ANIMALS. 63

fleece may be raised in this country with a fineness closely approxi- mating to that which it has ever attained in Asia under the most favorable circumstances.Ö“ We have lying before us specimens from the fleeces of several young Asiatic goats, which we have compared with the finest wool of the Merino sheep, and find the former not only equal in fineness, but of far greater length. It must, however, be observed that young animals, at their first shearing only, present this remarkably fine fleece. In the old female, it is a little coarser, and in the old males still more so. It is proposed by Mr. Peters to divide the fleeces of these goats at shearing-time into classes, thus:

Kids under a year Old....................... No. 1. Nearling ewes and yearling wethers........ No. 2. Nearling bucks, old ewooos... No. 3. Aged bucks................................ No. 4.

The fleeces of old ewes and yearling bucks would answer for cloth of a valuable texture. The fleece of the yearling is much finer than that of the old ewes; and that of the kid is fine enough for the very finest shawls, and ought to be very valuable. There is a large class of fabrics for which these fleeces are peculiarly adapted, namely, camlet and worsted goods and ladies' fabrics, as shallies, mouslin-de- laine, gentlemen's clothing for summer wear, hosiery,&c., promising a beauty, strength, durability, lustre, and permanency of color, far superior to the wool of the alpaca or sheep. The goats' hair is known to receive and retain the most brilliant coloring, which the hair of the sheep and the alpaca has not the property of retaining.

RESULTS OF BREEDING WITH THE COMMON GOAT.

Familiar as we have been through a long life with the changes produced by crosses among varieties of domestic animals and poultry, there is one trait in these goats which is more strongly developed than in any other variety that we have ever known. We allude to the wonderful facility with which the young of the cross between the male of the Asiatic goat and the female of the common goat assumes all the characteristics of the former. It is exceedingly difficult to change a breed that has become permanent in any of our domestic varieties, whether it be that of horses, cattle, sheep, or hogs, into another variety by the aid of the male of the latter. There is a tendency to run back into their original varieties; hence the objec- tion to mixed breeds. But in the progeny of these Asiatic and com- mon goats, nine-tenths of them exhibit the strongest tendency to adopt the characteristics of the male, and to elevate themselves into the higher and nobler grade, as if ashamed of their coarse, dingy hair and musky aromatics, and desirous of washing out the odorous perfume, and putting on the white livery of a more respectable race.

Mr. Peters has not bred any quarter-breeds. He made wethers of all his half-breed males, of 1856, and sold his three-quarter blood bucks. He now owns one hundred and fifty half-blood females,