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This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Practical Angora Goat RaisingRelease date: July 5, 2010 [eBook #33084]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Verity White and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/American Libraries.)
Title: Practical Angora Goat Raising
Release date: July 5, 2010 [eBook #33084]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Verity White and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/American Libraries.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRACTICAL ANGORA GOAT RAISING ***
image1C. P. BAILEY,One of the founders of the Angora Goat Industry in America.
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C. P. BAILEY & SONS COMPANYSAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA1905.
For several years beginners in the Angora goat industry were without text books, and even to-day there are very few practical treatises. From our forty years of experience in farming Angoras, and from the personal observations of our Dr. W. C. Bailey, while in the interior of Asia Minor, we have tried to select the essential points in the successful management of Angora flocks, and to present these points so that they may be used.
We have given a brief outline of the history of the Angora goat, but we have devoted several pages to consideration of detail in breeding and kidding. It has been our aim to make this a practical text book for the beginner in the Angora industry, and if it proves of value to him, it has fulfilled its mission.
The Authors.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE ANGORA GOAT
As to the origin and early history of the Angora goat little is known. It is supposed that the Angora variety descended from one of the classes of wild goats, and different writers have contended that different genera were the foundation of the Angora species. They have based these claims upon the characteristics of the horns, the covering of the body, shape and size of the animal, and various other details. Several agree that Capra Ægagrus is the class of goat from which the Angora species has developed.
Present history traces the Angora goat to the vilayet of Angora, in Asia Minor, and to the country immediately surrounding this vilayet. Some have set a date over two thousand years ago, claiming that the Angora goat was introduced into Asia Minor at that time, but the only authentic history is that given by Tournefort, a French naturalist, employed by his government, who explored Asia Minor about two hundred and fifty years ago, and who described and pictured the Angora goat about as he appears to-dayand by Evliya Effendi, a Turk, who wrote in 1550 of the goats, and by a few other writers. That they have not changed more is due to the fact that the Turk is quite content as he is, and he has no ambition to breed a different goat from what he has had for at least the past three centuries.
Before we consider the migrations of the Angora goat, we will investigate the physical conditions of their native province. The interior of Asia Minor, or the Angora goat country, is from one to four thousand feet above the sea level. Low, rolling hills and broad plains, treeless and almost waterless; dry, hot and desolate in the summer, and covered with more or less snow in the winter, form the habitat of the Angora. A small fine fibered sage brush is the principal diet of the goat, both summer and winter, but in the spring this diet is supplemented with weeds and some grass, and in the summer some of the goats are driven to the higher mountains, where there are some scrub pines and other varieties of brush. There is no winter feeding. The goats make their own living on the tops of the sage brush, which protrude through the snow.
The indolent Turks do make some provision for the shelter of themselves and the goats in the winter. If a cave can be found it is divided so that the goats share the quarters with the humans. Sometimes anadobe house is so arranged that the goats and other livestock occupy the lower part of the house and the natives the upper part, or if there be but one floor, a low fence is run across to keep the livestock out of the living quarters. Great greyish-white wolfish looking dogs, wearing formidable collars of sharpened spikes go with the shepherds during the day and watch the flocks during the night. They are used as a means of protection from thieves, and not as an aid in herding. The flocks camp around the cave or hut, and are not confined in corrals. Fences are almost unknown in the Angora country. There are probably four or five million Angora goats in Asia Minor. Much of the central plateau region of the United States is very similar to the Angora region of Turkey. A peculiar fact is that the mohair produced in the different sections of Asia Minor varies a little, and the mohair merchants of Constantinople readily recognize an appreciable difference in its market value. Even the smaller merchants in the country recognize a difference in the mohair grown within a few miles of their town. Some try to explain this by a difference in food, others by slight climatic changes, and still others by the soil formation. Some of the goats from the locality of Geredeh, in the province of Kastamouni, have fleeces which are filled with grease. They are as black and gummy as merino sheep. This mohair, however,scours white. The most marketable mohair comes from Beibazar and Eskischehr. That this difference in the quality of the mohair is not entirely due to climate or food conditions is evidenced by the fact that Angoras taken from Beibazar to California still retain the same qualities in the mohair after four years in California. However, it has been noticed that different parts of the United States produce different qualities of mohair.
image5SCENE IN ASIA-MINOR.Turkish owner, his herder, holding an Angora buck kid and the grey-wolfish-looking dogs wearing collars of sharpened spikes. This picture was taken on the range and one can see the fine fibered sage brush on which the goats feed.Photo taken by Dr. Bailey, 1901.
