RAISING GOATS
Boys, are you really serious about making some money? Do you live on a farm where the hills are too steep to plow and the only crop that amounts to anything is the crop of stones? Are those steep hills covered with brush and good-for-nothing trees that look too hopeless? Don't grind your teeth and say "There's no chance here. I'm going to buy a ticket for the city." Glance at the heading on this page and don't smile derisively nor turn on to some new chapter.
"Goats! Humph!"
If you never heard of anybody making anything out of goats, here's your chance to hear something new. People can and do make money out of goats and so can you. Why, it is too easy!
Here, read these facts about goats:
Goats prefer rough, rocky, wild, and hilly land.
Goats always thrive if allowed considerable range.
Hilly, bushy land is best for goats.
The feed of one cow will keep twelve goats.
Temperature need not be considered. Goats thrive where temperatures are extreme.
The Angora goat fleece is cut annually and is very valuable. We import over one million pounds a year. Skins of common goats are in great demand for leather. We imported sixteen million dollars' worth in 1898 and more every year since.
Goat manure is as valuable as that of sheep.
Angora venison cannot be told from lamb.
Goats scorn to eat fresh grass if coarse weeds like wild carrot, mullein, dock, etc., are in sight.
Every part of a goat is salable. Fleece, milk, cheese, skin, flesh, tallow, bones, hoofs, horns, and manure.
Goats improve land. They are "lifelong scavengers," and can put land covered with useless underbrush into shape for pasture more cheaply and more quickly than dynamite.
A herd of common goats can be built up in a few years. They breed at one year and usually have twins.
Goats are hardy; less subject to disease than sheep.
A good goat is a money-maker.
These statements are quoted directly from the writings of men and women of experience. They have no goats to sell, so you can take their word.
The requirements for successful goat raising are few and easy to provide. They are these:
(1) Space.—Goats do not take kindly to herding nor to small fields. If they have only a small enclosure they are likely spend more time trying to get at what is outside than in browsing. To meet a wire fence every few steps makes a goat restive.
(2) Housing.—Goats must be kept dry overhead and under foot. The shelter for goats should be high and dry. They will not thrive in wet, marshy land, nor keep well if their shed is muddy. They dislike filth and will not stand in it nor touch soiled food. They prefer to sleep on the roof of the barn, you know, but if a clean, dry bed in an airy place is provided they will not roost so high.
(3) Water.—Plenty of clean fresh water should always be available.
If you can supply these three essentials, you are ready to raise goats.
There are two well-marked lines of business in goat raising. Which shall you follow?
Angoras are raised for their fleece; common goats either for leather or for milk. Angoras are not much good for milk and their skins are not so fine nor durable as those of common goats. The Angora is free from the offensive odour of common male goats. The greatest demand for goat products in our markets to-day is for Angora fleece and for common goat skins. The other products, like flesh, hoof, bones and horns, tallow, cheese, milk, and manure, can easily be marketed and should pay most of the expenses. The main products should be clear profit.