104 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA EXPERIMENT STATION 



around these houses should be dry and clean. Very valuable goats 

 are preferably kept in box-stalls, of a dimension of 4 x 5 ft. The sides 

 are composed of one-inch boards placed two inches apart until a height 

 of three feet; above that they are three inches apart. The sides are 

 about four feet six inches high. A goat house can be made of box 

 stalls surrounding an indoor corral ; this is very convenient where a 

 considerable number of goats are kept, especially when the weather is 

 disagreeable. .Some goat keepers only have a couple of box stalls, 

 in which case a square box-like shed can be built. In such an arrange- 

 ment a wooden bench on which the goats may sleep at night is put 

 about two feet above the ground. The goat does not care to rest upon 

 soft litter. If straw is provided it will often be scratched away until 

 a hard place is reached. Litter is often necessary to absorb the urine, 

 and nothing better than sawdust for this purpose can be found under 

 California conditions. 



MILKING 



It is advisable to milk the goat in a place apart from the barn or 

 shed where the does are kept, on account of odors. Either a room 

 boarded off from the remainder of the barn or a milking stand erected 

 in the open does very nicely in this state. 



Goats are usually milked on a milking stand large enough for 

 the doe to stand upon, and placed about 2y 2 feet from tfie floor or 

 ground. At one end of this stand is a stanchion which fastens the 

 doe while being milked. Before milking the doe should be brushed 

 with a stiff brush and her udder wiped with a damp cloth. 



Care of Milk. As soon as the milk is drawn it should be removed 

 from the goat house, strained and put in a cool place. If promptly 

 cooled to below 60 the milk will keep for several days. 



In order to secure definite information as to the milk production 

 of does it is advisable to make a practice of weighing the milk regu- 

 larly one day each month. By multiplying the yield by the number 

 of days in the month and adding the products for each month in the 

 lactation period, a very satisfactory measure of the milk yield during 

 the period will be obtained. 



PKICE OF GOATS 



Prices of milch goats vary from $5.00 for does of unknown breed- 

 ing and no particular milking capacity, up to $300 or more for pure- 

 bred animals. High-class grade females bring from $15.00 to $35.00 

 at five months of age. Pure-bred bucks and does of good breeding 

 will bring up to $75 at the same age. 



