Angora Goats.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 52, 26 December 1901, Page 20

Angora Goats.

It Is stated that the Angora goats which the Agrioolture Department reoently imported are doing well on Somes Island, Wellington Harbour, where they are undergoing quarantine. There is a considerable demand in Mew Zealand for the animals, but great difficulty is found in supplying it. The Turks have prohibited their export, and the Government of Cape Colony has placed a heavy export duty upon them. In addition to their value in kteping down blackberry, briars, and other similar pest«, the iroata give a plentiful supply of rioh milk ; and from each one between 4!b and 61b of mobair, worth from la 4d to 2s per lb. oan be cot every year. At the present time there are about 4,000 000 Antrora goats in Cape Colony.

Expecting these animals the Sonth African correspondent of th* Dublin Freemarit Journal writes :—

The Angora* are, perhaps, the most interesting stock, after the ostnobes, on a South African farm. They are also Tery profitable, for they produce the beautiful silky mohair which is gradually finding its way more and more into home manufactures Angora goats are not natives of South Africa; they were first introduced into the Cape from India, and mohair began to figure in the exports only in 1862. They have proved a great success They multiply rapidly, lire on the poorest pasturage, and require wt little care. The Indian importations, however, were not the purebred goate, which are only to be found in Asia Minor • and a Mr Evan* vwted Angora in 1856 and procured from the mountain dittriots of Teherkess and Geredeh lota of the pure-bred, which, with o hew imported by private individuals and mercantile firms were introduced into the Colony. So that the breed i. now pure Angora, or nearly so. They are picturesque little animals, with their lone. touted horns and coats of fluwiig, silky mohair. The fleeces are considered just as valuable as the Turkey produce, which makes the rich material known as mobair plueh, and many other materials. These Angoras are very hardy, aud can lire where nheep oannot. Their fle-h also is fairly good eating. They have as many as four or five kids at a birth, and seldom less than two, and their skm is unequalled for the manufacture of leather