no 



even commended to the attention of the French landowners as a profitable 

 source from which butcher's meat, acceptable to the Arabs, might be supplied. 

 Mutton, which, as a rule, is scarce for the most part of the year, consists of 

 ram lambs at first, and later on of very old ewes, who have lost any value 

 as breeders. It is recommended that male kids be castrated and sold later 

 on as wether goats, at a time of the year when the meat market is generally 

 bare. Now, whilst as an article of diet, little objection can be raised to kid 

 even by the most fastidious natures, matured goat certainly calls for a 

 specially seasoned palate ; and yet if in Tunisia it is marketable, and ap- 

 parently profitable, there should be no difficulty in accommodating one's self 

 to existing circumstances. 



The Tunisian goat is quite distinct from the ordinary European goat, 

 being closely allied, apparently, to the better known Maltese goat. The 

 goats to be seen in the neighborhood of the cities are verv good milkers, 

 frequently averaging as much as a gallon of milk a day. The leather from 

 goat skin is very largely used locally in the manufacture of native foot wear 

 and other articles in common use. Goat hair enters into the manufacture 

 of various types of native clothes. 



CATTLE. 



The cattle-raising districts of Tunisia are situated chiefly in the north of 

 the Regency, where a moderately heavy rainfall usually leads to very fair 

 grazing conditions for five or six months of the year. In the summer months, 

 however, once the stubbles have been eaten out and trodden under foot, 

 the unfortunate beasts have to hustle for a living. The Arabs, it has already 

 been stated, do not feel called upon to make special provision of forage for 

 purely grazing animals. Providence and the unaided natural fruitfulness 

 of the earth is supposed to take care of the latter. Hence, the little heaps 

 of chopped straw and chaff, the residues of harvesting operations, are always 

 kept back to support the working bullocks at ploughing time ; since the latter 

 can hardly be expected to take part in heavy manual labor and hunt for food 

 at one and the same time. Consequently, beasts fat in the spring rapidly lose 

 flesh with the approach of hot weather, and the young are almost invariably 

 stunted in growth. In years of extreme drought the Arab owner is com- 

 pelled either to sell his beasts for a mere song, or else see them slowly die 

 of starvation. 



The French authorities are inclined to make it a matter of reproach to the 

 Arabs that they do not put their cattle under cover at night. They appear 

 to infer that exposure to rough weather must necessarily prove injurious to 

 the cattle, as is the case in colder countries. It is difficult to subscribe to this 

 view. Tunisian winters are quite as mild as our own, and if the cattle were 

 well fed, exposure to the weather would do no more than harden them. 



