tion should be given the milch goat as is customary in well kept cow dairies. 



The goat has been given too much credit as to being able to thrive upon 

 "any old thing." Its playfulness in removing labels from tin cans, pulling 

 clothes from a line and many such pranks has led some people to believe 

 that it really eats such things, but any person accustomed to its habits will 

 readily see that it eats nothing but the cleanest of food, refusing anything 

 that is soiled in the least. The hardiness of this animal must not be over- 

 drawn, but there is no doubt but that the milch goat will thrive and be very 

 profitable to its owner on far less expensive feed and be contented with less 

 care than any other farm animal. 



There are very few diseases that . effect goats of any kind. Possibly 

 the disease that gives the most trouble is called Malta fever, which occurs 

 in the tropical and sub-tropical climates. The following extract on Malta 

 fever is from a lecture by Dr. J. W. H. Eyre, bacteriologist to Guy's hos- 

 pital, England, delivered in March, 1909, before the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians of London. This lecture is copied from "The Book of the Goat," by 

 H. S. Holmes Pegler, honorable secretary of British Goat Society. 



Dr. Eyre is of the opinion that "Melitensis septicoemia (Malta fever) 

 is primarily a disease of the goat which had its origin in the Persian hills 

 (the Persian wild goat, Capra oegagnus) and which accompanied that goat 

 on its world-wide wanderings, remaining potentially active for man so long 

 as its host preserved its original habits in barren rocky countries in the 

 tropics and subtropics, where pasturage is of the scantiest, and consists 

 chiefly of shrubs and weeds. When, however, the goat reaches those tem- 

 perate climes and abundant pasturage which are so pre-eminently suitable 

 for the propagation of the cow and promiscuous inbreeding is entirely 

 avoided, the micrococcus no longer finds -a suitable habitat in the caprine 

 mammary glands, and rapidly disappears." 



Dr. Eyre further states that no case is on record of any person having 

 been attacked by this disease from drinking the milk of goats in England. 



From the foregoing it must be argued that there can be no danger what- 

 soever from drinking milk from Swiss breeds of goats if the goats are 

 given proper care the same as would be given to milch cows, for the dis- 

 ease of Malta fever is essentially a disorder found only among goats im- 

 ported from a tropic or subtropic country where conditions are such that 

 feed is exceedingly scarce, and where no attention is given to the proper 

 care or breeding of the goats. 



Malta fever is not found among the Swiss breeds of goats, nor in those 

 latitudes of Europe where the temperature drops below the degree of frost. 

 California Cultivator. 



MANAGEMENT OF THE GOAT DAIRY 



IN speaking of a goat dairy, the goats themselves are of course the most 

 important feature, but next to them, a modern goat barn is a necessity 

 in the operation of a good milch goat dairy, but is not necessarily an 

 expensive structure. It should be convenient, well lighted and ventilated 

 and its dimensions can be regulated by the size of the flock. The milch 



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