was made to change to cows' milk, because the available supply of goats' 

 milk was insufficient, but the baby could not retain it. 



The color of goats' milk is nearly always pure white when a doe is 

 "fresh" or has recently kidded. There are rare instances when the milk 

 is tinged slightly with a yellow color. 



ECONOMY OF KEEPING MILCH GOATS 



THAT goats' milk can be produced at much less cost than that of cows' 

 milk is a great factor in favor of the milch goat. It has been thor- 

 oughly demonstrated that for the same amount of feed that one 

 cow would require, eight milking goats can be kept. These eight goats 

 will give more good rich milk than any two average cows, that is, the 

 average dairy goat will give about two quarts a day, so the eight goats 

 will give sixteen quarts of milk equal in richness to that of thirty-two 

 quarts of cows' milk. The reader may easily draw a comparison between 

 the profits of the milch goat and that of the cow as butter fat producers 

 by multiplying the yields of one goat by eight. As a rule six to eight 

 goats may be kept in very good milk producing condition on the same 

 amount and the same kind of feed required to keep one cow. 



Milch goats do not require an expensive stable or large pastures as is 

 required by the cow. They may be sheltered in most any kind of a build- 

 ing or shed that might be available. It is not necessary to live on a farm 

 in order to engage in breeding, raising or conducting a milch goat dairy, 

 as these animals are contented with a small yard when given plenty of 

 dry shelter, feed and kind treatment and adapt themselves as well to city 

 life as when roaming over large pastures. This enables the goat dairy- 

 man to produce the milk near to the market. If a person has only a back 

 yard on a city lot, enough food can usually be procured on this amount of 

 ground to keep two or three goats almost the year round. Their food con- 

 sists of almost everything in the vegetable kingdom. They prefer a large 

 variety of vegetation, consisting of browse, weeds, and all grasses. 



This preference to a varied diet gives the milch goat a great advan- 

 tage over most any other domestic animal as regards economy, as weeds, 

 grass and shrubbery can most always be found about the average city 

 residence and upon the farm and can not be used in any other way, but 

 would be otherwise destroyed; even leaves that fall from the trees are 

 eagerly sought after. They prefer most kinds of weeds to grass when 

 they can have their choice, and when snipping off the grass they will 

 always take the tallest and coarsest . first. Thus it can be seen that milch 

 goats are a good destroyer of weeds, and objectionable grasses. Of course 

 an entire diet of rank herbage would be likely to give the milk and unpleasant 

 taste just as it would cows' milk if the cows were to eat such vegetation, 

 but for stock not milking, let them eat what they will. 



Hoffman, in his book on the goat, says that 75 per cent of the house- 

 holds in Germany are now keeping milch goats and is not confined alto- 

 gether to the poorer classes, but the prosperous middle classes consider the 

 milch goat of great value to them in furnishing good nutritious milk. 



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