase within the Colony as constituted in 1875, up to the 1891 Census ----- 395,502 Boer goats in the Colony as constituted in 1875, according to the 1891 Census - - - - 2,584,716 Boer goats in Griqualand West (annexed in 1880), according to the 1891 Census - - - - 295,632 Boer goats in the Transkei (since 1875), according to the 1891 Census 563,671 Grand total of Boer goats, 1891 Census - - - 3,444,019 Thus, in 1875, there were in the colony as then constituted 877,988 Angoras and 2,187,214 Boer goats, a total of 3,695,202 goats. In 1891 there were, within the same area, 3,039,925 Angoras and 2,584,716 Boer goats, a total of 5,624,641 goats ; showing an increase of 2,161,937 Angoras, and of only 397,502 Boer goats. These figures indicate how rapidly the Boer goat is being superseded by his more beautiful and more re- munerative rival. In 1891, within the whole colony as then constituted, there were 3,184,018 *232 THE ANGORA GOAT. Angoras and 3,444,019 Boer goats : a grand total of (3.628,037 goats. ^ It will thus be seen that, whereas in 1875 there were 1,309,226 more Boer goats than An- goras, in 1891 that majority had been reduced to 260,000. It is almost certain that to-day (1897) the Angoras are considerably the more numerous ; and it cannot be long before the Angora almost entirely absorbs the old pioneer goat, just as the Merino sheep is absorbing the old fat-tailed Afri- kander. Confining the statistics to the 1891 Census Returns : of the Angoras, the European or white population owned 2,073,601, the Fingoes and Kafirs, 213,774, and other coloured races 96,643 ; of the Boer goats, the white population owned 2,167,215, the Fingoes and Kafirs 932,832, and other coloured races 343,972. There were 2-09 Angoras and 2*26 Boer goats to each per- son (white and coloured) ; there were 7*62 Angoras to each white person, and 0*27 to each coloured person ; there were 575 Boer goats to each white person, and 1*11 to each coloured person ; and there were 14 39 Angoras and 15*56 Boer goats per square mile of the whole Colony. The four districts which contained the most Angoras were : — ^ For the sake of comparison, it may be stated that, according to the Census Ee turns of 1891, there were in that year 13,631,011 woolled sheep, and 3,075,095 other (Afrikander) sheep in the Cape Colony : a grand total of 16,706,106 sheep. The woolled sheep yielded 56,038,659 lb. of wool. MOHAIR AND ANGORA INDUSTRIES OF CAPE COLONY. 233 Yielding Goats. lb. mohair. Somerset East - 429,258 888,006 Cradock 292,895 - 681,670 Jansenville 285,277 718,653 "Willowmore 251,380 491,411 Thus, the Angoras of Jansenville yielded about 2^ lb. each ; those of Cradock about 2^ lb. ; those of Somerset East about 2t4 ; and those of Willowmore nearly 2 lb. each. The (customs Returns for 1891 show that 9,953,548 lb. mo- hair were exported, which would give a yield of a little more than 3^ lb. per goat ; but the 1891 Census gives the amount as 6,833,558 lb., which gives a yield of about 1 lb. less per goat. As the Customs Returns (though they include Free State mohair, a small quantity) are undoubtedly more correct on this point than those of the Census, it will be safe to reckon that the goats of the four districts mentioned cHpped about 1 lb. each heavier than the Census Returns indicate (that is, Jansenville 3h lb. and so on). The four districts containing the most Boer goats were : — Calvinia 227,993 Carnarvon . . . - 199,646 Murraysburg - - - - 186,637 Hay 140,856 There were some statistics taken for the year ending 31st May, 1894, which I give, because they furnish some details not specified in the 1891 Census Returns. These statistics, however, are not believed to be at all reliable, and so must only be accepted in a general way. 234 THE ANGORA GOAT. According to the returns for the agricul- tural year ending 31st May, 1894, there were in the whole Colony only 2,619,708 Angoras, and 2,303,640 other (Boer) goats : a grand total of 4,923,348, or an actual decrease from 1891 of 1,704,689 goats (564,310 Angoras, and 1,145,379 Boer goats). During that year goats died or were lost as follows : — From scab and poverty . - - . 203,409 „ worm _---.- 72,581 ,, klamiiv and tongs iekte (including foot-and-mouth disease) ^ - - 7418 „ 'cnenta2 - 40,879 ,, gall sickness 49,523 ,, any other disease . - - - 64,868 ,, destroyed, stolen or lost - - - 78,802 ,, exposure or drought - - - - 349,587 Total - - - 867,067 There was an actual decrease (according to the Statistical Register, from which these figures are taken) of 707,607 on the grand total of the pre- ceding year, 1893 (namely, 191,498 Angoras and 516,109 other goats). 1 Klaamv and tony-ziekte, foot-and-tongue sickness. 2 'Cnenta, a poisonous plant ; the most obvious indication of a goat having eaten it is paralysis of the hind quarters. 