[231] 



were not yet full size, but sufficiently grown to give the 

 surroundings the green and attractive appearance peculiar 

 to spring. 



The way the goats went for the briers and bushes demon- 

 strated at once that the right kind of stock was in the right 

 place. They soon found the cliff of rocks, where there was 

 a good shelter from storms and a nice shade from the sum- 

 mer sun, and at this place they have made their home, or 

 headquarters, ever since; and they were so well suited with 

 the place that it was six or eight months before they found 

 out that they were surrounded by a fence, for they had not 

 yet made a track within fifty rods of either end of the pas- 

 ture, having paid their respects exclusively to the briars 

 and bushes in their immediate vicinity. But in the second 

 year, when the briers and bushes failed them in the pasture, 

 they found their way through the fence on the back side, 

 and still continue to run on the side-hill above the lot, but 

 always come down to the cliffs in the pasture at night. I 

 have found these strongly marked differences between sheep 

 and goats : 



First. Goats will not feed on clover or other tame grasses 

 when they have free access to briers and bushes. Goats 

 kept on tame grass and clover pastures, and treated in win- 

 ter as Vermonters treat their sheep, do not make a success. 

 The goat is a browsing animal, and delights in a warm 

 climate and high land. 



Second. Sheep, with good clover and other tame grasses, 

 will not disturb bushes or briers; yet it is quite true that, 

 in the absence of tame grasses, sheep will exist on briers, 

 bushes, etc. 



Such being the facts, goats have the preference in the 

 Cumberland mountains, for the reason that the tame grasses 

 are here in very limited quantities, while the favorite feed 

 for the goats is practically without limit, and does not cost 

 a penny. The first winter I commenced to feed my goats 

 about Christmas, and to the seventy I fed a four-quart 