The history of the Angora goat in the United States dates from 1849, when Dr. James B. Davis, of Columbia, South Carolina, was presented with nine choice animals by the Sultan. The Sultan had requested President Polk to send a man to Turkey who understood the culture of cotton. Dr. Davis was appointed, and upon his return to America the Sultan, as a courtesy, presented him with the goats. For many years after their arrival in the United States these goats were considered cashmeres. Early reports about the fleeces and the goats were erroneous, and many were led to believe that the fleeces from these goats were worth $8 per pound, and that the goats would shear from six to eight pounds per year.
Dr. Davis did not do very well with the goats. He crossed his Angora buck onto some of the native common goats, and sold some of the cross-bloods andpossibly some of the original importation to various parties, but in 1854, Col. Richard Peters, of Atlanta, Georgia, secured most of the Davis goats. To Col. Peters really belongs the credit of keeping the Angora breed in existence in the United States up to the early sixties. Col. Peters was very fond of his Angoras, and he continued to own and run them up to the time of his death. He made a very creditable exhibit at the New Orleans World's Fair in 1885.
W. W. Chenery of Belmont, near Boston, Massachusetts, is supposed to have made the next two importations in 1861. No one seems to know exactly how many goats Mr. Chenery imported or what became of these lots. Mr. Thompson quotes the Massachusetts Ploughman as saying, "The first of the two lots, consisting of thirty nine animals, was shipped from Constantinople on the 26th of March, 1861, and arrived at Boston on the 15th of May, except two animals which died on the passage. The second lot consisting of forty one head, left Constantinople on the 6th of October, 1861, and arrived at Boston on the 25th of November with the loss of only one on the voyage. In the whole flock, eighty in all, there were about a dozen males, and all the animals wintered well."
It is generally supposed that Mr. Chenery made another importation in 1866, of about twenty head.
image6ANGORA GOAT.Brown and Diehl Importation, about 1868 or 1869.
The next importation of practical importance, although it was claimed that nine head were received about 1861, by one Stiles, was made by Israel S. Diehl, a former U.S. consul and C. S. Brown, of Newark, New Jersey, about 1868. Mr. Diehl was commissioned by the United States government to investigate the industry in Turkey, and he secured a lot of Angoras, variously estimated at from one hundred to one hundred and sixty head. Mr. C. P. Bailey furnished the money for the transportation of these goats to California. He says, "Some were fairly good and some were only ordinary. They were of medium size, and with the exception of the neck, tolerably well covered with fleece, which however had a scattering of kemp throughout. They were conceded to be the best brought to California up to that time." Some of these bucks had been tampered with and were sterile.
This shipment followed the Brown and Diehl importation, and consisted of between one hundred and fifty and two hundred animals. A. Eutichides, was a native of Turkey, and claimed that he had some fine goats, but he had an immense amount of trouble with his Angoras, and lost a good many. They were held in Virginia for some time, and then were sent to Sacramento, California, and were afterwards sold bythe express company, at public auction, at very low prices. This was about 1873. It was generally believed by old California breeders that some of the goats offered at this sale were cross-bloods of California origin. The blood of this importation, however, has been widely scattered over the Pacific Coast.
In 1876, John S. Harris, of Hollister, California, returned from a perilous journey around the world in quest of new Angoras. He found the Thibet goats in the Himalaya Mountains, and finally succeeded in getting some goats at Angora, in Asia Minor. He secured two bucks and ten does, and brought them safely to California. That was really the first time an American had entered Asia Minor to study the Angora industry, as it was understood Mr. Diehl had secured Turks to go into the interior for him.
