130-The 'Book of the Goat. 



permitted during winter, and then only after a meal of 

 hay or corn. 



Soil and Grasses. 



Another important consideration in regard to pasturage 

 is the soil. Goats seldom do well on a stiff clay and never 

 on a marshy kind of ground, so that, except during the 

 driest days of summer, it is far better not to put them on 

 grass at all if the soil is of this description. Gravel will 

 do very well, but the best soil is chalk. Besides the com- 

 parative dryness of the latter, the herbage that thrives 

 upon it, and which at the same time never grows to rank 

 luxuriance, is the kind of which the goat is most fond. 

 Amongst this may be mentioned the Festuca ovina, or 

 Sheep's Fescue, a short, fine grass, which grows in a tuft 

 at its roots, and pushes up delicate stems rarely exceeding 

 1 2m. in height. This grass abounds on the highlands 

 of Scotland, the mountainous parts of Wales, and 

 on many of the downs in .England. Two other kinds of 

 the same genus, viz., the Hard Fescue (Festuca durius- 

 culd) and the Red Fescue (Festuca rubra), are also 

 favourite grasses of goats. When a goat is able to roam 

 about and choose its pasture, it can correct any redun- 

 dance of one kind of herbage, which alone might have a 

 prejudicial effect, by a change to another sort having an 

 opposite tendency . This it is unable to do when 

 tethered. 



Tethering. 



This is performed by means of a chain, one end of 

 which is fastened to a u tethering-pin," and theother slipped 

 into a spring-hook attached to the collar or head-stall of the 

 goat. I must here remark that these animals being very 

 powerful, whatever is used to secure them, either in the 

 stable or out of doors, should be of the strongest kind. 



