VOL. XLVIII NO. 2035 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 26, 1889, 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered According to Act of Congress, In the Year 18S9, by the Rural New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.] 
making. The famed Roquefort cheese is in 
part made of goats’ milk. There is a certain 
demand for them, for milking, by residents 
of suburban localities, and for the so-called 
all-purpose “dairy animal;” it is certainly 
much in their favor that they yield a com¬ 
paratively large quantity of rich and sweet 
milk, a valuable fleece, and, quite possibly, 
two pairs of kids in the year, and at the end 
they make good mutton. No general-purpose 
cow (if she is ever found) can do all this. Goat 
skins, too, bear a high price and are in de¬ 
mand for the manufacture of morocco and 
kid leather, also for glove leather. In fact, 
the goat has more valuable uses than any 
other domestic animal, and if a flock is well 
cared for, can be kept in due restraint, saved 
from dogs, and, provided with any kind of 
nutritious pasture—the better the more de- 
sirable—it would be mor6 profitable than 
sheep, were it not for the prejudice against 
the use of its flesh for mutton. An excellent 
illustration of a pair of Angoras will be found 
at Fig. 13. 
[As is the case with many other pro¬ 
ducts, fashion has much to do with the 
price of mohair. We are informed by dealers 
here that the current price now paid is not 
more than half that now given by Mr. Stew¬ 
art.— Eds.] 
(l\)t tHimjarfr. 
THE “GENEVA” GRAPE. 
(See page 50.) 
A specimen of this vine was sent to the 
Rural Grounds (No. 300) in April of 1886. 
Somewhat crowded by the Lady upon the 
same trellis, it has not as yet fruited. On 
Sept. 33 we received a few bunches from R. 
G. Chase & Co., of Geneva, N. Y., a photo¬ 
graphic illustration of one of which we pre¬ 
sent at Fig. 14, showing an average-sized 
bunch. The berries are of medium size, 
translucent, and of a pea-green color. The 
skin is quite Arm, the pulp tender, and the 
seeds separate freely. The grape is juicy, 
sprightly, pure and pleasant. The seeds are 
medium as to size and number. The vine is 
said to be vigorous and healthy, ripening its 
fruit with the Concord. The Geneva is one 
of Jacob Moore’s seedlings from the wild La- 
brusca, crossed with Muscat of Alexandria, 
the product being crossed with Iona. Its har¬ 
diness and adaptability^ various sections can 
be ascertained only by trial. 
povticultwral. 
Vlje ijirfrdnum. 
PROFIT IN ANGORA GOATS. 
HENRY STEWART. 
HERE are some mistaken ideas 
current in regard to goats. 
It is generally supposed that 
these animals are exceedingly 
hardy and easily kept; that 
they subsist upon brush and 
coarse herbage that is not good for any other 
use; that they are not injured by dogs, and 
need no looking after except at shearing time, 
in short, that “they are all that fancy 
painted” in regard to an easy way of making 
money. All these suppositions are baseless. 
A goat is very much like a sheep, except that 
it is more enterprising, restless and erratic, 
and it needs quite as good food and care to be 
a source of profit. The only places and cir¬ 
cumstances in which I know of goats being 
kept profitably, with little trouble and ex¬ 
pense, are the islands ot the Pacific coast 
where the modern Robinson Crusoes live sur¬ 
rounded by their flocks and the ocean, which 
makes the only 
fence that can re- 
his “ right to dispute.” But the sea should 
be broad enough to prevent errant dogs from 
swimming over in pursuit of their favorite 
sport. 
But, as to profit, there is profit in any in¬ 
dustry if it is only properly pursued. The 
fleece of the Angora goat is a valuable staple 
used in American factories for the making of 
braids, fringes, and lustrous goods which are 
generally known as mohair, and the wool 
generally brings more than the fleeces of the 
long wool sheep. Sixty cents a pound is about 
the average price, and a good fleece will 
weigh eight pounds. Goat’s flesh is as good as 
mutton, and the kid makes excellent lamb. I 
have seen and eaten lamb which had hairy 
legs, but, keeping my own counsel, no one 
else had any suspicion that it was not choice 
South Down. Nevertheless, goat mutton and 
kid lamb are not free from a certain natural 
prejudice dating back to primitive times 
when the goat was supposed to be a wicked 
animal, and most suitable to bear vicariously 
the sins of a whole nation, besides being made 
the type of the unregenerate and vicious lost 
souls. Strangely enough, this bad name still 
sticks to this useful race, and it is undoubtedly 
a bar to the fully profitable keeping of these 
really innocent and valuable animals. 
Goats may be made profitable for cheese- 
strain these “birds 
of freedom”—as 
one might very 
well call them 
from their flighty 
habits and high 
roosting proclivi¬ 
ties. I have known 
them to get upon 
the roof of a barn- 
shed and bask in 
the sun, and at 
night to choose the 
same gently 
sloping roof for 
their sleeping 
place. Perhaps 
tins was to escape 
the prowling dogs, 
which are as apt 
to make mutton of 
them as sheep. 
Goats are quite as 
easily destroyed 
by dogs as sheep 
are, although they 
are better able to 
escape from at¬ 
tack by their su- 
p e r i o r agility. 
They are equally 
subject to the dis¬ 
eases of sheep as 
these are. Scab, 
foot-rot, liver-rot, 
and the ordinary 
troubles which af- 
fect neglected 
sheep, attack 
goats, and these 
animals require 
quite as much care 
at all times as 
sheep do, so that 
the charge of a 
flock of goats is no 
sinecure, unless 
one could have a 
moderate sized is¬ 
land for his pas¬ 
ture, where he 
could be “ mon¬ 
arch of all he sur¬ 
veyed” with none 
A PAIR OF ANGORA GOATS. Fig. 13. 
THE WEEPING 
EUROPEAN 
ASH. 
(See page 51.) 
We now record 
our experience 
with this tree for 
the first time. A 
single specimen 
was purchased 14 
or 15 years ago. 
The stock was 
about six feet 
high, on which 
the pendulous va¬ 
riety was grafted. 
Its way of grow- 
ing might be 
called lawless. 
One branch will 
grow directly 
downward; 
another directly 
up ward, wh.ile 
others will shoot 
out in all interme¬ 
diate directions. 
If we desire to cul¬ 
tivate the droop¬ 
ing habit, all of 
the rambling 
shoots must be cut 
back. The tree 
then in a few 
years becomes a 
rounded mass of 
branches and foli¬ 
age, as shown in 
our photographic 
illustration Fig. 
15. This pic¬ 
turesque tree is 
now about 18 feet 
high, with a 
spread of branches 
at the ground 35 
feet in diameter. 
The trunk is nin- 
inches in diame¬ 
ter, the first 
branches issuing 
therefrom being 