This was a small importation of Angoras, supposed to have been three animals, made by C. W. Jenks of Boston, and sold to Col. Peters of Georgia. They were supposed to have come from Geredeh, in the interior of Asia Minor, and they arrived in the United States in 1880. The mohair from these goats was not considered very good, and the importation was not regarded as very important.
This was the first importation made from South Africa to the United States and arrived in 1886. There were two bucks and two does, and they went to Fink & Company, of Texas. There was a great deal of question about this importation, and so far as is known it was of no value to American flocks.
In 1893, the first importation of Angora goats from South Africa, which was of value to American flocks, arrived. The two bucks, Pasha and Dick, which were secured by C. P. Bailey from R. Cawood, were sired by the great buck Sam. Mr. Schreiner says, "Sam was born in 1888, and sheared as a three year old, at twelve month growth, 15 pounds 2 ounces. He was exhibited for many years at all chief Agricultural shows and was never beaten but once, a judgment reversed at a subsequent show in the same year. Sam was the most famous goat in South Africa; with splendid weight of fleece, he combined a fineness of fiber rarely seen in an old ram."
Pasha developed into a great sire and his get has been distributed into nearly every State in the Union, Canada, Mexico and Australia. Without doubt Pasha's blood courses through the veins of more Angoras than any sire ever imported. He was acknowledged by every one to be the best individual ever broughtto America. Mr. Landrum, who had seen most of the Angoras brought from Turkey and who saw Pasha at San Jose, California, in 1899, pronounced him the most perfect goat he had ever seen and a much better goat than any which had ever come to America from Turkey. He bought some of Pasha's get for his own flock.
image7ANGORA BUCK PASHA.Bailey South Africa Importation 1893.
In 1899, the buck Capetown was imported by Mr. Bailey from South Africa to secure certain points. Size and a little "yolk," together with the covering, fineness, freeness from kemp, ringlets and evenness were especially desired. Capetown has been a great sire and is still in fine condition on the Bailey farms.
In 1901, Dr. W. C. Bailey, armed with an honorary commission from the United States Department of Agriculture, personally visited every goat-raising section of Asia Minor, and after seeing hundreds of thousands, and examining minutely hundreds, secured and succeeded in exporting two bucks and two does. The Sultan had passed an edict in 1881, prohibiting the export of these animals, as he hoped to keep the industry for Asia Minor. The undertaking was a hazardous one, and the expedition was fought with many and almost insurmountable difficulties. Asia Minor is alive with bandits, and to hold a foreigner for ransom is a favorite pastime. Then, too, aChristian's life is not considered of much value by a Mohamedan. The goats were transported for miles on mule and camel back, carried across the Bosphorus under a boat load of hay, disfigured by shearing and powdered with coal dust, transported through the streets of Constantinople in closed carriages protected from police molestation by the "golden wand," and finally condemned by the Italian Government because no health certificate accompanied them from point of shipment, but eventually landed in California in 1901. The bucks Beibazar and Kjutiah, and the does Moholitch and Eskischehr find the climate of California suited to their wants. These four goats cost over $5,000 landed in California.
image8BUCK BEIBAZAR AND DOE MOHOLITCH.Bailey Asia Minor Importation 1901. Photo taken by Dr. Bailey on the plains of Asia Minor, March 7, 1901, while the goats were held by a Turkish guide.
Beibazar impresses his qualities markedly on his offspring. His get won the Sweepstake prizes at the California and Oregon State Fairs in 1904, and the championship for two-year-old buck at the World's Fair at St. Louis, U. S. A., in 1904.
In 1901, Wm. M. Landrum imported two bucks from South Africa. Their get has been quite widely distributed in America, and has been of considerable value.
