Pasturing. 129 



and other food for a day or more at times. This change 

 should be given on wet days, for goats do no good tethered 

 out in the rain ; they hate wet, if it be even a slight shower, 

 but in a heavy storm of wind and rain they go nearly 

 frantic, running round their tether in a furious manner, 

 bleating loudly all the time, and generally managing in 

 the end to loosen their tethering-pin sufficiently to be able 

 to get free, when they rapidly seek shelter. A goat does 

 not come to the harm on wet grass that a sheep will, 

 being less subject to the complaint known as " hove " 

 (caused by an excess of green-stuff in a saturated condi- 

 tion) than the latter; at the same time it is not good 

 for them, neither is the grass that has been pushed into 

 rapid and sappy growth by a series of soaking days in a 

 warm atmosphere. It is far better to mow down any over- 

 luxuriant verdure of this kind on a change to fine weather, 

 and to feed this in small quantities, with hay and corn, to 

 the animals when in the stable. Where a goat and a cow 

 are put on the same pasture economy is effected, for the 

 cow with its sweeping tongue soon takes off the overgrowth, 

 leaving the goat, which can bite much more closely, to 

 follow it after the rankest has been removed. 



It is a great mistake to put a goat for long on pasture 

 after being accustomed to dry food such as hay and corn, 

 more especially in the spring of the year, as the fresh 

 grass is sure to scour it, and often so seriously as to cause 

 death. The change should be made as gradually as 

 possible, starting with, say, a quarter of an hour or so in 

 the morning and afternoon at first, and extending it by 

 half an hour a day until the animal is thoroughly accus- 

 tomed to the new diet. rt Pasturing should not be attempted 

 before the middle of March, and should cease altogether 

 in the middle of September. An occasional run over the 

 field for about an hour now and then on fine days, and 

 when the ground is tolerably dry, is all that should be 



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