150 The 'Book of the Goat. 



Next to food and water, salt is most important for 

 maintaining health and condition. It assists digestion and 

 furnishes certain necessary elements to the blood. Goats, 

 like most herbivorous animals, are particularly fond of 

 salt, and will lick it with great relish for a length of time, 

 those in a wild state travelling long distances from their 

 usual haunts in order to obtain it. This article should 

 not be given occasionally, but constantly, a lump of rock- 

 salt being left at all times where access may be had to it 

 whenever desired. The larger the lump the better, as 

 small pieces often get lost, or are eaten whole, in which 

 case more is taken into the system than is really bene- 

 ficial. 



At certain periods of the year salt is more requisite 

 than at others ; in spring, for instance, when grass is 

 deficient in saline material, a small quantity of table salt 

 may with advantage be mixed with the provender. A 

 good way of giving salt to goats is to hang up in the stall 

 one of the rollers of compressed salt supplied by Spratt's 

 Patent, Ltd. These revolve on a spindle as they are 

 licked. The price is 6d. each. 



"Rations. 



The quantity of food to be given must depend on the 

 capacity of the particular animal, some being larger eaters 

 than others. Goats that are in full milk require to be 

 fed more than those that are going dry. According to a 

 French writer, M. Magne, the goats in the department 

 of Mont d'Or receive during summer four meals a day. 

 The first is given at about six o'clock in the morning, the 

 second at eleven, the third at four, and the last meal at 

 eight in the evening, the goats receiving, to begin with, 

 an armful of cut grass, clover, or tares, then chopped 

 roots or peelings of vegetables mixed with bran or ground- 

 up oil-cake and soaked with water, the third meal being 



