The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-18
AN ANGORA GOAT FARM
STOCKED WITH ANIMALS WHICH
 BELONGED TO SULTAN.

pacIty as a Weed Destroyer-HOpes of Making Them Money Rnisers-Under- brush Cleared Away.
 The United States government has become very much interested in the raising of choice Angora boats Six teen miles below Washington, in Ma ryland, the government is conducting experiments with the Angora goat, at the largest farm of its kind in the country. Fifty-one choice animals were recently shipped to former Secretary Of the Navy William c. Whtney's stock farm near Boston, and fifteen hundred goats were sent to another big ranch at Oakland, Md.
 The farm at which governmental ex- periments are being conducted with a view to discovering all the possibilities of the Angora goat as destroyed Of brush and weeds, is located near Ce- darville, and comprises sixteen hun dred acres in Prince George and Charles counties.
 The goats on the big farm near Washington are the descendants of the first ever imported into this country. The first brought here were presented to pr. James B. Davis, of Columbia, S. C., by the Sultan of Turkey, in 1S49, as a reward for the Americans services in connection with experiments in cottoi culture In the Ottoman empire. The original animals came from Asia Minor, and were the best that could be ob- tained. From these animals large portion of those now in the United States has been the product,
 At the time the gift of the Sultan to MT Davis was made, however it was thought that the goats were of the Cashmere breed and many mistakes resulted in conequenoe. The goats were exhibited throughout the country at fairs, and attracted even at that early date the serious consideration of breed CTS.
 The value of the animal for it's wool product of mohair is now engaging the thought of the manufacturers, while the government is chiefly interested in the goat by virtue of the fact that he is the best known agent in the world for cleansing the brush off land which would be In cultivation but for the fact that 1t Is covered with undergrowth.
 For some time past nearly twenty five hundred goats have been housed un the farm at Cedarville, and the change which they have wrought in the ap- pearance of the land there during their brief stay has been marvellous.
 Tn discussing the possibilities of the goat in this direction, MT. Thompson, who has recently written book upon the subject, said that the one plant es- tabished near Washington, in which he is interested, would be the means of re- claiming all the abandoned farms in Maryland Virginia and the Carollnas within the next few years
 An Angora goat has the digestive capabilities of the ostrich" said Mr. Thompson. "He eats anything, and Is glad to get it, while the fondness which he manifests for tangled thicket Of overgrowth brush would put to shame the proverbial Billy goat on the city dump. A short time ago I paid visit to the goat farm near here to see what the busy little animals had been doing I found a most remarkable change Tn the place. Brush had been actually eaten off the face of the earth, and the farm looked like the picture of Dutch homestead in Holland.
 The goats are protected there at night under three hundred feet of shed, while during the day they range the place usualIv on tours in search of food. All of the unsightly brush customarily met
 fo,y ic ahEpnf If has been eaten by the goats. Along the fences and in the bottoms, where uh- dergrowth grows most thlckly, open yistas and clearings have taken the place of the former masses Of weeds and bushes.
 The government is interested In the breeding of the Angora goat TOT one reason--because of It's value of de' stroyer of brush; but, always alert tc nut money in the pockets of Americans when this country can raise just as vel as not what other countries have peer supplying Uncle Sam, is about to enter seriously into the field, and to urge the raising of goats for their mohair'
 Drbe goats which have heretofore beer confined almost wholly to the west anc southwest are being shipped to every part of the country said MT. salmon "and many reports of their good WorF in exterminating brush have reached +he bureau The bureau receives thou sands of letters of inquiry concerning the goat It is estimated that there arf about four hundred thousand Angorf goats in the country, and that the an nual production of mohair in the Uni tad States is over million pounds
 GAS for mohair, there is no othe,