186 The Boofc of the Goat, 



comfort to the animal resembling more the action of a 

 kid sucking and taking up less time. With some goats, 

 however, it cannot well be accomplished, the teats being so 

 small as to afford no permanent grasp for the hand, and 

 therefore stripping must be. performed. The latter opera- 

 tion, however, is always resorted to at the termination of 

 the milking to extract the last drops, it being easier and 

 more effective for that purpose than nievling. Many 

 persons also commence with it, and continue until the milk 

 flows freely, when the other process is resorted to. 



But milking cannot well be learnt from any written 

 instructions. I would therefore advise the novice to get his 

 milkman or some other proficient person to come once or 

 twice a day for a week or ten days, and to watch him per- 

 form the operation, proceeding afterwards with it himself 

 under the man's supervision until he has so far mastered 

 the. art as to be able to milk "clean," as it is termed 

 i.e., to draw every drop from the udder. He must not be 

 disheartened if at first the milk comes very slowly and 

 only after great exertion on his part; this difficulty will 

 soon disappear as he gets more accustomed to the work. 

 He should practise on a tame, quiet animal with a gentle 

 disposition, as some are very troublesome with strangers, 

 holding back their milk for a considerable time, and then 

 only giving it in a fine thread-like stream, which means a 

 long while to complete the process. Goats with good-sized 

 teats are more easy to milk than those with small ones, 

 and should therefore, if possible, be procured to learn 

 on, though the freedom of the flow is not governed by the 

 size of the teat. 



Two important points are to be borne in mind in 

 milking viz., to milk quickly and to milk " clean." The 

 former is necessary for two reasons : first, more milk 

 is said to be obtained when rapidly drawn ; and, secondly, 

 a goat will often get impatient when the operation 



