28 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



illnst rut ions Ixviore goats were turned in them as it wu,s possible to 

 find. The second (PL ITT) shows a piece of land while goats were 

 operating- on it. It will l>e oliserved that the brush is dead, and that 

 the weeds only appear to be alive. The third (PI. IV) shows the 

 "finished product" after two years. The goats had been in the tract 

 shown in Plate III but twelve months when this photograph was taken. 

 The shrubbery that was too large for the goats to "ride down" was 

 cut down, the goats completing the work by eating the soft twigs and 

 leaves. The last piece is ready for cultivation or for pasture for 

 cattle, sheep, or horses. When the goats were first turned into this 

 tract it was as full of brush as the tract shown in Plate II, and they 

 were allowed to run upon it but two years. 



The beneficial effect of the goats is not all in the clearing of the land 

 of brush. In many parts of the country luitritioUs grasses "come in " 

 after the goats have done their work. In the tract shown (PL IV) 

 blue grass has by natural methods formed a most excellent pasture. 

 The final result is that the goats not only put such character of land in 

 condition for cultivation, but actually go further by converting a 

 wilderness into a good pasture, thus preparing the way by cheapest 

 methods for sheep, cattle, or horses. 



Dr. Standley says that in that part of Iowa where he lives " 100 

 Angoras to each 40 acres of this land for two years would make 

 it as clean as a lawn and as perfectly set in blue grass as a lawn." 

 He has 500 acres of such land cleared in this manner. This land 

 now supports one steer to each acre, whereas before it was cleared 

 there was not enough grass on an acre to make a sheep or goat a single 

 feed. The same experience is reported by Mr. Q. M. Beck, of Bear- 

 grove, Iowa, who says: "After running them on such lands here a 

 few years we have a fine blue-grass pasture." 



Dr. Standley's experience in the employment of goats for clearing 

 land is extensive, and thousands of goats have been taken into Iowa 

 upon his reconunendation. It will interest the readers of this paper 

 to see the following from his pen : 



Land can be cleared of the worst brush known to this country for a httle less than 

 nothing by Angora goats. Some one asks how. Simply this: Angora goats will pay 

 a profit and live on leaves and weeds, leaving the land cleaner and nicer than can be 

 done in any other way. Many persons have the idea that goats bark the trees and 

 in that way kill them. They also think that goats wholly eat the hazel and other 

 small brush. There is nothing in this. Goats are no worse to bark trees of any 

 kind than sheep. The way in which goats kill brush is by contmually cropping the 

 leaves, which serve as the lungs of the brush. The continued cropping of the 

 leaves makes the brush, as it were, sick, caused by lack of nourishment. This sickness 

 sinks to the very extremity of the roots, thus preventing sprouting. Any and all 

 khads of bushes are in this way easily killed. Some kinds of brush and some kinds 

 of stumps are of course much harder to kill than others. Many varieties are entirely 

 killed by one summer's trimming of the leaves. Almost any are killed by two years' 



