At present the animals are in the twelfth generation, their health and vigor, the constancy of their qualities, and abundance of their down _without any degeneration_, prove that this new race may be regarded as one entirely fixed and established, requiring solely the care that is generally observed with valuable breeds; that is to say, a judicious choice of those employed for their reproduction, and in such a climate as New South Wales it may be reasonably expected that the brilliant qualities of their down may yet be improved as has been so eminently the case with the wool of the merino and Saxon sheep imported there. M. Polonceau has goats that have yielded as many as thirty ounces of the down, in one season, and he states that the whole of his herd produce from twelve to twenty ounces; thus showing the astonishing advantages this new breed has _over the uncrossed Cashmere_, which never yield more than four ounces and seldom exceed two ounces each. This gentleman also states, that, the Cashmere Angora goats, are more robust and more easily nourished than the common goat, and that they are less capricious and more easily managed in a flock; and from the experience he has already had, he finds them much more docile than even sheep. They prefer the leaves of trees, as do all other goats, but they thrive either on hay or straw, or green fodder, or in meadows; they also feed with equal facility on heaths, and on the most abrupt declivities, where the sheep would perish; they do not fear the cold, and are allowed to remain all the winter in open sheds. For the first year or two of M. P.’s experiments he thought it prudent to give them aromatic herbs, from time to time, but during the last six years he has not found it necessary. He knows not of any particular disease to which they are subject, his flock never having had any. M. P. arranges they should kid in March, but occasionally he takes _two_ falls from those of sufficient strength during the year. The down commences to grow in September, and developes itself progressively until the end of March, when it ceases to grow and detaches itself, unless artificially removed. To collect the down, he waits the period when it begins to detach itself, and then the locks of down which separate from the skin with little force are taken off by hand; the down is removed from the animals every three or four days; in general it first begins to fall from the neck and shoulders, and in the following four or five days from the rest of the body; the collection is completed in the space of eight or ten days. Sometimes the entire down can be taken from the animal at one shearing, and almost in an unbroken fleece, when it begins to loosen. The shearing has the advantage of preserving more perfectly the parallelisms of the individual filaments, which much increase the facility of combing and preparing the down for manufacturing purposes. CHAPTER V. BEAVERS-WOOL.