Preface to the Third Edition. 



RATHER more than ten years have elapsed since I 

 contributed to The Bazaar, Exchange and Mart the 

 series of articles on "Goats and their Management" 

 which were subsequently published in book form in the 

 First Edition of this work. Goats as milk-producers were 

 not generally recognised at that period, and it was in 

 consequence of the numerous queries that appeared in the 

 columns of the journal above mentioned, asking for 

 information on the treatment of these animals, that I 

 was induced to give my experience, in the hope that 

 others besides the actual querists might derive the advan- 

 tages from keeping them that I had myself acquired. I 

 had no idea, however, at the time that I was preparing 

 a work which would eventually appear under so important 

 a designation as " The Book of the Goat," and it was 

 only when it blossomed forth into its higher stage of 

 existence as a bound volume that I realised the insignifi- 

 cance of the material I had supplied in comparison with 

 the comprehensive nature of the title. It has ever since 

 been my hope that the subject I had taken up and made 

 my special hobby might one day become sufficiently 

 popular to warrant the publication of an enlarged edition, 

 which, by being treated in a more exhaustive manner, 

 would be better worthy of the name bestowed upon it. 

 That time has, I consider, arrived. The rapid strides by 

 which goat-keeping has advanced in the last few years 



