Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1900-05-21
THE ANG0RA GOAT
Great Interest Being Shown In the
Raising Of Goats In New
Mexico.
ITS USE In CLEARING LAND
The Goat Is a Great Exterminator Of
Under Brush and Weeds s-The Demand
Is Much Greater Than the
Supply.

The great interest that is being shown
not only in New Mexico, but elsewhere
In the United y '1ASn the raising of
Angora goats will result in building up
a great industry. Until recently the
Angora goat has been unknown peo-
pie, and despite the untirng efforts
of breeders of goats the public had not
become aware of the value of the an
imal until the present.
UNTITLED LANDS.
! There are to-day, in almost every
state of the Union, thousands of acres
Of land that are lying untitled because
Of the thick underground of brush
which cannot be destroyed by human
hands. Everything imaginable has
been tried for the determination of the
brush, and nothing has been discovered
thus far that answered the purpose ex-
cept constant grubbing and hewing
away of the sprouts and roots by man
ual labor, which involved considerable
expense. not only for the time being.
| but for several years, for the same
ground had to be gone over again and
again. But there is another process of
destruction of vegetation that is quick
and decisive. Herein lies "Klondike"
| for the farmer. There Is nothing that
kills vegetation and clears the land as
quickly as the constant nibbling away
of young, tender leaves and bark, and
to find domestic animal that will eat
this class of food Is all that is neces-
sary to exterminate completely, expe-
ditiously and permanently brush un-
dergrowths. An Angora goat will eat
nothing else as long as he can get this
class of food, and flock of goats will
trample down the finest field of blue
grass in the world in order to get at the
leaves and the bark of brush.
GOATS WILL DO 1T.
There is no progressive farmer who
has brush land to clear or weeds to kill
who can afford to pass another year
without buying at least a few head of
goats for this purpose alone. A goat
does not care for the leaves Of weeds
unless of a particular kind, but he will
eat the matured tops holding the seeds.
Had the Angora goat been introduced
into this country on large scale at the
be hundreds Of thousands of acres of
land in the United States under cultiva-
ton that are lying waste and unprofit-
able to-day. There are not enough goats
in the United States to-day to clear the
brush land in the states of Georgia and
South Carolina. If goats are worth 81
to Sc per head now, and the demand Is
so much greater than the supply, 1t is
evident that goats are a good invest
ment at this time.
AN EXAMPLE
AS an example of the work of goats In
clearing land Is cited the case of a
prominent farmer near Plattevill.. Ia,
who bought tract Of brush land for
$1,000. He had the land fenced with
sheep-proof fencing, and Immediately
afterward departed for New Mexico.
where he bought 100 head of Angora
goats. He shipped the goats to his home
and turned them loose on the tract of
brush land. This year, three years after
buying the land, 1t was assessed for
taxation at $500.
Thus writes f. H. Jobson, of Lake
Valley. prominent goat raiser Of Sier-
ra county, to the New Mexican. The
pointer he gives as to the use Of goats
in clearing land Is valuable to farmers
in New Mexico as we'll as elsewhere.