In 1904, G. A. Hoerle imported about one hundred and thirty head from South Africa. A few ofthese goats were exhibited at the St. Louis World's Fair, and some of them have been distributed to American breeders. A large part of them are now in New Jersey, and just what their effect will be on American flocks remains to be seen.
image9BEIBAZAR.Bailey Asia Minor Importation, 1901.
In 1838, Col. Henderson made the first importation of Angora goats into South Africa, but while the number reaching the Cape was fourteen, yet only two proved to be perfect animals, a doe and her kid. The twelve bucks seem to have been tampered with, and they would not breed. Mr. Schreiner says: "But for the fact that there were several million Boar goats, thoroughly accustomed to the country, to furnish innumerable ewes for grading up purposes, the industry would still have been in its infancy." It was years before any more Angoras were imported into South Africa.
The second importation into Cape Colony was made by Messrs. Mosenthal in 1856, and thirty Angoras reached their destination. Mr. Schreiner reports that some of these goats were sold at public auction and brought about $350 to $400 each.
The third importation was made by Sir Titus Salt, the English manufacturer of mohair, and arrived in South Africa in 1857. Dr. White had charge of these after they reached the colony.
image10CAPETOWN.Bailey South African Importation, 1899.
The fourth importation consisted of about thirty-five animals, and was made about 1858 by Mr. W. R. Thompson. These were considered very fine animals, and were quite different from any previously imported.
Ten years later in 1868, another importation was made by South Africa and from then on to 1880 between twelve and fifteen more lots were secured, some of them consisting of hundreds of animals. In the twelve years, up to 1880, over three thousand goats were received in South Africa from Asia Minor. Some of them brought as high as $2,200 each.
During the next fourteen years there was a lack of importations into the Colony. In 1894, the first lot of American Angora goats, six head, were secured from C. P. Bailey of San Jose, California. They were sold to the Cape farmers by the importers at satisfactory prices, and in June, 1895, another lot of twenty bucks were secured from Mr. Bailey for $1000 cash. These bucks had a hard trip, and shed their fleece, but they were sold by the importer later.
In 1895, another importation of one hundred and sixty-five head were secured by consent of the Sultan from Asia Minor. In 1896 another importation of sixty-three head were landed and sold to the Cape farmers. The highest priced buck of this lot brought about $1,850, and the highest priced doe about $1,000. These goats were not considered extra,with the exception of a few of the tops. They were not uniform, the breeches were bad, bellies deficiently covered, and they carried considerable kemp.
Even before the arrival of Angora goats in South Africa they had been tried in Holland, France and England. Australia also imported some in 1856, but the industry has not grown to any extent in any of these countries. There have been some Angoras exported to Australia from America since 1900. Canada, Mexico, Alaska, and some of the Pacific Islands, have small flocks of Angora goats at the present time. The start has been obtained largely from California.
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MOHAIR
That part of the fleece of the Angora goat, which at a year's growth is composed of long, lustrous, elastic fibers, is called Mohair. It may be more or less curled, but it is readily distinguishable from that part of the fleece of the Angora which is composed of short, stiff fibers, known as kemp.
The word mohair probably has its origin in modern times, as the Turkish word for mohair is tiftick. A theory which is advanced by Mr. George Gatheral of Constantinople, and which is tenable, is that the early Dutch traders who visited Angora, found the native clergy wearing a gown made of mohair. The Turks called the cloth "mahr," and it is possible that the traders applied this word to the raw material. If this be so, the English have corrupted the word into the present term mohair.
The color of mohair varies in different localities and on different individuals. In the vilayet of Koniah, in Asia Minor, is a breed of goats producing a brownish colored mohair. This material is sold upon the market as Koniah mohair. The Koniah goat, however, has been rapidly disappearing, as the herdsmen found that the foreign demand was for white mohair,and they have been crossing the white Angora bucks on the brown Koniah does. There are still over one hundred thousand pounds of Koniah mohair produced each year. In the Angora flocks of Asia Minor one always finds some colored goats. Black, blue, brown or red, usually with an admixture of white, are the common colors. The same thing may be said of the American flocks of Angoras. One may have been breeding white Angoras for years when, without apparent cause, a colored kid is dropped. Then color of the soil may give the mohair a peculiar tinge, but this usually scours out. The kemp in Asia Minor is sometimes a different color from the mohair. The kemp may be red or black and the mohair white. White mohair is what the manufacturer wants. If he wishes to make colored goods, he can dye white whatever color he wishes, but a colored mohair can only be used for certain colored goods.