235 CHAPTER XVIII. THE ANGORA GOAT AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.' The first importation of Angora goats into America was made in 1848. During the administration of President Polk, says Colonel Kichard Peters, the Sultan of Turkey requested that a suitable person might be sent to that country to conduct some ex- periments in the culture of cotton. Dr. James B. Davis, of South Carolina, was selected to perform this important service. On his return to the States in 1848 the Sultan, desiring to show his apprecia- tion of the courtesy of the President of the United States, caused nine of the choicest goats of Angora to be selected for presentation to Dr. Davis. Of these, eight seem to have reached America — two rams and six ewes. They were kept by Dr. Davis on his farm near Columbia, South Carolina, and seem to have been of a particularly excellent quality. It may not unreasonal^ly be supposed that the con- ditions under which they were acquired furnished a guarantee of their excellence, a suj^position l^orne out by the opinion generally held of them in 1 I wish to thank Mr. W. G. Hughes, Hastings, Kendall Co., Texas, for the information he has supplied personally, and for assisting me in obtaining much of the information con- tained in this chapter. •236 THE ANGORA GOAT. America as compared with subsequent importa- tions ; for instance, Colonel R Peters, who owned goats from six different importations, and who was in his day perhaps the most competent authority in America on this subject, says they were superior in many respects to subsequent importations. These goats were the foundation stock of the Angora industry in America. Dr. Davis seems to have sold some of these goats as soon as landed. In 1854 Colonel K. Peters visited the farm of Dr. Davis. At that time the doctor had nine pure Angoras, two rams and seven ewes ; and in addi- tion he had one "pure-bred Thibet ewe," several half-bred between the Thibets and the Angoras, and quite a number of ewes graded between the Angoras and the common short-haired goats of the States. The "Thibet" goats I take to have been of the Cashmere type, more or less pure. A good deal of ignorance prevailed at that time (as has been pointed out in the chapters on the Cape Colony) as to what constituted an Angora and what a Cashmere ; so much so that even Dr. Davis thought his pure Angoras were Cashmeres, whereas, according to the unquestionable evidence of Colonel Peters (fully corroborated by later knowledge), they were undoubtedly Angoras of a very superior class. Colonel Peters purchased the nine pure Angoras in 1854 at $1000 each, and also several of the " Thibet Angoras ". The fact that the real Angoras and the "Thibet Angoras" (Cashmeres) were inter-bred, perhaps accounts, to some ex- tent, for the undergrowth about which Mr. Hoerle speculated in his letter to the Tejcax Live Stock Journal (see Chap. viii.). Colonel Peters removed ANGOEA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF UNITED STATES. 237 these valuable goats to his farm, Atlanta, Georgia, and, breeding them there with great care and in- telligence, became the father of the Angora industry of America. In 1861 Colonel Peters sent two sixteen months old pure Angora rams to Mr. William M. Lan- drum, Joaquin Co., California. These were the first pure Angoras to enter California. A month or two later Mr. Landrum exhibited them at the State Fair, and was awarded a special premium — a large silver goblet — for the introduction of the " Angora or Cashmere goat ". One of these young- rams died fi'om snake-l:)ite after siring only about thirty kids, but the other attained great notoriety, being known along the Pacific coast as "Billy Atlanta," after the name of his breeder's farm in Georgia, and as the " King of the Cashmere goats ". He was accidentally killed when ten years old, after siring about 2000 kids. Colonel Peters, his l^reeder, says with pardonable pride : " He won the sweepstake prize against all com- petition at every fair to that preceding his death, his numerous descendants are scattered all along the Pacific coast, and his blood courses in the veins of one-half the Angora flocks, pure-bred and grades, in that part of the Union, estimated (in 1882) to approach 70,000 head". While on the subject of Colonel Peters's flock, it may be mentioned that, in 1868, he sent twenty- five choice-bred goats into California, seventeen of which were purchased by Messrs. Landrum, Butter- field & Son ; and that, in 1872, Messrs. Landrum & Rogers acquired the larger portion of his pure- bred flock and removed them into the same state. 238 THE ANGORA GOAT. California is surpassed in the number of its Angoras at the present day by Texas alone, the largest individual owner being Mr. C. P. Bailey, of San Jose, who owns about 10,000 out of some 59,000 in that state. Mr, Bailey is probably the largest owner of Angoras in America, and is a breeder of some of its best goats, as evidenced by the premier position of his exhibits at the Chicago Exposition in 1892. I have had insuperable difficulty in obtaining accurate information as to subsequent importa- tions ; but state what I have been able to gather, in the hope that it may reach the eyes of those who are better informed on this point than my- self, but whom my very limited knowledge of America has prevented my coming into touch with, and that thus my data may be supple- mented and corrected where necessary, the matter being of much interest to all Angora farmers. The following list is compiled chiefly from in- formation obtained for me by Mr. W. G. Hughes from Mr. Wm. M. Landrum, Brownsville ; and to a less extent from Dr. John L. Hayes's book. The goats all came from Turkey. 