PACIFIC TRKK AND VINE 



13 



The Angora Goat 



A Growing^ Industry 



The usefulness of the goat has 

 been overlooked for many years by 

 of our people, says R. F. Robinson 

 in the San Jose Mercury. The 

 owners of brush lands would do 

 well to send to the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington, D. C, 

 and receive from them their recent 

 pamphlets relative to the usefulness 

 of this animal. 



Goats of the Angora breed are 

 now being much sought after; au- 

 thorities on the subject know of no 

 animal which can be put to .so many 

 profitable uses. At the recent meet- 

 ing of the American Angora Goat 

 Breeders' Association held at Kan- 

 sas City, many hundred animals be- 

 ing exhibited, a yearling buck was 

 sold for •+1400. This was not paid 

 l)y an amateur, but by a profes- 

 sional goat raiser. The standard 

 of Angora goats is now well es- 

 tablished and a good band of An- 

 goras now represent quite a hold- 

 ing. 



The merits of the Angora goat as 

 a source of profit to the American 

 farmer has as yet never been fully 

 exploited. 



Just mention the word goat to 

 one of your friends casually and he 

 begins to think of the caricatures in 

 Puck or Judge of the goat of the 

 Harlem variety: or possibly he 

 thinks of the goat possessed by 

 some secret society of which he is a 

 member. 



The meat of the Angora is hardly 

 discernible from mutton and by 

 many it is preferred. Many goats 

 are annually sold for mutton. The 

 hair of the Angora is used in the 

 making of mohair and other fab- 

 rics. There are thousands of acres ■ 

 of land in this county, at present 

 not used for anything, that would 

 be ideal areas for the raising of 

 goats. 



The writer is aware of instances 

 where goats have been used to clear 

 off brush land, that this land after 

 being planted was clearer of foul 



and noxious weeds and grasses 

 more effectually than the same land 

 was cleaned by a mattock and an 

 ax. Tiie goats will eat brush and 

 stuff on a place that no other ani- 

 mal could live on •and goats prefer 

 seemingly to eat such brush. 



There is a rancher above Alma 

 who had a small band of goats that 

 he fenced in a small area, and then 

 as fast as the goats ate of the brush 

 as high as they could reach up, he 

 sent a man in to cut the wood down 

 at the roots and grub the same out. 

 He then extended his fence area 

 until he was readv to plant that 



■TV - ^ 



piece. He found that his goats fur- 

 nished him with milk, their skins 

 were goods for robes, and the meat 

 was good to eat. This farmer to- 

 day has no debt on his place and he 

 says that the goat as a mortgage- 

 raiser has come to stay and that he 

 is and will be credited as the most 

 useful and profitable animal on the 

 farm today. 



Goats are the poor man's cow. 

 Goats are the best thing on brushy 

 land to clear the place. 



Goats of the Angora breed are 

 valuable for their wool, which in 

 this climate one shearing a year is 

 suflicient. 



Goats ought to be the coming 

 thing on hundreds of acres of land 

 in this county which were aban- 

 doned by families not being able to 

 make a living on them. Goats 

 give milk from which the finest 

 Swiss chee.se is made. Goats will 

 pay more for the amount of their 

 investment and the care taken of 

 them than any other animal that we 

 know of. 



Goats and sheep do not generally 

 do well together, but a goat or two 

 in a flock of sheep will help to keep 

 off stray dogs. 



Goats when young need some 

 care until about three weeks old, 

 then after that they will be more 

 able to care for themselves and at 

 less expense than any other animal. 



Goats are going to have the 

 greatest boom in the memory of the 

 oldest inhabitant, for their useful- 

 ness is just now being exploited 

 more than that of any other animal. 



The Works Bill 



The Works Irrigation bill has in 

 all probability been killed by the 

 efforts of the people whom it was 

 suppo.sed it was going to help. 

 This bill was got up at the request 

 of the Water and Forest Association 

 by one of their memtiers, Judge 

 Works of Los Angeles. It pro- 

 vided for the construction of reser- 

 voirs, and the ac<iuirement of great 

 water rights by combinations of 

 capital, the establishment of a com- 

 mission of a few men who should 

 have absolute control of these cor- 

 porations, in the matter of ffxing 

 rates, etc., very much like our pres- 

 ent railroad commission, and in 

 their hands was the power to de- 

 cide how much water each man 

 should use, and to deprive him of 

 all in excess of that quantity, re- 

 gardless of the length of time be 

 had had the use of it People who 

 now live in an irrigated section 

 where they are dependent upon 

 private corporations for watefT' 

 keenly appreciate the evils of priv- 

 ate ownership and have fought this 

 measure to the end. In an arid 

 country .the man who owns the 

 water owns the land. It is a per- 

 petual mortgage on the property, 

 and one that can never be paid off. 

 There is no escape from it, for when 

 the land owner fails or neglects to 

 pay his water tax, from whatever 

 cause, his water is gone, and witeit 

 all his improvements and all his 

 years' of labor. The man who owns 

 the land should own the water, and 

 the Works bill, in providing for the 

 private ownership of this vital 

 element of our arid sections de- 

 served the fate it received. The ap- 

 pointment of a commission would 

 be no protection fo the land owner; 

 rather the reverse. For while .some 

 commissions might work in the in- 

 terests of the people, where there 



