ANGORA GOATS 



By H. S. Mobley 



On my farm in the Ozarks in northwest Arkansas, I had a 

 forty-acre tract lying on a hillside that was covered with rocks 

 and boulders and shrub brush. It was as real a piece of waste 

 land as you could find in any country. 



In 1906 I fenced this forty acres and paid $15 for a small bunch 

 of Angora goats. I have forgotten the number. Since that time 

 I have sold out of that herd of goats $375 worth and have had 

 goat mutton for the family whenever they wanted it, and they 

 wanted it often, for it is good eating. The goats shrubbed this 

 land completely and native grasses and white clover volunteered 

 and covered it with a strong crop. 



For the past nine years I have pastured approximately seven 

 months each year between seventy and eighty goats, sheep, hogs, 

 cows, and horses on this ground. If I was to base the pasture's 

 profit at the usual rental price of 11 per head per month, it would 

 sound like too much of a good thing to be a fact, but putting the 

 price at 50 cents per head per month, this pasture has yielded 

 during this nine-year period over $2,400. Thus the goats and 

 pasture together have yielded a profit of $2,800 in nine years, or 

 something over $300 per yeeu' from a piece of ground that was 

 totally unproductive and valueless and would have continued so 

 but for the use of goats. 



The thought just here is that on almost every farm, especially 

 in the hill and timber districts, there are tracts of land similar 

 to this, waiting for the goat to turn them from eyesores and 

 valueless investments into profitable pastures. 



Angora Goats, The Land Clearers 



84 



