The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-01-10

populated western territory, and, be-
sides, a not inconsiderabIe number of
goats in the aggregate has been kept for
milk in the suburbs of cities.
If all the goats in this country were
kept with the single object of supplying
skins for market they would fail to
supply small fraction of the present
demand and at the same time remain at
the present number. At four pounds to
the skin, which is not far from the av-
erage weight of dry skins, it requires
the slaughter of over sixteen million
goats and kids TO yield the skins i'm
ported the last fiscal year. This repre-
sents live aocks of foreign goats aggre-
eating from 900 to 10000 900 at
least for our present supply of market
able skins alone.
Very few of the goats in the United
States are raised for the purpose of
marketing their skins. In addition to
the large proportion of common stock
kept, as stated, in the suburbs of cities
many are kept in parts of the west with
sheep for protection against other ami
mails, while the increasing 3ocks of An
goras are kept principally for their val
liable yield of mohair.
AS to climate, but little need be said
The AngOra. is easily adaptable to all
countries, and thrives in all climates ex-
cept that of the Polar regions. Evident
~. hoWeVer,lt will tend to be most profit
able in those localities where the ex-
pense of keeping is the least the year
round. Hardy, agile, enterprising, it al
ways thrives, if unconfined, in heat or
cold, on mountain or plain, but prefers
rough rocky, wild and elevated lands.
Relative to areas suitable for goat
keeping upon any scale, from few for
milk or cheese to a large flock for their
feeces and skins, it may be confidently
asserted that wherever there is a suitable
climate there are also suitable unculti-
waited lands. In the aggregate, millions
of acres of poor, rough, rocky or bushy
land, distributed through all the states,
call for subjugatiOn and enrichment
through animal occupation, preferably
of the goat, which would not only de-
stroy the growth that invites recurrent
CONGREGATIONS, but would result ulti-
mately in the introduction of nutritious
grasses.
In speaking of their ability to clear
brush land, Mr. Thompson said: IAN
goras are browsers by nature, and there
is no vegetation they will eat in prefer
ence to leaves and twigs of bushes.
While this fact would at once establish
them as an intoIerable nuisance in an
orchard or garden or any other place
where desirable shrubbery is growing, it
also shows that they may be of great
value in many localities where it is de-
Sirable that underbruSh be destroyed.
They are omnivorous eaters and seem
particularly to avoid that character of
vegetation which other kinds Of live
stock prefer Every leaf and every
tWig within their reach is greedily eaten,
even to most of the bushes and weeds
that are considered poisonous to other
ruminants, while a remarkably few
weeds are passed by. They will desert
the finest clover and bluegrass for such
an outlay
In those localities where valuable
land is completely subdued by brush the
goats are considered of more value for
the purpose of clearing it than for their
mohair or meat. They become one of
the farmers important tools. By Occu-
patton of the goat not only are benefits
derived by the clearance of underground
but the growth of nutritious grasses are
introduced by natural methods and thus