Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-28
NEEDED BY THE ARMY
Twenty Mamie" and "Billies' to
Be Pressed in Service.
Bewhiskered Quadrupeds Expected
to Aid in Removing Breeding
Places at Fort Washington.

Whether for administrative purposes a
short-haired goat should be classified
with a paste pot a fumgator or a six
ir'eh gun is n question now demanding
the serious attent on of the wise men of
the War Department
The War Department wants goats.
Goats that will eat mosquitoes, or at
least that will eat the foliage where the
mosquitoes breed and congregate, are
particularly desired. Just how many
goats the department will want has not
Yet been settled because the acreage
capacity of a goat for weeds and brOws-
ing has not yet been accurately deter
m ned. However the officials are looking
for goats if they can find the right APP
preparation to charge them to. and it has
| not yet been decided whether this should
be equipment, sanitation or miscellaneous
eXpend lures.
Fort Is Unhealthy.
The root of the trouble is Fort Wash
ington, down the Potomac. This has long
been known as one of the most unhealthy
| posts in the army. The hospital there
usually has the IS. r. o. sign out, and
the compounders of quinne and kindred
remedies have come to look upon the pos
as a regular meal ticket
All that seems to all the fort is malaria
Now, as every one knows by this time. tn,
malarial mosquito is the only insect t
| carry malaria. Usually it is rather sim
pie matter to get rid of the mosquitoes b!
eliminating their breeding places, which
are always collections. large or small OF
stagnant water. But in the case of For
Washington there has been trouble get
ting at the breeding places. There is {
stretch along the water front that is no
wet enough to drain and yet is too We
for sanitary purposes. The grass ant
weeds there have been cut and recut, bu
they Will not stay cut, and an impOverish
ed government cannot let the War De
partment have money enough for a sea
wall or other sort of permanent binding
on the edge of the river
Twenty Goats Desired.
So the War Department has put in
requstion for goats. twenty of them, ant
| they. being cheerful and pretty constan
feeders, it is thought they can be de
pended on to keep the Vegetation in checl
so that the sanitation experts can fine
the wet spots on the ground and STANDARD
Oil the mosquitoes out of existence.
This start Of twenty sounds modest. but
eminent can afford to buy Billies an6
| nannies both are desired.
1t is not known whether the War De-
partment has taken counsel with the ami.
NAL husbandry division Of the Department
OF Agriculture. the public health serv.
ice or the authorities at the Zoo If they
have not there is one bet they may have
overlooked, and that writes a sad chap.
ter in the history of goat rearing along
the Potomac.
Experiment Costly.
There was recently farmer over on
the Virginia side who had a large piece
of brush land that he wanted cleared
Having heard of the efficacy of goats in
this connection and being thirty-na-
tured person. he bought a herd of forty
angoras. figuring that they would do his
brush clearing as we'll or better than a
detail of men with grubbing hoes, and in
the intervals he could clip them and
make some money off their wool
This scheme was fine. but he did not
reckon on the plenitude of poison oak and
poison ivy in the region, and the angoras
seemed to eat the poison vines by pref
erence. This, Of course, helped to elm
mate vines. but it entirely eliminated
the goats, SO that in the end the farmer
had to fall back on the man with the
hoe, who, whatever his other faults die
not eat poison oak.
This potential fatality seems to be the
only possibility that stands between the
War Department and the regeneration OF
Fort Washington. The goats have been
ordered, but will not be delivered til
War Department does not want the eX-
pense Of feeding them during the remain