GOAT STATIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 585, 14 February 1863, Page 3

GOAT STATIONS.

(From the Sydney Empire.) Having in New South Wales an immense scope ofmoimtainous country almost wlully unoccupied, it becomes a question of some importance whether it is capable of being turned to profitable account. Lying, as i° does for the most part, between the settled districts on the sea coast and the great pastoral interior, it is situated generally at no great distance from the chief centres of population. The difficulty of access, theiefore, forms the only bar to the u->e thereof for any purposes to which it may be naturally susceptible. But although this precludes the growth of agricultural produce, except for consumption on the spot, it presents no serious obstacle to the raising of live stock, provided that a description of animals can be found to which the habitat is suitable, and which in themselves possess a fiir marketable value. These could be made— if capable at ail of being multiplied at a profit — to carry, without detriment to the anhmls themselves, or much trouble to their owners, their carcases, or their fleeces, to the vicinage of a railway terminus. But the qu. stun recurs as to whether this vast scope of mountainous country can h: turned to jrood account in the m-nmer indicated, and, if st). w'lat kind of stock or description of animals a? c the best adapted for the purpose ? What knowledge wo have as yet upon this head is d rived from accidental circumstances mther than from experiments designedly conducted, \et it may help us to some conclusion?, as wIII as point out the direction in which enterprise has a fair prosppct of slices. Thus it has been found that horned cattle or oxen, if long kept upon mountain runs, botray a tendency to wildness and to degeneracy in respect to those qualities which fit them lor the use of man. Whilst their general healthiness is improved, and even the osseous and muscular structure of the animal invigorated, the propensity to fatten and other useful properties aro d'imi nished, insomuch that even for breeding p irposes stations in such situations soon cease to be occupied to advantige. The same causes, also have been soen to militate against the continued production of horse stock. And as to sheep, besides being unthrifty in such localities, owinr to the grossness of the pasturage, they are found to be liable to disease from other causes peculiar to the situation.

In, regard, l then, to the pursuit and ordinary forms of pastoral industry and enterprise, our mountainous country may be looked upon as next to useless. It seems to us, however, that there is one purpose which the above pursuits have not hitherto included in this colony, but to which the kind of country in question will yet prove to be richly applicable, namely, the breeding of goats on a large scale. This not having been heretofore done or attempted, forms no reason/ why, if favored by natural facilities and properly carried out, it should not turn out to be a great success. So far as it has been tried on a small scale, incidentally rather than by way of experiment, the raising of this description of domestic animals in regions such as those alluded to, has been attended with encouraging results. Goats have shown an aptitude to fatten where any otherkind of stock would starve, choosing as their favorite food vines, shrubs, and various species of rough grasses rejected by the natural appetites of everything else, and upon which no other quadruped!, s capable of existing,

The superior condition attained by this class of stock in such situations must have come under the observation of persons who have travelled in the interior, not, perhaps, without exciting their surprise that the breeding of them is not more generally pursued with a view to commercial profit. As it is at present practised, a small flock of goats, most frequently under a score in number, and seldom or never exceeding a hundred, are allowed to run at large over the waste portion of an estate and the adjacent scrubs and eminences. The garden, orchard, and vinery being securely fenced against them, there is little to apprehend from their trespasses in other ways ; neither do they stand in need of herding for protection sake, or to bring them to the homestead at night. Equally finiid as the sheep, but far more sagacious and fleet, they are too much in the dread of the native dog to absent themselves from human guardianship at night, whilst they are better able to elude the attacks of their canine enemies in the day time. At the slightest warning of danger the gouts troop towards their owner's dwelling; a filling tree, or a coming storm, or any unusuil noisi, sends them to seek a refuge at home at once. Whether this desirable sense of dependence on human protection, coupled as it 13 in them with a degree of self-providence that exempts the sale-keeping of them from all trouble on the part of their owners, would remain with a flock of goats in a multipl-'ei has not hitherto been exemplified. There would seem, however, to be some grounds for supposing that, instead of bjing lessened by a greater degree of training and cultivation, the habit of reporting to our guardianship at the approach of danger, or at night time, whilst trusting to self-preserva-tion during their daily excursion in quest of food, is capable ol being confirmed and continued.

If, then, a class of animals requiring so little manual care and labor in providing°for their protection and sustenance — animals winch will maintain health and vigor, and acquire flesh and fatness, in situations and under circumstances to which no other description of stock is adapted— if, in a word, goats in any numbers can be raised in our wide mountain regions, is it not worthy of enquiry whether this circumstance may not be carried to a profitable account ? Judging of what we have seen of the benefits derived from small nocKS of goats by settlers in the interior, and the almost unlimited extent to which similar advantages may be reaped through the multiplication of them, we incline t 0 the belief that even the commonest kind might be propagated in places where nothing else would thrive for the production of tallow.

It is generally known that the tallow procurable from goats is quite equal both in quantity and quality, to that obtained from the common kind of sheep. It is much to be preferred, indeed for candle making, to the fat of sheep, being considerably firmer in ita substance, and better colored. At an establishment in the bush with which some years ago we were acquainted, and where a flock of goats was kept in the manner hereinbefore described, the goat tallow was exclusively used in preferen.ee ft fhat of gjjeep, both for

culinary purposes and candle-making. It may be adJed, also, that it was found to af/ord an ample supply, the three-year-old wethers of the flock, when killed averaijing_ from (501b. to 70lb. in weight, out of which there was always a large proportion of caul and kidney fat. * And on the same establishment, likewise, the goat mutton was invariably reserved as a matter of deliberate and luxurious choice, for the master's table, being esteemed more juicy in substance, and at the same time more delicate in its flavor, than the mutton of sheep. From these frets it is obvious that a much larger use could be made by settlers in the bush of this class of animals than they seem at present to be aware of; and especially in arid and barren localities. But the question suggests itself, moreover, whether the facilities which such facts indicate cannot be made available for wider purposes of commercial profit? Are there not grounds for assuming that the propagation on a large scale of even the common variety of goats "would prove to be a lucrative undertaking, provided that mountain areas which would otherwise be unproductive could bo made use of for the purpose, at a nominal rent to the Crown ? And what is to hinder the introduction ultimately of the Cashmere or Angora goats into the same region, thus adding a new staple to our exportable products without drawing upon our existent pastoral resources, but solely through the conversion of what is now a barren waste into a scene of animal life and remunerative industry ? There is nothing impiobable in the prospect nor impracticable in the preliminary stages, of the enterprise to which it refers. 'All that is required towards its realization^ our opinion, is adequate capital, spirit, energy, and'perseverancc on the part ot individual speculators, met by suitable encouragement on the part of the Go\ eminent in rega'-d to the occupancy on^sasy terms of waste lands adapted to the object in view. This, if gratuitously granted at firht, in promotion of so desirable an end, ciuld be open to no object ion. The pro-vi-ions of the Land Act?, as they now stand, would scarcely apply to the requirements of the case, yet the requisite change of the law as respects the ococcup'ition of mpuufiiiu tracts would, doubtless, on o.'caMon arising and proper application to the Legislature, 'be attended with little difuculty. C.M t duly the profit ible occupation and productive u^c of the vast scope of mountiinous country lying within the limits of New SouHi Wales, by whitcver means it can b-' brought about, must hi to us an object o? no small concern, its importance 'would scarcely admit of exaggeration, however, should it be found capable of being efrected in the nia-mer adverte-l to. We have called attention to the subject in the bone that our rcsourc \s in this direction may have additional chance of b.'iug inquired into aud experimented upon.