Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1897-10-09
COAT FARMING IN AFRICA.
Four Million Angora Goats in the Karo
Districts.

Four Million Angora Goats in the Karoo
Districts.
One of the most lucrative industries
in the Karoo districts of South Africa
is Angora goat farming, says London
Black and White, and although it has
only been established for less than
forty years the Cape bids fair to be-
come the most important centre of
mohair production in the world. At
present there are somewhere about
1000, 900 Angora goats in the colony.
The Angora in the colony is not
now pure-bred; the original imported
rams were crossed with carefully
selected pure white. Boer goat ewes,
and from the succeeding in-breeding
the present focks have sprung, and n
fine, glossy, silky fleece secured. In
deed, it is accepted that mohair can
now be produced in Cape Colony as
perfect in quality and as beautiful in
lu,ter as any produced in Angora it.
self
The goat itself is a pretty-looking
little animal, looking, with its long
white, wavy fleece, more like q sheep
than goat. The beard, too, so char
acteristic of the goat, is almost hidden
in the long hair about the neck md
face. The head is small and narrow,
with dropping or lop ears. Horns
light in color, fattened, twisted slight
ly and spreading out-are possessed
by both rams and ewes, though they
are smaller in the latter.
The small body is thickly covered
with beautiful long fleece of white,
lustrious, wavy, silky hair, which, in
well-bred goats, nearly reaches the
ground; and, in addition to this long
hair, there is an inferior under coat
of hair, or second coat, which has its
own separate market value.
The Karoo and higher lands of the
colony are the places where the An.
CORA houishes best. Almost every
farmer in Karoo has his flock of An.
goras, some several hocks of several
hundred in each. Each morning the
flocks are driven out OF kraals or shell
tered Enclosures into the veldt, where
they are allowed to wander and Craze
all day, but at night they are driven
back to the shelter of the kraal after
being taken to the dam to be watered.
Angoras are sheared about June,
when good fleece will average from
five to six pounds in weight, with hair
from five to six inches long. About
November the goats tend to shed their
hair, but rather than lose it the farmer
again sheers in October. After shear
ing the wool is packed into large bales,
which are fastened securely with iron
bands; it is then exported to England
for manufacture, u large part going to-
Yorkshire. In 1895 mohair to the
value of G71O,867 was exported, and
at the present time one-tenth OF the
total British supply is received from
the Cape. =.
Among the most dreaded enemies OF
the timid little Angora are the lackal,
the red lynx and the balloon; the two
former kill the kids for their flesh, but
the baboons rip open the udders OF the
ewes in search of milk, and even open
the stomachs of the kids for the sake
of the curdled milk they may obtain.
The first two animals are poisoned
and hunted down with dogs where
possible, and to keep down the baboon
shooting parties are frequently organ
lied By way of encouraging the ex-
tincsion of these pests the Government
pays three shillings tail for iackals
and one shilling tail for balloons.