Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-02
GOAT RAISERS MEET.
By FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

American raisers of Angora goats will
meet in annual convention in Kansas
City next week There are hundreds OF
farmers in the western part of the coun-
try, who find the Angora goat one OF
the greatest of mortgage lifters. The
number OF goats in the United States, in
Guiding the nondescript plebeiar OF the
city alleys and the kingly ADgora of the
fancy stock farm, reaches total OF
more than 100000, and il Is believed
that America is just awakening TO the
possibilities of goat raising as a profit
able business. Their freedom from tu-
berculosis, their ability to find a living
where only goose could pasture, their
value in the destruction of brush and
weed, their fine hair and the high quality
of their milk make them one OF the most
profitable OF all domestic animals.
There are millions of Americans to
whom the goat represents nothing but A
frowsy smell. propensity of butting
and a taste for tin cans. Experienced
goat men declare this conception to be a
mental SANDER. 1t is said that no other
as those under which a good farmer
keeps his cattle and his sheep is more
cleanly or has more pleasing appear
ance than the .Angora goat. Its long
white hair is a thing of beauty and at
the same time a profit maker for the
owner. This hair is used in the manu-
facture of mollair. and brings good prices
in the market A good goat Will yield
three pounds of hair clipping, which sells
at from 30 to 40 cents a pound This
alone renders the goat profit maker, as
its feed costs but little.
One of the principal ADVANTAGES in rails
ing Angora goats is that they readily will
convert a tract of ground
Will Clear Up covered with scrub oak
and other underbruSh
oiuSA AaAu' into field where blue
grass may thrive luxuriantly. These
goats prefer the leaves Of trees and
bushes to the best grass that ever grew.
and SO long as they can find a briar patch
or a field of weeds blue grass and red
clover have no attractions for them. Pic
lures of land where .Angora goats have
been kept show that they are invaluable
in clearing away underbrush. The brar
patch is their banquet table and the
weedy spot their favorite eating place.
The farmer whose fence rows are over
run with briars and whose fields are COW
cred with weeds finds one goat to be
worth several boys In the process OF
cleaning up.
Many goat raisers make speciality or
buying old, rundown farms and placing
thereon a herd of goats. In the course of
year or two they will succeed in killing
every brush and weed within reach. The
boy who goes out to grub lnVarlapiy
leaves a part of the roots of the brush
but the goat goes at his work In a differ
cnt way. AS fast as the leaves appear he
eats them off, and this kills the plants to
the very lowest root. In this way the
land is cleared more completely than 1t
otherwise could be. Sheep in a measure
are good for this same purpose, but not
as valuable as the Angora goat. That
animal will even eat the buck bush" a
plant which no other farm animal will
touch. In. many states drastic legislation
against the Canada thistle has been
enacted, but no legislation has proved so
effective as the Angora goat.
The various breeds of milk goats are no
less profitable than the Angora. They
have all the good quail
Profitable for ties of the Angora as
rr.,,- brush. briar and weed
AAell M11h' eaters, and are known as
Door mems cows, a title which they well
deserve. Like the Angora, the milk goat
will thrive where other animals would
StarVe. II prouuCeS Hoie him IA p'oP
ton to it's body weight and the feed 1t
eats than the cow Farm writer's gener-
ally agree that goat milk Is much better
than that of the cow for invalids. chill
dren and for cooking purposes. The av-
erage goat will produce two quarts day,
and some of them have been known to
Weld as much as four quarts. 1t Is not
reasonable to expect that the town or city
goat, with little but garbage and rubbish
1o eat will Weld az good milk as one
kept under wholesome conditions, and II
is through the milking Of the alley goat
that the American people have acquired
their prejudice against goat milk.
The freedom OF the goat from tuoercu-
losis makes It a valuable aid to the med
zeal profession In combating the great
white plague. While there are some cases
of tuberculosis in goats on record. they