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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



\\ith straw till they dry off. after which the doe should be milked and the kids 

 fed out of a bottle^or taught to drink out of a pan. Some people prefer to leave the 

 kids with the mother for three or four days, but it is harder then to get them to 

 take milk from a bottle or pan. In feeding kids by the bottle, the best plan is to 



be Hygeia teat, or similar style, which fits over the usual milk-bottle. The hole 

 in the teat should be enlarged by passing through it a piece of red-hot wire about the 

 size of a fine knitting-needle. For the first week 14 pint should be fed four or five 

 times daily: after this three times a day will do. gradually increasing the quantity. 

 After the second or third week, oatmeal water or calf-meal and water, warmed, may 

 take the place of pan of the milk if the latter is required for personal use. Kids 



begin to nibble at brush and hay, and after the third week should also have 

 bran or shorts where they can get it without interference from older goats ; they are 

 usually weaned when six to eight weeks old. If they have been allowed to run with 



Young Toggenburg back " Don Hermes." eight 

 Courtesy of H. \V. Barker, McKay 



months. 



their dam it is difficult to wean them, as goats become very much attached to their 

 ring and will allow them to suck until full-grown. Kids which it is intended 

 t> keep for breeding should be allowed milk as long as possible. It does not pay to 

 raise buck kids which are not of pure breeding and from good milking stock, as they 

 take more in milk before weaning than they are worth in meat for a long time after. 



MILKING. 



A- goats have usually smaller teats than cows, they are usually milked by 

 stripping the teat between the thumb and forefinger. Absolute cleanliness, of co 



--eutial when milking. The goat should be milked dry each time, because she 

 will soon decrease in yield if milk is left in the udder, which should be well massaged 

 to get the last drop; the last-drawn milk is the richest. Milking should be done 



