Pasturing. 127 



chief goat-keeping districts of France. There a great 

 number of these animals are maintained entirely in stables 

 without so much as a day's grazing in the whole of their 

 lives, yet they thrive well, give a quantity of milk (which 

 is utilised for cheese-making), and live for many years. 

 I have had opportunities of comparing goats kept in the 

 country by persons who have a garden with an acre or so 

 of* grass with other goats in London, where they are nearly 

 always in a stable with merely the run of a mews or a 

 back-yard, and the latter always seem to be less subject 

 to disease and to live longer. The only drawback 

 where there is no grass or garden is the extra cost of 

 feeding. No one, however, need hesitate about keeping a 

 goat if he has a dry shed or stable in which to place it, 

 and a good-sized garden to supply some green food. This 

 latter is an important adjunct, for a goat should have 

 some succulent diet if a large yield is to be obtained, 

 although it does not require to be pastured. When all has 

 to be bought, however, it comes expensive. 



There is a great deal of misconception in regard to 

 pasturage for a goat, as I have already hinted. It is 

 commonly said that a goat will live and thrive where most 

 other such animals would starve; this refers no doubt 

 to goats that live a semi-wild life on steep escarpments 

 and elevated plateaus of mountain ranges where herbage is. 

 short and sweet, though scanty ; but the converse also holds, 

 good, that on a rich pasture where cows would yield 

 abundance of milk, and sheep fatten, a goat would be very 

 likely to sicken and die. 



A goat loves grazing, but it requires constant change of 

 pasturage, and it soon becomes ill if repeatedly put to 

 feed on the same plot of grass ; hence it is that a lawn or 

 an orchard which is too small to allow of such changes 

 being made does not suit these animals. They may do 

 well on it for a certain period, varying from three, months 