1856 or 1857 (the second importation). R Peters and C. S. Brown imported about six or eight to Atlanta, Ga. 1864. W. W. Chenery, of Boston, and of Bel- mont, Mass., imported a lot. Forty were shipped, but they had scab, and some died on the voyage and the rest after being landed. 1866. W. W. Chenery imported twenty. 1867. W. W. Chenery imported twenty more. ANGOBA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF UNITED STATES. 239 The first choice of ten were for Wm. M. Lan- drum. Gray and Gihnore, and Flint, also obtained goats from this lot. Dr. Hayes says that, in 1868, Chenery had about eighty to ninety pure Angoras on his farm at Belmont. 1869. Israel S. Diehl and Charles 8. Brown received 135 out of 150 shipped to their order. Two of the choicest were for Wm. M. Landrum, one of which, a " hornless Kastamboul " ram, which clipped 10 lb. at six months' growth of fleece, became widely celebrated. In 1870, Diehl and Brown sent most of their goats to California, sixty arriving there and being acquired by Messrs. Lan- drum, Butterfield & Son. 1870. Mr. A. Eutichides, a Greek, shipped 175 from his father's flocks in Turkey. Many of these died on the voyage and after landing, from seal:) with which they were infected when shipped. The sur- vivors, which proved to be only grades, were sent to California, and sold by auction at the State Fair. Ewes realised $14, and rams $10 each, these prices being the current rates for fourth -grade American- bred Angoras. 1874. Wm. Hall and John M. Harris imported nine, three of which were of a very high standard of excellence, the remainder not being of good quality. 1875 or 1876. An English captain brought two to Galveston, and sold them to Parish, of San An- tonio, Texas. These were of exceptionally superior quality. 1876. John M. Harris visited Angora, and purchased twelve yearlings, two rams and ten ewes, which, with their increase on the way, cost 240 THE ANGORA GOAT. him, at the time of their landing in America, over $500 each/ 1879. Colonel R. Peters imported " three Geredeh Angoras," through Charles W. Jenks, of Boston. Peters says "the party who furnished them " inaccurately represented them as a " new breed " (the same thing occurred in the same year in the Cape Colony), and adds that they were in no respect superior to thoroughbred Angoras in his own flock. In 1880, the Sultan's edict, prohibiting the further exportation of Angora goats from Turkey, was published. 1 have not been able to hear of any further importations from Turkey. Some, if not all, of Chenery's goats seem to have been selected by Gavin Gatheral, British Vice -Consul at Angora ; and a general consensus of opinion appears to allow that, as a whole, the best goats were those imported by Chenery, some of them being animals of very great merit. The total number imported into America would seem to be about 400. Some Angoras have on two occasions been im- ported into America from the Cape Colony : one consignment of six- from the flocks of the late J. B. Evans, of Graaff* Reinet, in 1886 ; the other, of two rams, from the flocks of R. Cawood, Ganna Hoek, Cradock, in 1893. Mr. Evans's are said to 1 1 am not sure whether the goats referred to in this paragraph and in the 1874 paragraph are not the same lot. Harris did visit Angora in 1876. 2 Mr. Henry Fink, of Leon Springs, Bexar Co., Texas, says the number was four, two rams and two ewes. ANGORA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF UNITED STATES. 241 have been " a fine lot," and Mr. Cawood's were spoken of in the highest terms by Mr. C. P. Bailey, the importer, who said they had finer and heavier fleeces than his own goats. On several occasions a number of Angoras have been imi)orted into the Cape Colony from the United States, in every case disastrously for the American importer. The Cape farmers would not Pboto. W. Roe] [Graatf Reiiiet. Angora Goat Ewes, bred and owned by Guard Hobson. have them at any price, considering them inferior and quite inadmissible as stud animals. The same fate met even a small consignment of Mr. C. P. Bailey's Chicago prize goats, which he had sent out in the hope of establishing a market here for his rams. Five rams reached the Cape Colony, and could not find a purchaser. I saw these goats, which, at the request of the Port Elizabeth agent, Mr. Cawood was allowing to run on his farm, 16 242 THE ANGOEA GOAT. Ganna Hoek. The Cape farmers were undoubtedly wise in refusing to purchase or even use them. Keturns showing the exact number of Angoras in the States do not seem obtainable, but Mr. William L. Black, in his pamphlet, gives the fol- lowing estimate : — Texas ------ 75,000 California ----- 59,000 New Mexico . _ - - 52,000 Oregon 15,000 Nevada 11,500 Idaho 8,000 Wyoming ----- 7,000 Arizona 5,700 Missouri ----- 5,200 Utah 2,000 Montana _ - . - . 