In Turkey, after the fleece is shorn, the owner packs each fleece separately in sacks. He picks out the tag locks, colored fleeces or objectionable mohair, and after washing it, or making it more fit for market, he packs this in a sack by itself. Every village has its buyers, usually Greeks or Armenians, and there are a few traveling buyers. These men gradually collect the mohair. Men who have more moneythan they need put that money into mohair, as mohair is always salable, and it is so bulky that there is not much danger of it being stolen. There are so many robbers in Turkey that nothing is absolutely safe. One coffee house keeper in a small village sent about six dollars down to a larger place, as he was afraid to keep so much money in his house. When the mohair is collected in the larger towns it is again sorted, care being taken not to mix lots from different sections of the country. It is then forwarded to Constantinople of Ismidt, which is on the Sea of Marmara, near Constantinople. Here expert sorters go over the lots again. They do not break up the fleece, but they collect fleeces which are about the same and from the same district—for instance, Beibazar, Kjutiah, Kastamonia, Eskischehr, etc. These fleeces are then packed in bags and marked x - xx - xxx, or lettered a, b, AA, or numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. The mohair is then ready for exportation. It can be readily seen that a manufacturer who wants a particular kind of mohair can get exactly what he wants, if he knows the kind of mohair which comes from the different districts, and the grade of mohair which is put up under a certain mark by a certain firm. He can order of Mr. B. one hundred bags XX Beibazar mohair, and he knows what he is going to find when he opens the bags. There is a large room in Constantinople where a gang of men are almost constantlyat work sorting mohair. The commission men have their store rooms around this central room; when the sorters finish with Mr. A's lot they commence to sort for Mr. B. Thus the same men sort all the mohair, and this insures a uniformity of grade.
In America the plan of handling is somewhat different. It will be easier to tell what should be done than what is done. Until each grower becomes something of an expert sorter, or until we have central depots, where the mohair can be properly graded, the grower should roll the fleeces separately; they should not be tied, and put them in a bag or bale. He should pick out the tag locks, mohair discolored or clotted with urine or fæces, the colored fleeces, burry mohair or very kempy fleeces, and after preparation, put them in a separate parcel. Any kind of a bur or seed which sticks in the mohair must be picked out by hand. If the manufacturer has to do this, he puts a price on the mohair which will leave him plenty of margin. That is, he pays the grower about one-half as much as the mohair would be worth if it were free from this foreign material. If the mohair is very burry, it has to be treated chemically, and this spoils the luster. Sometimes the grower can make good wages by having the burs picked out before the animals are shorn. One man can pick the burs out of from fifteen to twenty-five animals a day, if there are not too many burs in the mohair. If thetag locks can be cleaned sufficiently by washing, they are of some value; but if not, they are hardly worth the expense of shipping.
The mohair shorn from kids should be kept in parcels by itself, as it is usually finer and worth top prices. That of the does, if it differs from that of the wethers, should be packed separately. When the mohair is received by the mill it is sent to the sorting room.
Each goat's fleece is made up of a variety of different grades of mohair. Before a fleece can be spun it must be separated into these different grades as nearly as possible, and this is done by expert sorters, who select from the raw material about seven different degrees of fineness of fiber. They also take into consideration freeness from kemp and color. In separating the fleece much dust is liberated, and as some mohair is liable to carry the bacillus of anthrax, or other dangerous material, this dust, if allowed to circulate in the air, would become a serious menace to the health of the sorters. Wool sorters' disease is by no means uncommon, and one of the American mill owners reported that his sorters had such a dread of a foreign mohair which came packed in a distinctive package, that he had to stop handling this particular lot, although it was profitable stuff to spin.
image15MOHAIR TRANSPORTATION IN CONSTANTINOPLE, TURKEY.Photo taken by Dr. Bailey.
