A more accurate method, and one which can be used with a large flock, is
to place the bucks in a corral adjoining the one used by the does at
night. The does should be brought into their corral early in the
evening, and all of those in heat will work along the fence next to the
bucks. The doe in heat can be caught and the number taken and recorded
in a book. She is then placed in a small pen with a buck and his number
is recorded with hers, together with the date. If the doe does not
conceive, she can be put with the same buck again at a later date, and
one has approximate knowledge of when she should drop her kid. In this
manner a buck will serve about two or three does in the evening, and one
or two in the morning. The kid is marked at birth and the number
recorded after that of the mother. The breeding of recorded stock is of
value only for special reasons, and is not advisable with large flocks,
as it is expensive.
[Illustration]
ANGORA VENISON.
Angora venison is the name which should be given to the flesh of the
Angora goat. At the present time it is usually sold in the markets as
mutton. The term goat meat should be applied to meat of the common goat,
and the term mutton belongs to sheep. Because the Angora goat feeds
largely upon that material which nourishes the deer, the meat of the
Angora is flavored like venison. The fat is well distributed, and the
healthfulness of the animal renders this an especially desirable meat.
The Turk has long recognized Angora venison as an important element in
his diet. Angora kid is above comparison, and it occupies the principle
place on the menu at private as well as state affairs in the Orient. As
one passes through the market places in Asia Minor he sees the carcasses
of the Angora hanging in every shop. There is no mistaking the animal,
as the skin still remains on the goat. One takes his choice, and as a
rule more Angora venison than mutton is sold. Some of the Turks keep
their wethers until they become coarse-haired and too old to pay to keep
longer, eight or ten years old. This class of meat ranks with old
mutton, and sells at a discount. Young wethers and does are in good
demand. There has existed in America some prejudice against the flesh of
the goat. To-day thousands of goats are being consumed annually, but
most of them are sold as mutton. Packers and butchers still insist that
Angora venison must be sold as mutton. They pay about one-half a cent to
a cent a pound less for the goat than for sheep.
The goat never fattens as well along the back as the sheep, and hence
the carcass does not look so well. The fat is more evenly distributed
throughout the animal in the goat. An expert once said that to know
whether a goat was fat one should feel the brisket, and if there was a
considerable layer of adipose tissue between the skin and the breast
bone, the animal was fat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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