Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1905-08-03
Selling Goat as Mutton.
A rose would smell as sweet
BY any other name,
SO do not scorn the goat,
As lamb he chews the same.

1
Goat, the hollow horned, four.stom.
ached animal, raised for it's milk, flesh
and skin primarily, is, according to the
department Of agriculture, furnishing
considerable part Of the "lamb" and
"mutton" handled by the packing
houses and retail dealers all over the
country. Dealers in goats at the stock
yards say this is true in Kansas City
as well as elsewhere.
"Several times Of late / have gone
into butcher shops with the purpose of
buying mutton for. my morning meal
and have found nothing in the shop
except goat, represented TO me to be
mutton, said a goat dealer at tho
stock yards.
"The average man is fooled. 1t is
easy enough, though, to distinguish
the difference between sheep and goat
meat il one will only take the time
and trouble. Herein the difference
lies: In the sheep the front leg from
the hoof to the knee is about the same
length as from the knee TO the shoul
der. With the goat the distance from
the hoof to the knee is only about half
as great as from the knee 20 the shoul.
der. Also the goat is much more FRA.
zor backed than the sheep. The back.
bone, or spinal column, is not so Aexi.
BILE as that Of the sheep, and It cannot
be so easily broken. Mutton IL much
more plentiful, but the cost is greater,
"Even If the people are being do
eeived and are eating goat IL matters
not so much If the animal is young, for
kid meat is more delectable than lamb,
am of the opinion that both the
packer and the butcher are at fault.
often the green butcher thinks that
he is buying the most innocent Of ami.
mails the lamb, when he has bought the
goat. And again the retail dealer
knows that he has bought goat and
he sells IL to the consumer for NUT.
ton"
The Kansas City market receives a
larger number of goats, compared
with other markets, but compared with
the number Of sheep received the mum.
ber is small. The biggest goat years
were 1902 and 1908. In 1902 there
were from $4,000 to $4,000 goats sold
and in 1908 from $4,000 to $4,000
Last year there were only $4,000 on
the market. From the number thus
far this year IL looks as IL the re.
ceipts would exceed last years. The
bulk of the goat trade comes from
Texas and New Mexico. The trado
here is handled by few firms. As
such limited number of goats arrive
they usually find ready market. Fat
goats this week are selling from
$3.50 to 1915 per hundred. Nannies,
or does, are bringing from 90 to 81
head.
Even IL goats do not arrive very
often at the stock yards, there are
always goats there, for the stock yards
company owns about fifteen, and each
packing house has an animal These
are used to lead the sheep. Whenever
a load Of sheep arrives a goat is Ia.
ken to the train TO lead the band of
sheep, sometimes numbering thousands,
TO the pens, later to be slaughtered.
The goats are most needed after
rain, for then sheep balk, as they arc
afraid Of mud puddles
All men that are familiar with the
history Of the Kansas City sheep yardt
well remember goat called "Mike. !"
He won his renown by his marked de
gree Of intelligence. He died about o
year ago Of old age, after having seen
Il 49, "a a