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 an adobe
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.
[Illustration: SCENE 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.