Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-01-23
ANGoRA GOATS,

~ 49,
ANGoRA GOATS.
ine frohihition Placed on Their Exports
tion by the Ottoman Government.
Our advices from Texas represent
considerable difficulty on the part of
those who wish to engage in Angora
goat husbandry, in securing pure stock
from Asia Minor, by reason of the pre~
hibition placed on the expectations
from Constantinople, by the Turkish
Government, of Angora goats. This
matter has a peculiar interest to the
growing mohair industry of this conn
try, and knowing that if any one could
give light on this subject it,was C. w.
jerks, we addressed that gentleman
an inquiry of the cause which prompts
Turkey to take such a course. 1t may
be needless to say, that Mr.. jerks is
the most competent authority in this
country on this subject, and the fol-
lowing communication will, no doubt,
be read with interest:
"The absolute i%nefficiency and in
competency of the Ottoman Govern
ment are well known to you, and per-
haps its utter treachcry and faithless-
ness as well. These are shown in all
that pertains to the mohair industry, as
in other matters. They are aggravated
by the industrial policy ofGreat Britain
toward the industry, in Turkey, as in
like circumstances shown in Ireland,
India, etc.
when forty years ago the French
and English Sought, by importations
of the Angora goat, to establish the
Angora husbandry on their own soil.
there We're no obstacles put in sheir
way. Later, these ventures proving
unsuccessful, the English arranged to
manufacture the mohair on their terri
tory, and m%onopolize the same. This
competition gradually silenced the
spinning wheels and looms of Angora,
Geredeh, Dromish and Trebizond. and
the Ottomans saw their markets leav-
ing them, and the goods they had
made, for the bazars Of Bagdad, Con-
stantinople, ETC., being supplanted by
the English artisans. About this time
the expectation of the animals was
again sought by the nations of
the West. Turkey had lost the
monopoly of manufacture in the
industry. but blindly chung to
the idea she could retrieve her loss by
retaining the animals. [ was obliged
to guard, with paid police, my animals
from the home flock to the vessel 90
secure their safe delivery on ship
board. Finally the rapid growth Of
the industry in the Cape Colony from
six thousand pounds mohair in 1865
to two million in 1880, IN
duced the Porte to enjoin the ex-
p%ortation, and my last inquiry for
them in 1881 was met by refusal to sell
by the Angora shepherds, followed i'm
mcdiately by injunction by the authori-
ties against expectation to any quarter,
which enactment SO far asI know, is
now in force. The reasons given by
the Porte for the course are these:
"Ihat a M extensive and profitable
industry in the manufacture of mohair,
in the Province of Asia Minor, has been
entirely destroyed by the artisans Of
Europe.
at is also now attempted by the
transfer of the Angora tlocks to South
Africa, and elsewhere, to remove the
sources of supply Of the raw material
and Introduce competition that
would be ruinous. Therefore exporta-
ton Of the goats, in any number. for
any purpose, to any quarter is entirely
prohibited.
This is official to me from the best
posted man in Asia Minor on the sub
ject, Hon. Gavin Gathcrall, B. c., An
CORA, Asia Minor. now deceased.
II will say in closing, this condition
of things is not necessarily fatal to the
prosperity of the industry in this II
try. There are small flocks of Angoras
now in the United States, thorough
breds, that are in stock and product
fully the equal of any in Asia. These
can be the nucleus of future 1ocks
here; in fact are now so, and are being
drawn from by shepherds West and
South. The Angora district proper of
this country is the entire Eastern slope
of the Rocky Mountains, from New
Mexico to Manitoba -Cotman's Rural
World.