THE ANGORA GOAT. 27 



and every twig within their r(>ach is greedily eaten, even to most of 

 the l)u,she.s and weeds that are considered poisonous to other rumi- 

 nants, wliiU^ a remarkably few weeds are passed by. They will desert 

 the tinest clover and blue grass for such an outlay. 



The inherent tendency to climb leads them to hillsides and rocky 

 clifi's, and they prefer such situations to any of a level character. 

 Here nature meets their necessities b}^ dwarfing the bushes so they 

 may be browsed easily; the soil is quickly drained in the event of 

 rain — for they do not like wet land; and the stones serve to keep the 

 feet trimmed properly by the wearing process. This is the situation 

 that the goats would choose; but the farmer might choose to turn 

 them into a dense mass of brush and weeds anywhere and they will at 

 once begin to convert it into the most beautiful pasture. 



In those localities where valuable land is completely subdued by 

 Inrush the goats are considered of more value for the purpose of clear- 

 ing it than for their mohair or meat. They thus become one of the 

 farmer's important tools. Their value in this respect nmst be meas- 

 ured by the value of the land which they will render cultivable. It is 

 said that in Oregon, where Chinamen had been paid as high as $20 an 

 acre for clearing off brush, goats had done the work even better. 

 Sprouts will spring up behind men's work, but goats will keep them 

 down until they cease to appear. True, the goats require more time 

 than men, but their work is better. In this connection an article 

 which appeared in the Country Cxentleman of January 11, 1900, is of 

 special interest: 



In 1870 Mr. Landrum exhibited* ten head at the Oregon State fair. They were 

 put in a brusli pen, wliere they ate out the Ijrush and peeled the saplings during the 

 fair. As the Willamette Valley was covered with brush and farmers were paying 

 Chinamen $20 and Americans $22 per acre for grubbing, Mr. Landrum suggested the 

 employment of goats instead; and, to demonstrate their effectiveness as substitutes 

 for grubbing, he left them on 3 acres of slashed brush. At the end of the first year 

 the roots were dead and discolored, and at the end of the second year they were rot- 

 ten and the land mellow for the plow. Then he drove up his California herd of 

 2,400, the result of fifteen years of breeding, and sold them in small lots from Jackson- 

 ville to Portland, scattering them throughout the Willamette Valley. He says he 

 sold as many more later to go to Oregon, where there are now 80,000 head, mostly in 

 lots of 25 to 300. * * * He believes that they are more proiitable than any other 

 farm animals. They have cleared hundreds of thousands of acres of brush land in 

 Oregon now in cultivation. 



Through the courtesy of Dr. J. R. Standley, of Platteville, Iowa, three 

 illustrations are presented which, as he naivel}^ states, shows woodland 

 *■* before goating, during goating, and after goating." Words can not 

 possibly emphasize the work of goats as brush destroj^ers so strongly 

 as these illustrations. The iirst (PI. II) shows simply a dense mass of 

 hazel, plum, crab apple, several varieties of oaks, and weeds as high 

 as the fence. This land was as nearly like that shown in the other 



