The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-11-30

larger cities are found many kids, and
it is evident that only few of them
grow to maturity. What becomes OF
them? Butchers and meat dealers an
swer the question by saying that they
pass over their blocks as lamb" No
meat dealer has heard of a complaint
of the quality of such lamb
a considerable number of mature
common goats are purchased by the
packing houses of the larger cities.
They are purchased as goats and sold,
either in the carcass or canned, as
mutton; and many who decry goat
meat have unconsciously eaten it many
times no doubt. This does not mean
that the meat is as palatable as good
mutton, but it may be as good as poor
mutton, and so the consumers criti-
cism concerns the quality and not the
kind.
In a general way it may be said that
all land in the United States, except
the very low and swampy tracts, are
suitable for goat raising. The feed
that goats prefer is browse, with a
small admixture of weeds and grass,
and therefore those tracts of land that
are burdened with brushwood and
briers are specially desirable. This
fact makes it clear that in the colder
parts of the country it would be neces-
sary to provide some feed in winter,
as nothing but the soft twigs remain
at that time as browse. Goats will eat
grass if required to do so and will
thrive upon it, but grass land is re-
garded as being so much more profit
able for hay production or as pasture
for cattle and sheep that the placing of
goats upon it is not to be considered.
It is nearly always the case that land
which is brush ridden is rich in quail
ity, and when cleared is most excellent
for natural grasses or for tillage. TO
clear this land by ordinary methods re-
quires an expenditure of money vary
ing from S. to $40 per acre. If goats
can do this work just as thoroughly
and at no other outlay than their own
cost and that of good fence and
shed, the question arises whether it it
not more economical 10 employ them
than to depend upon the laborious
process of the grubbing hoe.
The number of goats kept in the
United States for milk production is
known to be very small; it is also
known that these are principally of the
common breed, although there are oc-
casionaI individuals among the Ango-
ras that are excellent mixers.
A public-spirited gentleman of New
Jersey has for many years been en-
deavoring to convert the common goat
into a clean, healthful, hardy mich
goat, and he has had pretty fair sue
cess. A good mich goat is one that
will give at least two quarts of milk
per day and have period of lactatio1
of four to six months. Very few of
the common goats of this country will
do so well as that. If there are any
that reach this standard they ought to
be used as foundation stock for an
American breed of mich goats.
The quality of the milk from the
common goat is said to be as good as
that from any other; and the health
fulness of goats milk is everywhere
acknowledged and recommended by
those who have investigated the mat
ter.
The information of the Bureau of
Animal Industry is that very few at
tempts have been made in this coun-
try to raise goats for their skins, and
of these one only was upon a scale of
commercial Importance. In this case
company had an abundance of capital,
good management, ranch of cheap
land but with an abundance of feed,
and employed labor as cheaply as such
labor could be had, yet the venture was
declared failure. 1t should be stated
dlSO tLotl ILLS COtlpcdily AIS OWN
tanning and manufactured the product
into shoes, thus saving to itself what
would otherwise become middlemen's
profits. The best net income that the
company could realize for skin, car
cass, and tallow was eighty cents per
head.
The cost of carrying on the raising
of these goats is the great drawback to
the development of the industry here.
A study of the table of imports shows
that most of the goatskins come from
countries where the cost of production
is almost nothing. Similar conditions,
except possibly as to the cheapness of
land, do not exist in any part of our
country.
Goatskins are admitted to the United
States free of duty, hence the indus