MILCH GOAT DAIRY 



By G. H. WICKERSHAM 



IF there is one feature of agriculture more worthy of development than 

 another it is the milch goat industry. Goats have been associated with 



man dating back as far as our most ancient history. In the scriptures 

 goats milk is mentioned more frequently than any other kind of milk, show- 

 ing that it has been used as an article of food for mankind from the most 

 remote period. Three of the most important requisites of ancient man were 

 supplied him by the goat; they were meat, milk and clothing, and in many 

 countries today the goat is the chief sustainer of the inhabitants. 



The milch goat industry in the United States is a comparatively new 

 one, having received very little attention in this country prior to 1909, 

 owing to various reasons. First of these reasons possibly is due to the 

 fact that to secure importations from the countries where the best milk 

 producing stock were to be had was almost impossible, as the inhabitants 

 of these countries were loath to sell any of their stock to importers, just 

 as it has been in securing and importing the Angora goats from Turkey 

 and the countries where the best of its kind was to be had. Second: The 

 importation of goats is forbidden or so hedged about with restrictions of 

 the department of agriculture that there is great difficulty in securing the 

 number of pure bred animals which breeders would like to have, but with 

 the stock received prior to the laying of the quarantine some excellent 

 milking strains are being developed. Third: The foolish ridicule that has 

 always been attached to anything bearing the name of "Goat," has kept 

 its true value as a milk producing animal more in seclusion, but since it 

 has become an evident fact that the Angora goat industry is a grand suc- 

 cess and is securely established throughout the country in general, many 

 people have very naturally cast aside the idea that ALL goats are worth- 

 less and were guilty of making old shoes and tin cans their chief article 

 of diet. 



There has been so much of ridicule attached to the goat for some un- 

 known reason that people here have been slow to accept them. However 

 ithey are beginning to come into their own, and a person can confess that 

 he uses goat milk without fear of a sneer or a funny look greeting him. 

 Physicians are helping along, for they prescribe goat's milk for babies and 

 invalids when nothing else agrees with them. The people of the United 

 States are at last beginning to wake up to the possibilities of the milch 

 goat. We are the last civilized country to raise goats for milk purposes, 

 for every other country from Bible days down have known them. Germany, 

 Italy, Spain and Switzerland, where they are brought to their best and 

 from where our best goats are imported. People of moderate circumstances 

 in the suburbs of our cities are asking whether they can do better by keep- 

 ing milch goats. The poorer classes of these suberbs, to whom milk is a 



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