Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/343

 my father had also long contemplated introducing there the celebrated Cashmere goat, anticipating that the fulfilment of his views would, in proving advantageous to himself, become also of ultimate benefit to the colony; in which expectation, he has been encouraged from the results that have attended the importation of the Saxon breed of sheep into their favored climates, the wools of New South Wales, and in proportion to their improvement, those also of Van Dieman's Land being now eagerly purchased by the most intelligent manufacturers in preference to those of equal prices imported from any part of Europe.

"With this object in view, he subsequently, during an agricultural tour on the Continent, directed my attention to the Cashmere flocks of Mons. Ternaux, and in October 1828, I met this distinguished man at his seat at St. Onen (Mons. Ternaux is a great shawl manufacturer and a Peer of France,) where he preserved the elite of his herds; the animals were a mixture of various sizes and colors, from a perfect white to brown, with scarcely any stamped features as if belonging to one race exclusively; they were covered with long coarse hair, under which so small a quantity of soft short down was concealed, that the average produce of the whole collection did not exceed three ounces each; therefore, under these unfavorable circumstances, my father deferred for a time his intention of sending any of them to Australia.

"I was then advised by the Viscomte Perrault de Jotemps, to see the stock of M. Polonceau at Versailles, he having, by a happily selected cross, succeeded in increasing the quantity and value of the qualities of the Cashmere goat beyond the most sanguine anticipations, and in consequence of his enlightened taste for agricultural pursuits, was also honored with the directorship of the model farm at Grignon. He became among the first to purchase a chosen selection of the original importation of the Cashmere goat from M. Ternaux, and some time after seeing, at one of the estates of the Duchesse de Beri, an Angora buck with an extraordinary silkiness of hair, having more the character of long coarse but very soft down, he solicited permission to try the effects of a union with this fine animal and his own