Chapter IX. 



Cross-bred Coats. 



THERE is such a vast number of cross-bred goats that 

 it is advisable to offer some remarks upon the crosses 

 that may most advantageously be made. From my own 

 experience, excepting the Toggenburg, I do not consider 

 that for practical purposes a pure specimen is always the 

 best. Of course, when for any special object it is 

 required that a variety should be kept pure, as in breed- 

 ing Angoras for their mohair, for instance, it is a 

 different matter; but as far as milk goes, a cross-bred 

 goat, so long as it possesses a good milking pedigree, 

 is quite equal to one of pure blood. I have rarely, 

 however, found it satisfactory to breed a short-haired with 

 a long-haired goat, and therefore do not recommend an 

 English and Irish cross. The produce is generally a 

 nondescript kind of animal, with long hair on the ridge of 

 the back and on the hind legs, and sometimes a good deal 

 under the belly. The horns are usually long and coarse, 

 and more branching than the Irish, though the general 

 appearance of the latter predominates. 



The cross between the English and the Nubian has 

 already been described (see pages 28 to 32), but other 

 crosses have been tried in England, such as that between 

 the English and Toggenburg, the English and Saanen, 

 and the Toggenburg and Alpine, many of which have 



