Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-07-13
THE eLUTToNoUs 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 1t was pre-
sented 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. Far
ther east the capacity Of the goat to eat
Is being utilized for the clearing OF
brush land. In each case, says the
World recently, the despised creature
is doing better work in its line than
can man with all his ingenuity.
A goat will eat with the sole idea
Of consuming quantity and with an
indifference that Is absolute as to what
manner of thing it devours. From clo-
yer to sageorush and from parsnips to
tree tops it is all one with the goat.
Armed with this 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
it 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 growing
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, 1t
gets astride the branches and rides
them down, eating as it goes.
Finally it falls on the bark Of the
larger bushes and eats their bodies
bare. There is 40 vestige Of life left
in its track. The firebreak Is as clean
as a ballroom floor.
The usefulness Of the goat as a CO.
laborer 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 is once made.
Rank weeds, sunf1owers, cockleburs
and such have spoiled for cultivation
millions Of acres, elsewhere. The
chaparral is smothering out all other
vegetation in such sections as west
Texas, where originally prairies un-
wound themselves for hundreds Of
miles and were kept clean by oft re-
curing prairie fires.
For all such the goat Is found to be
the savior. These lands would re-
quire from $12 to $50 to clear were
men to do the work. The goat will
do it for nothing. In fact 1t will per-
form the task and in the meantime
yield an abundant fleece, produce pal
atable goat "venison' and furnish a
grade Of milk that entirely outranks
that of the cow.
The goat is today actually harness.
ed to the task of eating up oak brush
fields in Iowa, broom sedge wastes In
Virginia, cocklebur patche! IN Louis
lana, sunflowers in Kansas, sagebrush
in Nevada, lantana in Hawaii, chapar-
raj and an unlimited miscellany every
where.
1t is the Angora goat, the aristocrat
of all the tribe, that is doing the work.
This because of the existence Of great
herds maintained for their wool before
the new duties were laid down, and
because there are more profitable by
products in these than in other varie-
ties.
These great herds are in the west,
particularly in New Mexico. They are
becoming migratory under the call of
their new usefulness. AS they go
about seeking what they may devour
they will continue to give up the fleece
that makes such dress goods as mo-
hair, such commercially valuable ma
terial as the plush that covers the
seats in all railway trains and such
quantity amusing articles as the wigs
with which the members Of the thea
trical profession are wont to make
sport-New York Sun.