The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-08
AN ANGORA GOAT FARM
AT mARBL PERIMENTS
 BEING MADE

Of the Goats capacity as N ecu De-
 stroyer-Hopes of Making Them Mon
 ey RaIseFs-Underbrush Cleared Away.
 Through the courtesy of W o, Corn ing, an enterprising Marbedale gentle man, the editor of the Bee. had the pleasure of inspecting his flock of fifty Angora goats, which he had recently purchased They are beautiful looking animals, and it Is believed they can be proftably raised on Connecticut farms. Deacon Humphrey, of New Preston, has placed flock on his farm, and Fred Ford, of Washington, has bought seven head and placed them on the farm Of his father, c, F. Ford, In this connec- ton the following article from the Washington Times will be of interest:
 The United States government has become very much interested in the raising of choice Angora goats. Six teen miles below Washington in Mary land, the government is conducting ex- periments with the Angora goat at the largest farm of it's kind in the country Fifty-one choice animals were recently shipped to former Secretary of the Navy William c. Whitneys stock farm near Boston, and fifteen hundred goats were sent to another big ranch at Oak land, Md.
 The farm at which governmental eX- periments are being conducted with a view to discovering all the possibilities of the Angora goat as a destroyer ot brush and weeds, which is located near Cedarville, and comprises sixteen hun dred acres in Prince George and Charles counties.
 The goats on the big farm near Wash ington are the descendants of the first ever imported into this country, The first brought here were presented to Dr. James B. Davis, of Columbia. S. o., by the Sultan of Turkey, in 1S49, as a re- ward for the American's services in connection with experiments in cotton 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 these 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 conse- ouence. The goats were exhibited throughout the country at fairs, and at tracted even at that early date the se- rious consideration of breeders.
 The value of the animal for its 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 of land which would be in cultivation but for the fact that it is covered with undergrowth.
 For some time past nearly twenty five hundred goats have been housed on the farm at Cedarvlle, and the change which they have wrought in the appear ance of the land there during their brief stay has been marvellous.
 Tn discussing the possibilities of the goat in this direction, Mir Thompson who has recently written book upon the subject, said that the one plant es- tablished near Washington, in which he is interested, would be the means of re- claiming all the abandoned farms in Maryland, Virginia and the Caroiinas within the next few years. An Angora goat has the digestive capabilities Of the ostrich, said Mir. Thompson He eats anything, and is glad to get it. while the fondness which he manifests for tangled thicket of overgrown brush would put to shame the prover- biaI Billy goat on the city dump, A xtiSit fn thp goat farm near here to see what the busy little animals were doing. I found a, most remarkable change in the place. Brush had been actually eaten off the face of the earth, and the farm looked like the picture of a 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, usually on tours in search of food All of the unsightly brush customarily met with on the average farm is absent It has been eaten by the goats. Along the fences and in the bottoms, where undergroWth grows most thickly, open vistas and clearings have taken the place of the former masses of weeds and brushes The government is inter- ested in the breeding of the Angora goat for one reason-because of it's value as a destroyer of brush: but always alert to put money in the pockets of Ameri- cans when this country can raise just as well as not what other countries have been supplying, Uncle Sam is about to enter seriously into the field and to urge the raising of goats for their mohair
 The goats which have heretofore been confined almost wholly to the west and southwest are being shipped to every part of the country, and many reports of their good work in eXtermlnating brush have reached the bureau. The bureau receives thousands of letters of inquiry concerning the goat. It is esti- mated that there are about four hun dred thousand Angora goats in the country, and that the annual produc- ton of mohair in the United States is over million pounds.
 As for mohair there is no other mate rial so beautiful, or so capable of eX- cellent use in manufacturing l once knew of pair of socks which were worn for six years, and which didn't wear out then. Oh of course, yes, the socks were often washed. All the plush used for railroad car seats is made of