1,500 Kansas ----- 1,200 Indian Territory - - - - 900 Georgia 750 Kentucky 500 Pennsylvania - - . - 400 Illinois - 300 Tennessee 250 South Carolina - - - . 200 North Carolina - - - - 200 Colorado ----- 200 Mississippi 150 Louisiana - - - - - 150 Connecticut ----- 150 Alabama ----- 75 Arkansas 75 Florida ----- 75 lov^a ------ 75 Virginia - - - - - 75 Nebraska ----- 50 Washington - - - - - .50 West Virginia - - - - 50 Total - - - - 247,775 ANGORA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF UNITED STATES. 243 These 247,775 goats are, however, by no means all of good quality. Mr. W. R Payne, manager to Mr. J. L. Cilley, of New York, who, from the fact of his handling so much of the clip from all parts of the United States, is excellently qualified to express an opinion, thinks that "the number of really good shearing animals showing a fleece of the mohair characteristics, curl, lustre and weight, would not exceed half that number, or say 100,000 head that would clip a 4 to 5 lb. fleece ". This opinion is borne out by an estimate of the U.S.A. clip of mohair, computed by several authori- ties at from 500,000 to 600,000 lb. per annum, or not much more than 2 lb. per head per annum, whereas a fairly good and even flock of Angoras should yield, as Mr. Payne fairly estimates, about 4 lb. to 5 lb. each per annum. America, however, has a considerable manu- facturing industry in mohair ; and as her own yield is not sufficient for her manufacturing re- quirements she imports, almost exclusively from England, what she requires in excess of her home production. This amount has averaged for the past five years about 1,250,000 lb. per annum. For the year ending May, 1896, however, she imported nearly 3,000,000 lb., but this was during the ab- normal demand created by a fashionable craze for mohair dress goods, a demand which proved to be but temporary. The average annual importation of mohair may thus be taken at about 1,250,000 lb., which, added to her home production, supj^lies her mills with nearly 2,000,000 lb. to work up yearly. Mr. Payne says that the mohair industry of the States is on the increase, but the product is not 244 THE ANGORA GOAT. improving in quality or length of staple, a good deal of what Cilley receives being still "poor, low, short cross-bred stuff"; and he adds that the country greatly needs further importations of pure- bred first-class Angora goats. In the States, the Angora industry being com- paratively in its infancy, and the number of An- goras small in proportion to the population of the country (which is about 75,000,000), the skins of these beautiful goats are in great demand, the sale of specially prepared skins being an important and remunerative part of the industry. This is a state of things whicli strikes the Cape farmer as strange, when in his own country the Angoras are to the white population in the ratio of about 7^ to 1. At the Cape the skins are so common that they are not valued as articles of adornment or for rug- making purposes, and are hardly used at all, being exported roughly dried, no firm or individual making a business of preparing them ; but in America the contrary is the case. Mr. Wm. L. Black, general manager to the Fort McKavett Tanning Company, Menard, Co. Texas, in his pamphlet, says he was " first attracted to the Angora goat as being a most excellent substitute for the wild fur-bearing animals so rapidly be- coming extinct " ; and he proceeds to show how widespread is the use to which the skin of the Angora may be applied : — "The buffalo, which has supplied buggy and carriage robes for so many centuries, has been exterminated, and nearly all other kinds of fur are very rare and expensive. "The demand for this class of product has ANGOEA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF UNITED STATES. 245 always been enormous, and a glance at any fur dealer's price list will convince any one that the fur industry is one of great promise. There is no domestic animal that can supply this great demand of the human family better than the Angora goat, inasmuch as the skins can be taken in such a variety of stages. " For instance, when the hair is of one month's growth it can hardly be distinguished from the Astrachan, if dyed black ; or it can be taken at an earlier period of growth and be made to represent the polar or black bear, according to the character of the dyes used. " It may not be known that nearly all the buggy robes that are now sold as wild animal fur are nothing more than goat skins dyed ; and perhaps young ladies who admire the so-called real mtnikeij skin muffs and cloaks, will be surprised to learn that they are only straight-haired goat skins dyed black. " One of the most profitable uses that the An- gora skin is put to is in making lace trimming, which commands a price per yard equivalent to %\b for a single hide. " Another use is in making floor rugs, and cover- ings for the backs of sofas and arm-chairs. The beautiful lustre of the curly hair is brought out in a most effective manner by the reflection of gas- light, and nearly all housekeepers who have not already got them are anxious lo possess some. " The supply of this class of rugs is very limited ; and the price, until very recently, was very high ; SIO and S12 being often paid for choice skins. 