94 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Suny, 1899: — 
A GOAT STATION.. 
Ir is perhaps not generally known that kid gloves are made from goat-_ 
skins. The term “kid,” as applied to gloves, appears to have no affinity to the — 
term “goat” in the public mind. Be that as it may, millions of pairs of gloves: 
of all shades and thicknesses are the product of the destructive goat. | 
A gentleman from London, Mr. C. A. Cox, who visited’ Australia last 
year, has taken up a selection of 340 square miles, some 40 miles west of Char- 
lotte Waters, South Australia, with a view of stocking it with goats, for the 
purpose of utilising the skins for glove-making. Mr. Cox’s representative has 
left Adelaide lately for the station to make arrangements for stocking the 
country. 
ere we have another industry which might be advantageously entered 
upon in Queensland. We look upon goats as annisance. So they undoubtedly — 
are in towns and suburbs, but there are many hundreds, indeed thousands, of 
square miles in this colony which could be utilised for goat-farming, and which 
would well repay the pioneer goat-farmer. Take the rough broken country of ~ 
the eastern side of the Main Range or the coastlands; which are useless for 
farming or cattle and sheep raising. Goats will thrive well on these lands. 
They donot require large stockyards or fences or stockmen. They are thoroughly 
domesticated animals, and can be looked after by the small boys and girls of the 
family, and, in addition to their value as skin-producers,.they furnish rich milk 
and cheese, not to speak of their flesh, which is excellent food: if the animal is _ 
killed young. 
Goat-skins are worth in the Brisbane market from 1s. to 2s. Sd: each; 
and as goats—that is, the ordinary goats we find about the towns—are only 
worth from 1s. 6d. to 5s. a head, there should be a large margin of profit to be 
obtained from them, as they require no expensive food, generally foraging for — 
themselves. 
In a work entitled “The Angora Goat,” by S.G..Cronnright Schreiner, 
published under the auspices of the South African Angora Goat Breeders’ 
Association, portions of which work are reproduced by Garden. and Meld, we 
find the following on— 
THE ANGORA GOAT AND MOHAIR INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA. 
He says: ‘It was, 1 believe, from Cape Colony that Australia first obtained! 
her Merino sheep; and it is indirectly due to the same country that she was 
induced to experiment with the Angora. Her phenomenal success in the one 1s 
not more pronounced than her failure in the other.’ The first seven were 
imported by Mr. Sechel, of Melbourne, in 1857, from Asia Minor, and found 
their way to the Melbourne Zoo. Particulars of later importations and attempts: 
at establishing the industry are given by Mr. Schreiner, who specially refers to 
those of Sir Samuel Wilson in Victoria, who published a pamphlet, “The 
Angora Goat,” in 1873; and Mr. Price Maurice, at Kastamboul, in this 
colony from 1869 to 1873. The Angora goat industry has not thriven in 
Australia, and the author concludes that the country is not suited to the animal. 
Is Hz Correcr ?—Kastamboul is in the Mount Lofty Ranges, about 12: 
miles from Adelaide, adjacent to Montacute and Highercombe. Itis overlooked 
by the vice-regal residence at Marble Hill. Much of the country is rough and 
hilly, but is thickly timbered, and the dense scrub is of a very different character 
to that of Angora. The climate in winter is wet, and, although snow rarely 
falls, is.cold. The rainfallis over 30 inches. The precipitous hills are separated 
by narrow valleys, with permanent watercourses and small swamps, which,. 
when drained, are among the richest and most productive spots in the world. 
According to Mr. Schreiner this is altogether an unsuitable locality for the 
somewhat delicate highly-bred Angora goats. The conclusion forced upon us 
after studying the book is that the attempts made to introduce the Angora goat 
into Australia have failed because the localities selected have been unsuitable— 
too rich or too wet. Had Mr. Price Maurice’s efforts been expended on dry 
arid northern hilly, north-north-west, or north-east shrubby, hilly country, the: 
