The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-07-21
THE GLUTTONOUS GOAT.
Ability to Eat Many Things Makes
Him Dear to Uncle Sans Rangers.

The goat has never been a social
favorite. In days gone by it was pre-
scnted with the assorted sins of the
community and assisted to hit the
long trail. More recently tin cans
have been its titbits and the joke
column its hall Of fame.
At last. however, it is being taken
seriously. On the western national
forests the goat has been set to eat
ing wide swaths through trackless
thickets. which munched off paths
are to act as roads and fire breaks.
Farther east the capacity of the goat
to eat is being utilized for the clear
ing Of brush. land. In each case, SAYS
the World recently the despised crea-
ture is doing better work in it's line
than than can man with all his in
genuity.
A goat will eat with the sole idea
for consuming quantity and with an
indifference that is absolute as to
what manner of thing it devours.
From clover to sagebrush and from
rarsnips to tree tops it is all one with
the goat.
Armed with the capacity to eat, a
flock of 5000 goats may be huddled
together and led through a chaparral
thicket such as skirt the forests. The
men in charge hold back the flock as
1t advances that it may have time to
make its task complete. It's errant
appetite wanders from dry leaves on
the ground to the rank weeds grow
Ing in moist places and the dense
branches Of the chaparral.
AS the abundance is exhausted the
sweep is made cleaner. The leaves
and the larger limbs of the chaparral
are attacked. The goat stands on its
hind legs and reaches for its food. it
gets astride the branches and rides
them down, eating as it goes.
Finally 1t falls on the bark of the
larger bushes and eats their bodies
bare. There is no vestige of life left
In its track. The firebreak is as clean
as a ballroom floor.
The usefulness of the goat as a CO.
latorer with man by no means stops
here. There are millions of acres of
land in many Of the states that are
overrun with brush. The tendency is
always to revert to that condition
even after the clearing T.. once made
Rank weeds. sunfiowers, cockleburs
and such have spoiled for cultivation
millions Of acres elsewhere. The
chaparral is smothering out all other
vegetation in such sections as ives,
Texas, where originally prairies un.
wound themselves for hundreds O,
miles and, We're kept clean by oft re.
curing prairie fires.
For all such the goat is found to b.
the savior. These lands would re-
qrire from $12 to $50 to clear were
men to do the work. The goat vii
DO 1t for nothing. In fact it will per.
form the task and in the meantime
yield an abundant fleece, produce nal
atable goat "vension" and furnish 8
grade OF milk that entirely outrank.
that OF the cow.
The goat is today actually harness
e" TO the task of eating up oak brush
fields IN Iowa, broom sedge waists II
Virginia, cocklebur patches in Louis
lana, sunfiower in Kansas, sagebrusf
In Nevada, lantana in Hawaii. cha.
parral and an unlimited miscellan,
everywhere.
1t is the Angora goat, r1e aristo
crat of all the tribe, that Is doing tn.
work. This is because OF the exis
tenue of great herds maiHtained 70,
their wool before the new duties were
lait down, and because there are NOR,
profitable by-products in these thar
In other varieties.
These great herds are in the west
particularly in New Mexico. They are
hecoming migratory under the call OF
their new usefulness. AS they &c
abont seeking what they may devoul
they will continue to give up the
neeoe that makes such dress goods as
nofair, such commercially valuable
material as the plush that covers the
seats in all railway trains and such
quaintly amusing articles as the wigs
with which the members of thea
trical profession are wont to make
sPort-New York Sun.