The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-03-02
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director,
Washington, D. c.
THE GREAT AMERICAN GOAT.

THE GREAT AMERICAN GOAT.
Washington, D. c., Feb. 26.-The
food administration recently modified
the ruling defining meatless meals and
meatiess days so as to permit the
southwestern states to eat goat meat
on any day of the week. The action
was taken as the result of a wide and
vigorous protest from the people of
those states, as they saw themselves
deprived of their goat chops and
SpareribS without any corresponding
gain to the allied cause or the food
situation. The food administration
ruling is no departure from the gen
eral principle of the meatless day; 1t
simply puts goat in the same class
with rabbit, fish and poultry, all meats
which do not enter much into the
question of longhaul transportation.
The strength of the protest against
banning goat meat from the menu was
a striking indication of its importance
as a food in a wide area OF the
United States. The present meat stu
alton makes it robable that the goat
will increase in Importance rapidly in
the near future, not only in the west,
but all over the United States. He
will face you, unless the signs are
wrong, from Portland to Pensacola.
The thought need give rise to no
qualms, for the chances are ten to one
that you have been eating and en-
joyins him for years camouflaged as
lamb or mutton.
That the goat has a great future
before him seems reasonably certain
because the possibilities of raising
goats in the United States have been
comparatively less exploited than
those of producing any other meat
animal Goats can be raised where
nothing else can be raised, and they
not only thrive, but improve the
grassy range, such as the great plains
or mountain valleys. Sheep will live
on a desert where cattle grow lean,
and sheep will also Craze hillsides too
steep for cattle to get much good out
of. But the goat in rough country
makes the sheep look like an amateur.
Agricultural experts recognize
sets a limit to the possibilities of agri-
culture, In Japan, for example, they
set down as non-agricultural all land
with a slope sleeper than fifteen per
cent. Somewhat the same thing may
be said to apply to grazing land. If
cattle will Craze anywhere that a man
can walk, and sheep pasture on any
hill that a man can climb, goats will
range contentedly anywhere from that
point up to a mountain straight up
and down. Goats, moreover, prefer
brush to grass for food. In conse-
quence of their tastes and talents,
they can be pastured where neither
sheep nor cattle can find food or foot
hold, and they represent the only pos
sible means of turning great tracts of
our mountain country into meat
For some reason or other, the goat
is regarded as distinctly a humorous
figure in the animal world. 1t is hard
to make the American public take
him seriously. The ruling permitting
the eating of goat was seized as a
gem by the Photographers. many of
whom doubtless went out to luncheon
after turning neat bit of wit on it.
ordered mutton, and ate goat them
selves. Ever since the ancient He
brews piled all their sins on a goat
and turned him loose in the desert.
this shrewd and hardy animal has
been regarded with a certain amount
of aversion. 1t is high time we looked
the goat in the face, so to speak, and
took stock of his possibilities in
world food-crisis. For the goat-rais-
ing business, while it continues to
thrive, cannot well have a healthy
growth SO long as it is carried on I'M
der curtain of deceit, and the fin
ished product has to masquerade as
lamb or mutton.
Concerning the virtues of goat meat
an expert in the federal department
of agriculture has this to say: THE
flesh of the young Angora is delicious,
altho there has been a prejudice
against its use. Because of the preju-
dice against Angora mutton, it has
almost invariably been passed over
the counter as lamb. In Oregon a
law has been passed making it COM
pulSOry to label the carcass properly.
That the Angora will not suffer from
this is evidenced by the fact that the
carcasSeS have been previously sold
as lamb, and that the customer has
been unable to detect any difference.
AS soon as the excellence of Angora
mutton Is appreciated more common
ly it will undoubtedly be in greater
demand and it's value will be en-
HANGED accordingly.
This last apparently means that as
soon as we learn to eat.and appreciate
goat meat under its own name the
price will rise, but the public is get
ting used to this relentless operation
of a malevolent economic law. The
point is that an intelligent apprecia-
ton of the virtues of goat as food
will lead to increased production, and
a corresponding increase in the total
meat supply, without any resulting
decrease in the output of any other
kind of meat. The gain will be net
gain. Such a gain will be of priceless
value, for the world shortage of meat
grows more acute with every passing
day.
The liberal eating of goat flesh,
even under its own name, is not at all
a radical or daring departure In
many parts of the world it is the great
staple meat, and where it is well
known it is often preferred to mutton
Shipload after shipload of goatskins
come to America from Mexico, Cen
trail America and the West Indies,
each skin of the millions representing
an animal raised primarily for its
flesh In our own southwestern
! states the goat herd is one of the prin-
cipal sources of support of the small
Mexican rancher, and such people
often prefer goat flesh to mutton. The
meat of a kid roasted over the Goals
of a wood fire is one of the most de-
licious dishes imaginable and is prob
ably superior to any other meat ex-