THE ANGORA AND MILKING GOATS. 323 



friended him for most of this time by sharing 

 their milk with him. Therefore the milking 

 habit has been well fixed in certain types of 

 goats. 



It is doubtless true that goats make better use 

 of their food than cows, and turn more of it 

 into milk. Therefore from the standpoint of 

 economy goats make milk better and cheaper 

 than cows. Furthermore, goats are almost 

 never attacked with tuberculosis and their milk 

 is said to have tonic properties of especial value 

 to children. Then there is the fact that a goat 

 is very much smaJler than a cow, is easily shel- 

 tered, is tractable, requires but one^eighth as 

 much food, and is in many ways better adapted 

 to village or suburban life. 



Taking these facts into consideration it is 

 surprising that we have not had a larger devel- 

 opment of the milch goat in America. There 

 are two principal reasons : the incapacity of the 

 average American for independence and self 

 help, and his false pride that makes him fear 

 ridicule if he adopts a practice that is followed 

 by his poorer neighbors. Near many cities 

 there are colonies of European emigrants who 

 make more or less use of the goat as a milk-giv- 

 ing animal. Many a well-to-do suburbanite 

 could follow his example with profit and gain 

 great comfort from the assurance of his pure 

 supply of milk, produced under his own eye. 



The writer has often seen cottagers in the 

 old world employ goats for this purpose of 

 milk-giving. Very often they would be teth- 

 ered near the dwelling and children would 