246 THE ANGORA GOAT. " The present marked value of Angora skins, in a raw state, is about $2 each, for well-haired skins ; and if it were not for the enormous importa- tion of foreign skins, particularly Chinese, which are brought here by the thousands of bales, owing to there being no import duty on them, the price for our home product would be much higher. " It may be well, perhaps, to state that the Chinese goat skin does not compare in fineness with the Angora, yet they are used extensively for cheap buggy robes and rugs, which naturally de- preciates the selling value of the better article."^ It seems to be generally agreed that very large portions of the States are well adapted to Angora goats, an opinion formed from actual experience over a number of years. This being the case, it is difficult to account for the fact that the industry has progressed so slowly, especially when one con- siders that the hair is so valuable, the skins in such great demand, the flesh prized as a food, and the tallow (12 lb. from a full-grown goat) con- sidered as good as any that reaches the Chicago market. It is still more incomprehensible when one considers that there are large portions of the country suitable to goats and not suitable to sheep, so that in such parts the Angora and the Merino do not come into competition (as is the case in Australia). In 1868 Dr. Hayes was most sanguine as to the rapid progress of the industry, but in 1882 he acknowledged that it had so far proved a ftxilure. To-day there seems to an outsider no reason why the industry should not make almost 1 History of the Amjora Goat or Mohair Industry, a fifteen- page pamphlet by W. L. Black, Texas, 1895. ANGORA AND MOHAIE INDUSTRIES OF UNITED STATES. 247 as rapid progress as it has made in South Africa ; but although those interested in the industry are agreed that it is highly remunerative, there does not seem any greater likelihood of its going ahead now than there was in 1868. There is, of course, some adequate reason for this, but I cannot ascer- tain what that reason is. The U.S.A. Government seems to have no statistics rela- tive to the subject treated of in this chapter. 248 CHAPTEE XIX. THE ANGORA GOAT AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA. It was, I believe, from the Cape Colony that Aus- tralia obtained some of her first Merino sheep ; and it is indirectly due to the same country that she was induced to experiment with the Angora. Her phenomenal success in the one is not more pro- nounced than her failure in the other. In the sheep industry, Australia has completely eclipsed the Cape, but in the Angora industry, South Africa is not only immeasurably ahead of Australia, but seems certain, in the near future, to be unrivalled, perhaps unapproached, by any country in the world. The pioneer of the Angora industry in Aus- tralia was Mr. Sechel, a Melbourne merchant, who, having heard how the mohair goats had increased and thriven at the Cape, decided to introduce them into Victoria. In 1856 he im- ported seven, which were purchased at Broussa and came vici Constantinople and London to Mel- bourne. This was the first importation into Aus- tralia. These goats were acquired by the Zoo- logical and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, and were kept in the Society's grounds in the Royal Park in Melbourne.^ ^ About six or seven years later, some Cashmere goats were imported into Victoria ; but this industry seems to have ANGOEA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA. 249 The second importation of Angoras was in 186(1 The Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, in return for some specimens of the fauna of Australia (in- chiding a wombat), was presented by the Imperial Acclimatisation Society of France with " twelve })ure-bred Angoras of a very high class ". These were added to the little lot already in the Society's grounds in the Royal Park. But, as the flock was still too small to be of any practical use to the colony in general, the Society voted £600 to defray the expenses of another importation ; and a Mr. McCullough, a gentleman who had taken great interest in the introduction of the Cashmere and the Angora, added a similar amount for the pur- chase of a number on his own account. In 1865 a special agent, acquainted with