To obviate this danger as far as possible each man opens the fleeces on a table covered with wire screen, under which circulates a strong exhaust current of air which is mechanically generated. Thus small foreign particles and dust in the fleeces are drawn downward. When the fleece is opened the sorter selects that part of the fleece which is known to be the coarsest,i. e., the breech and a strip along the center of the back, and puts this in one lot. Next he selects a narrow strip along the side of the fleece, which is known to be the finest part of the fleece, and puts this in another lot. Now the neck and the belly are separated and thrown into their classes. If the whole fleece were a fine one, and free from kemp, it would be sorted in the same way, but different parts of the fleece would go into proportionately higher classes. The lots which these sorters make are known to spin comparatively definite qualities of yarn. Thus the low breech and the back of most fleeces will not spin over No. 20 to No. 24 yarns, and the sides of good fleeces are fine in fiber and will spin No. 40 to No. 60 yarn.
The quantity of mohair which one man can sort varies considerably, according to the class of mohair which he is given to work upon. One mill estimated that experts can sort between two and three hundred pounds of domestic mohair a day, and that it costs about a cent a pound to thus separate the fleece.After the fleeces are graded, the mohair is ready to be sent to the mill proper for scouring and spinning.
To-day the process of washing or scouring the fleece is done by machinery. The mohair is fed into a machine in which revolve paddles, which thoroughly mix the fiber with the liquid in this machine. At the opposite end from where it was fed in, the mohair is rolled out over warm rollers, and it is ready to be spun. It is claimed, and with some justice, that American mohair loses or shrinks about 12% to 20% while passing through this washing machine, and that Turkish mohair only shrinks about 13%. This may be due to the fact that some of the Turkish hair had been washed before it was shipped to market, and that by previous sorting some of the dirt had fallen out of the mohair. Then, too, some of the American growers are not very careful to keep the fleeces clean. Straw, sticks, hats, and even stones have been found in some domestic stuff.
After the mohair is thoroughly cleaned it is ready for spinning or carding. In order to spin the fibers most economically, evenly and to the best advantage, some of the mills mix different qualities of mohair of about the same fineness. For instance, Turkish mohair is mixed with Texas and Californiastuff, or Oregon is mixed with Iowa material. The spinning qualities of mohair from different sections varies, and this mixing tends to give uniformity. After the fibers have been mixed to suit, the mohair is run through straightening machines in preparation for the combing process.
This comb is so arranged that about two and a half inches of the base of all of the mohair fibers, and any other fibers which may be mixed with them, are held, the ends of the fibers which are longer than two and a half inches, hang freely and are caught in a revolving machine and dragged loose from the combs which hold the base of the fiber. Thus only those fibers two and a half inches long, or less, are left in the first comb. The longer fibers, or tops as they are now called, to distinguish them from the noil, or short fibers, are collected and are again passed through a second comb.
Much the same process as was gone through with in the Noble comb, is repeated, except that now only the Noble top is combed, and as all of the fibers, less than two and a half inches, have been removed from this mohair, the comb is set so that any fibers shorter than four or five inches, shall be held as noil, and only those fibers which are longer than four or fiveinches shall be included in the top. This combing completed, we have a collection of mohair fibers none of them less than about five inches in length. This top is now ready to spin. This combing is rendered necessary by the fact that all of the mohair contains an admixture of kemp, and kemp cannot be spun with the finer grades of mohair. In getting this kemp out of the mohair many of the short mohair fibers are lost, so that combing is an expensive process. It costs in time, labor and mohair.
