20 THE GOAT. 



In the British Islands, the number of Goats has been con- 

 tinually diminishing, with the extension of sheep, and the 

 progress of agriculture. In the Highlands of Scotland, they 

 used to be very numerous, but are now confined to a few of 

 the remoter districts, where their milk is employed for the 

 making of cheese. Wales long abounded in Goats : they are 

 now in small and decreasing numbers, and the finer and 

 larger kinds have been lost. But in Ireland, there are still 

 great numbers of Goats, scattered throughout the country, 

 and kept by the poorer inhabitants for supplying them with 

 milk. The Goats of Ireland are many of them very fine : those 

 of Kerry and the other mountain districts, resemble the best 

 Goats of the Mediterranean, and even exceed them in size. 



In this country, it is chiefly for the supply of the domestic 

 dairy that the Goat can be regarded as of economical value. 

 This arises from the want of demand for the flesh, even for 

 that of the kid, which is so delicate. Were it otherwise, the 

 Goat could be cultivated in the mountainous parts of the 

 country with perhaps greater advantage than the Sheep. 

 The hair of the Goat is indeed less valuable than wool, yet 

 the skin is of greater value than that of the Sheep. The 

 animals, too, are more hardy, and exempt from those fatal 

 diseases which yearly destroy so great a proportion of the 

 Sheep of the higher countries. The Goat, too, is more easily 

 maintained, especially in countries of heath, and the females 

 are more prolific. But an insurmountable objection exists to 

 the extension of the husbandry of the Goat, from the want of 

 all demand for the flesh of the fattened animal. Yet if the 

 caprice of taste could be reconciled to the use of the kid, the 

 Goat could be kept for the rearing of her young as a substi- 

 tute for the house-lambs, now produced at so much cost. 

 The females, in this case, could be made to yield their kids at 

 any season. They could be kept in houses and fed on the 

 commonest hay, with occasional portions of turnips or green 

 food of any kind. They could be maintained at less expense 

 than the Sheep ; and as they are more prolific, and yield a 



