The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1906-08-16
.LUxuRtEs. FOR ESTATES
Value of Angora Goats In De.
stroying Noxious Growths.

stroylng Noxious GrowthS.
THRIVE ON POISON IVY LEAVES
Ex-Congressman Scudder to Rid His
Pest by Using a Herd of the Long
Haired Animals, Which Are Fine
Foragers-Strong Fence Needed to
Keep Them Within Hounds.
EX-CongreSSman Townsend Scudder,
who has a fine country seat between
Roslyn and Sea Cliff, on Long Island,
is not going to be troubled about doc
tors remedies for poison ivy, for he
has had seventy Angora goats sent
from Maine, and the goats are war
ranted to eXterminate poison ivy along
with all other troublesome growths,
says a special dispatch from Roslyn to
the Brooklyn Eagle.
1t has been generally known that
goats and ostriches can live and thrive
on nine-tenths of rejected food sup
plies, but it is not generally known
that the best way of dealing with poi
son ivy is at the fountain head, and
Angora goats are being extensively
used on large estates for this purpose.
Mr.. Scudder has long stretches of
meadow and woodland, with intersect-
ing lanes and roads leading to the
Glen Cove road and the Shore road to
Sea Cliff. The luXuriance of every
green and growing thing requires
scavengers of the goat ORDER and
when the little army of Angoras have
foraged for few weeks the thickets
will be cleared, fences denuded of
their poisonous draperies and an Eden
will take the place of wilderness.
An amusing incident of preliminaries
regarding the sending of the goats to
Mr.. Scudder's farm was the mailing OF
samples of the long silken hair to
prove the breed. but the Angoras az
rived all shorn for duty in the scrub5y
growth they We're to forage in.
The attention of farmers all over the
country was some time ago attracted
by a pamphlet sent out by the bureau
of agriculture in which the value of
the fleece was stated to be in some in
stances So a pound, although $1.5O a
pound is an average price.
Raising Angoras for profit is, how
ever, business requiring certain con-
ditions and special intelligence as well
as capital but whatever may be said of
them in other ways they are certainly
an acquisition to an estate whose own
err has Objectionable growths, such as
the prolific and tenacious poison ivy,
which seems to be ordinary and whole
some diet for these handsome foragers
They will eat anything they can reach
standing on their hind legs as we'll as
on all fours, and they thrive on ranges
where sheep would starve.
They have better natures and man
ners than the common goat and are be.
loved by children, and the disagreed
BILE odor of the ordinary kind is also
lacking. The fleece is SO long and so
silken one hesitates to believe that
they can be put to any task like clear.
ing scrubby growths, but they open a
safe passage, assisted by their omniv-
orous appetites.
A New Hampshire man is said to
have had 200 acres cleared by his An
goras i'll four years. When the choice
between using manual labor with the
noise of cutting for the disposition of
refuse and the silent, ceaseless clear
ing of these beautiful creatures is CON
sidered one wonders why there is not
a herd of them on all the big estates
which have had such vast amounts of
clearance, necessitating the employ
ment of an army of men.
Fencing is, however, most impor-
tant preliminary, since one unsuccess-
full man who wanted herd for the
profit in the fleece said that "they ate
clean valuable rose garden belonging
to neighbour" and their conduct in
his own vegetable garden entitled him
to relief. 1t is evident that barriers
between cleared and uncleared land
must be we'll and strongly built Of
stout material.
Inc same man complains, vide Nc.
Clure's Farming. in letter to the
president, in which he reproaches the
bureau of agriculture for ''idealizine
the Angora business He said of his
fencing: 1.-The goats began by thrust
ing their heads through the upper part
of the fence, where they hung by the
horns. When tired of this they went
through, under and over the fence"
Evidently there are fences and fences.
To keep Mr.. Scudder's herd Of An
goras within bounds he is Having q
10000 foot Enclosure built. Already they
have five openings in the dense I'M
dergrowth, and incidentally they de-
stroy all poisonous vines, for they eat
everything in their way and so close
that once cleared there is small chance.
with herd of Angoras ready for flu.
ture emergencies, of further trouble.
Angoras will therefore 90 on the list
of modern luNuries for large estates in
the United States.