Many strands of this Lister top are now drawn down into a single thread. This thread, if the fibers comprising it are coarse, may have some projecting ends, which give it a rough, uneven appearance, and if so, these ends are burned off. The thread is passed through a gas flame at a given rate of speed by machinery, and the projecting ends are singed. This is called genapping. The yarn is now ready for manufacturing. In Bradford, England, there are mills which only spin the yarn. Their trade is with the manufacturers, both at home and abroad, and it is a known fact that, while France and Germany manufacture much plush and braid, they buy all of their yarn from Bradford.
Short mohair, that is, mohair less than six inches long, is not run through combs, as above described.It is run over a carding wheel, or a large metal cylinder covered with small brads, which mix all the mohair and kemp. After passing over a number of these wheels, which revolve in different directions, the material thus carded is ready to spin.
Some of the noil collected by the combing process is composed of a large percentage of short mohair. This noil has a considerable value and is sometimes carded. The lower grade noil is sold to carpet manufacturers and various users of low grade stuff. Noil usually brings from twelve to twenty cents a pound.
As yet mohair has been used for only a limited number of things. Its possibilities have not been developed. New uses for the fiber are being discovered, and it seems probable that there will be many things made of mohair in the future. The yarn has a beautiful luster and is very durable. When ladies' lustre goods are in fashion a large amount of mohair goes into these fabrics. Much mohair is used in dress goods and men's goods. There is a steady demand for mohair plushes and braids.
There is no plush made which will give the service, present the luster and retain a standing pile aslong as mohair. One may crush the nap of a mohair plush as often or as long as he pleases, but the pile immediately resumes its upright position upon being released. Then, too, the dust shakes out of a mohair plush very easily. One rarely sees a dusty railroad car seat, although the country through which the car is passing may be very dusty. The rich effect produced by a heavily upholstered palace car is due to the mohair plush. Nothing has been found which will take its place. For furniture upholstering there is nothing more elegant and durable than mohair plush. The amount of plush thus used is governed by fashion. In countries where large military forces are retained there is always a heavy demand for mohair braids. There is no braid made which has the luster, combined with the durability, which mohair braid possesses. Here it may be stated that a coarse yarn can be used in making braids, so that when there is a heavy demand for braids there should be a proportionately high price paid for coarse long mohair. Mohair braids are always in demand, and will continue to be used upon ladies' clothing, as well as for military ornamental purposes.
The variety of uses to which mohair is adapted is almost innumerable. In the manufacture of hats it plays an important part, and recently the demand for long fiber for the manufacture of wigs, ladies' hair nets and other toilet articles has been created.
At present Asia Minor and South Africa can be regarded as the two leading producers of mohair. The Asia Minor exports vary considerably, according to the price allowed, and as no manufactured stuff is exported, one gets a fair idea of the amount produced. It may be broadly stated that the Asia Minor clip amounts to about nine million pounds annually. That of South Africa amounts to about ten million pounds, and the United States now produces about one million pounds annually. Of this production a very large percentage of that coming from all these countries may be regarded as inferior stuff. We mean by this, that the Angora goat raising industry is yet in its infancy, and that much of the mohair produced is sheared from goats which have been bred from the common hair variety. Many of the characteristics of the fleece of the common goat still persist in the mohair.
From the foregoing estimate the world's supply of mohair may be stated as twenty million pounds annually. Australia is as yet producing only a very small amount.
Practically eighty-five to ninety per cent. of the world's supply of mohair is handled in Bradford, England. Nearly all of the South African and Turkish stuff is shipped directly to Bradford, a small amount of the Constantinople export coming toAmerica, but a large part of the American import comes from Liverpool, England. At Bradford the raw material is manufactured, some of the manufactured stuff being exported as yarn, but the larger part is used to produce the finished article. The remaining ten or fifteen per cent. is manufactured in the United States. At times the demand for mohair goods stimulates the demand for raw material, and the United States has been known to use from twenty to twenty-five per cent. of the world's supply. To recapitulate, the United States produces five per cent. of the world's annual supply of raw mohair, and manufactures from ten to twenty-five per cent. of the world's annual production.
