1'02-The 'Book of the Goat. 



handsome lop ears and close shiny coat which make the 

 kids such perfect little pictures. After all, purity of breed 

 is a small matter in goat-keeping, and a person who can 

 secure a strain of goats that breeds milking-prize winners 

 will soon get a demand for stock at fancy prices, whether 

 they be English, Toggenburgs, Alpines, Anglo-Nubians, 

 Anglo- Nubian- Saanens, or other crosses. If we except the 

 Toggenburgs, nobody bothers about pure blood, but every- 

 body is keen to get good milkers of the popular type, 

 which is a short-haired, hornless goat with a long body, 

 slender neck, neat head having either pricked or drooping 

 ears, and above all a big udder. Such goats win their 

 prizes at shows and fetch their .15 and ,20, and no one 

 cares whether they are pure-bred or absolute mongrels, so 

 long as they have traceable pedigrees to milking families. 



Ad-Vice at Starting. 



Considerable advantage may be derived by keeping two 

 goats instead of one, the .amount of time and trouble 

 required being scarcely any greater, whereas the profit 

 derived is more than double. The best plan is to begin 

 by purchasing one that has just kidded, and when that is 

 becoming dry, to procure another just about to kid ; by 

 this means a good supply of milk will always be kept up. 



As some goats are spiteful and bad-tempered, and con- 

 sequently troublesome, especially at first, to milk, if those 

 who are to have the care of them are women or children 

 it would be best to begin by purchasing a female kid 

 about six months old, always supposing, of course, that 

 you are not in immediate want of milk and can afford 

 to wait a year before she becomes productive; by doing 

 this you get an animal which will soon, by kindness and 

 good keeping, become as tame and docile as a lamb, being 

 almost as much attached to its master or mistress as a dog. 

 In such a case it is more than ever necessary to buy from 



