NEW INTERESTS. 163 



with the raising of goats for their skins is of such a nature 

 as to be not only congenial, but recreative, to many persons. 

 In the South Atlantic States Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, 

 northern Georgia and Alabama an economical and well-dis- 

 tributed labor element is available for the industry. In these 

 localities also the climatic conditions are almost ideal. 



As the greatest market demand is for the skins, but little 

 care need be bestowed upon the breed of the animals. Com- 

 mon goats of this character are the hardiest sort, and thrive 

 upon the most common and primitive pasturage. The skins, 

 which are in world-wide demand, depend for their availability 

 and excellence upon neither breed nor care. Good founda- 

 tion herds may be purchased at $2 per head, and males at 

 $10. Wherever they are ranged upon unused and unsalable 

 land they are, aside from the slight expense involved for at- 

 tendance, almost gratuitously profitable. 



With the large and constantly increasing demand for figs 

 in the American market, the comparative hardihood of the 

 fig tree, the evident profit to be derived from the commercial 

 cultivation of the fruit and the universally admitted acumen 

 and energy of men among us for the production of the new 

 and the promising, it is somewhat remarkable that only now 

 should this large interest be attracting the attention of our 

 people. 



The early French and Spanish settlers introduced the fig 

 throughout the Southern section of the country and in Cali- 

 fornia, and in all these regions it thrives abundantly. Even 

 in the lower Hudson River Valley it has been grown success- 

 fully and, where well cared for during the winter, has been 