the qualities of the Angora, was sent to Asia Minor from London to select and purchase as many pure Angoras as the funds at his command would permit. The goats were obtained in the neighbourhood of Broussa, driven to Smyrna, and shipped ria London for Melbourne, where they arrived early in 1866, after a tedious voyage of 127 days, with a loss of only two on the voyage. Mr. McCullough sold his moiety to the Society. The number landed was ninety- three in all, and they cost the Society an average of £16 each. These were also added to the little flock been abandoned ; for, in 1866, the Annual Eeport of the Ac- chmatisation Society states that the attempt to acchmatise the Cashmere had proved a failure. (In 1832, Mr. Alexander Eiley, of Kaby, imported some Cashmeres — obtained from the Ternaux importation into France — into New South Wales. I know nothing further of this importation except that in 1835 Mr. Riley exported three to the Cape Colony, which were sold for £150. See Chapter xi.) 250 THE ANGORA GOAT. in the Royal Park. Here they were carefully bred ; and, from time to time, sales were made by the Society of pure rams and ewes, with the object of introducing the breed into different parts of the country ; but the Society wisely retained the choicest of both sexes, and, by careful breeding, was successful in producing animals superior to those imported. It was found, however, that they did not thrive well at the Royal Park.^ So it was decided to sell some and move the others to a more suitable part. Before seUing, the flock was care- fully culled by Mr. Jonathan Shaw, an experienced and skilful classer of Merino sheep ; the choicest goats were taken out and retained by the Society ; the remainder were sold. The price at which they were sold, £5 5s. each, though much less than their actual value, was fixed at that amount with a view to securing their widespread distribution over the country, and to place them within reach of settlers of limited means. In every instance the result was failure. Some were exported to other Australian colonies, where for a time, in some in- stances, they did better ; but, ultimately, the result was the same, failure in every instance ; except in the case of South Australia, where the experiment met with a slight measure of success. The choice goats retained, about fifty in number ("a magnificent flock," says Wilson), were sent by railway to Ballarat, and were driven by easy stages to Longerenong, a station of Wilson's on ^ So the director of the Society states, writing in 1896. Sir Samuel Wilson, in 1873, says that the limited pastures at the Eoyal Park were insufficient for the increasing numbers of the flock. ANGORA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA. 251 Photo. Arthur Green; [Port Elizabeth. J. Hobson with the Champion Angora Ram of the Port Elizabeth Agri- cultural Show in 1897. Bred and owned by J. Hobson & Sons. 252 THE ANGORA GOAT. the Wiinmera, where they arrived about the middle of December, 1870. They passed into the posses- sion, or were placed under the care, of the late Sir (then Mr.) Samuel Wilson, Vice-President of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Vic- toria. In 1873, when Wilson published his pamphlet, The Angora Gout, this Hock numbered 114, and consisted of forty rams and seventy -four ewes. The rams averaged 3 lb. 2|^ oz., and the ewes 2 lb. 4:^ oz., or an average all round of 2 lb. 9 oz. each. The best ram clipped 7 lb.. 14|- oz., one year and five days' growth of fleece. The hair seems to have been spout- washed. Very little progress was made with the flock from 1873 onward. Writing of these goats in December, 1896, the Director of the Acclimatisation Society states : " They were after- wards removed to another property of Mr. Samuel Wilson's at Mount Bute and Ercildoune ; and here a small numl)er remain — I don't know how many^ but I don't think there are more than 100 or 200". And he adds : " Practically the attempt to intro- duce the Angora goat into Victoria, after many years' trial, has proved a failure". In 1869 Mr. Price Maurice imported ten " pure Angoras " into South Australia from Asia Minor, and made further importations in 1871, 1872 and 1873 — in all, sixteen rams and 168 ewes. They are all said to have come "from Angora," but this does not seem likely to be correct, for Mr. Maurice named his station '' Kastamboul," after the capital of the Province of Kastamouni. It is stated that each goat cost £20 in transit alone. In 1895 they were said to have numbered about 2000, and were ANGORA AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA. 258 described as small animals on short legs, with very lustrous fleeces hanging in ringlets, with a fine soft undergrowth ; the average weight of fleeces of twelve months' growth being about 5 lb. each, the heaviest running as high as 10 lb. It is impossible to ascertain at present how many Angoras there are in Australia, or even how many there are in any one of the colonies, or what