GOATS 409 
milk-producing quality. While it has thus far been of 
relative unimportance in this country for its milk, this is 
not true in many other lands. In Switzerland, milch 
goats are commonly called the “ poor man’s cows,” and 
well they may, as they take the place of cows not only 
because of their cheapness and the comparatively low cost 
of their keep, but also because they enable poor persons 
to enjoy the advantages usually derived by the better 
situated classes from their cattle, under conditions abso- 
lutely prohibitive to the successful maintenance of milch 
cows. In that mountainous land, three or four well-kept 
milch goats of good breeding are commonly rated equal in 
milk-producing qualities to an average cow, and six to 
eight goats may be kept on the quantity of feed required for 
one cow. It should also be borne in mind that two or three 
goats properly managed will provide a steady supply of milk 
the year round, while the single cow does not. Goats also 
are not nearly so susceptible to the diseases that have 
proved to be such dangerous enemies to mankind, from 
the fact that they can be transmitted by cow’s milk. It is 
generally held that goat’s milk is much more wholesome 
than cow’s milk. Goat’s milk may be used fresh or cooked, 
just as cow’s milk, and is recommended as preferable for 
infants and invalids by the best medical authorities. 
Milch goats are most productive at four to eight years of 
age, and may live to be twelve or more years old. 
Dr. Kohlschmidt’s experiments on the milk-yield of 
goats, conducted with twenty-four animals in Saxony, 
demonstrated an average yearly quantity of 725.7 litres a 
head. The highest yield ascertained by him was 1077.5 
litres; the lowest, 612.37 litres; the average per cent of 
butter-fat obtained was 3.43 per cent (maximum 4.41 per 
cent). Huart du Plessis cites the example of a pure-bred 