The price of mohair has fluctuated with the caprice of fashion. Supply and demand are the essential factors in its valuation, but demand has been so influenced by the requirements of fashion in the past that one finds a wide range in price for the raw material. In a report issued by the BradfordObserverwe find the price ranging from fifty cents a pound in 1856, to eighty cents in 1866, ninety cents in 1876, and then down to thirty cents in 1886 and 1896. In 1903 the average price in the United States was about thirty-five cents a pound, and for 1904 about thirty cents a pound.
image16READY FOR THE SHEARERS.
To-day there is a demand for mohair, regardless of fashion. During the past two years the price of raw material has been low, but there has been a margin of profit in the industry, and considering the fact that fashion's decree has eliminated the manufacture of luster fabrics for the present, the mohair producer can feel assured that there will be a steady market for his material. With the occasional good times when luster goods are in demand, the mohair grower should do well.
The goat should be shorn before he commences to shed, as the mohair loses its weight and luster after the shedding process begins. There are a few goats, which, under certain kinds of food and climatic conditions, will not shed their fleeces, but most goats will shed, and even goats which have carried their fleeces over a year in one section, may shed if they are moved a few miles and the food is changed. A class of non-shedders would be very valuable, but so far a distinctive class of non-shedders, under any and all conditions, and which transmit this peculiarity, has not been identified. The Angora goat will usually commence to shed early in the spring, or as soon as a few warm bright days come.
In some sections of the country it is thought advisable to shear twice a year. Many points in favorof this method are advocated. It is claimed that the price realized for the two medium length, or short stapled fleeces, together with the increased number of pounds shorn in the two clippings a year, pays much better than the one long staple fleece which can be shorn from the same animal for a year's growth. There are many reasons both for and against shearing twice a year. The mills prefer long mohair, or at least fiber more than six inches in length (combing length). They pay the best price for this class of mohair, and it must be left to the individual to decide whether it pays him best to shear once or twice a year. At present possibly one-third of the Angoras in the United States are shorn twice a year, and the remaining two-thirds only once. In Asia Minor one finds the goat shearer using a pair of long bladed scissors to cut the mohair. The goats are shorn in the spring, and only once during the year. The animal's feet are tied, and then by using both hands, one at either end of the scissors, the goat is shorn. Recently some Englishman has introduced an ordinary spring sheep shear, but most of the natives prefer the scissors.
To-day one finds the hand shearer and the machine shearer at work in America. The hand shearer should use a pair of short bladed (about five inch blade) sheep shears. This is to prevent the point of the shear from cutting mohair, which is not intendedto be clipped with that particular stroke of the shear. If, for instance, the shearer is clipping the mohair along the sides of the animal, and the point of the shear cuts some of the mohair at least three inches out from the body, this stubble is shorn again (double cut) when the shearer gets to this place, and this three-inch mohair is too short to be of much value. It will be combed out at the mill as noil. An expert shearer can clip about the same number of range goats that he can range sheep—from ninety to one hundred and twenty a day.
The machine shear is rapidly taking the place of the hand shear. It clips the mohair close to the skin and almost does away with double cutting. It requires less skill to shear with a machine shear, and it does the work more uniformly. There is also less danger of cutting the animal. The machines do the work very rapidly.
After the goat is shorn the fleece should be collected and rolled into a bundle, "bump," and placed in a sack or bale. It should not be tied, as the mill men object to the particles of string which remain in the mohair and disfigure the manufactured product. Any colored fleeces, discolored mohair, or mohair containing objectionable features, such as burrs, straw, etc., can be placed in separate parcels. The kid mohair can be kept by itself, and the wether and doe mohair can be separately packed. The long mohairshould be kept separate from short stuff. Thus one grades the mohair to some extent on the farm, and he has a better idea of what the clip should bring.
If the mohair is to be shipped a long distance, it will pay to bale the fleeces, as compact bales occupy much less space than sacks. The freight rates are usually less upon baled mohair than they are upon the sacked material. The cost of baling the mohair is a little less than the cost of sacking.