IMPORTED MII.K GOATS 11 



spreading cities and towns, of small homes set in rather 

 generous spaces, homes that more and more tend toward 

 the economic independence of a garden, chickens — and 

 a milk goat. So that the demand from the beginning has 

 constantly outrun the supply, although conditions were 

 so favorable for increasing the supply. 



But the factor that has probably counted most in the 

 rapid development of the California herds was the pres- 

 ence in that state and adjacent regions of the large num- 

 bers of " native " Mexican goats, whose origin we have 

 already noted. Although these animals since their im- 

 portation into America had received very little atten- 

 tion as to care or breeding, still thej^ certainly are in the 

 main a better type of milk goat than the " back alley " 

 goat of our other states, and respond more readily to the 

 process of " grading up " by the use of Swiss bucks. It 

 has been stated by a member of the Mexican State De- 

 partment of Agricidture that at the time of the early 

 Spanish settlements in America Spain was in close com- 

 mercial touch with Austria, and that she had drawn 

 largely upon the Austrian Tyrol for the goats exported 

 to America. If this is true, these Mexican goats of to- 

 day would trace their origin to the same Alpine stock 

 from which originally the Saanens and Toggenburgs 

 sprung. This common origin of race might well account 

 for the success with which these Mexican does grade up 



