GOATS 403 



States, as reported in the census for 1900, represent- 

 ing a total value of $3,266,080. Besides these, there 

 were 78,353 goats reported for cities and villages, which 

 would bring the total up to 1,949,605 head. He estimates 

 the number of Angoras at 700,000, and the remainder, he 

 says, " are all sorts of animals except recognized breeds of 

 milch goats, of which there are so few as not to affect the 

 total materially." This is indeed a small number, but it 

 indicates the need as well as the possibilities of improve- 

 ment. 



European statistics give far more satisfactory results. 

 Germany had (in 1883), according to Dettweiler, 2,639,904 

 milch goats; Switzerland (in 1896) possessed 416,323 

 head (Stebler). Pegler, in his work (The Book of the 

 Goat), gives the following figures: France, 1,794,837; 

 Russia, 1,700,000; Austria, 979,104; Spain, 4,531,228; 

 Italy, 1,690,478, and the grand total for continental Europe 

 as 17,198,587 head. The Yearbook of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture for 1906, in its statistical 

 columns, gives the total number of goats for South Ameri- 

 can countries as 5,662,239 ; North and Central America, 

 6,296,192; Africa, 17,557,590; Asia, 40,557,402, while 

 Australia (total Oceanica) is marked down to a total of 

 only 114,865 head. 



494. History in America. As has been said, little 

 effort has been put forth to improve the common goat of 

 America, and no important milking strains or families 

 have been produced. It is only under the stimulus of 

 recent importations of some of the best European types 

 that interest in goats for milk production has sprung up. 

 The first importation on record was that of W. A. Shafor, 

 of Ohio, who brought over four Toggenburg goats in 1893. 

 The next importation of note was made by F. S. Peer, of 



