CHAPTER X 



MOTHER NATURE'S GOAT 



Fallacy of " Natural " Methods. — In this country, 

 where the milk goat indu'^try is new, one frequently 

 hears, in discussions of the care and management of 

 milk goats, the phrases, " A goat naturally does so and 

 so," or, " Nature intended the goat to be thus or other- 

 wise." No fallacy could be more harmful to the develop- 

 ment of the dairy goat than the belief that we can look 

 to Nature for guidance in her care. This is equally true 

 of the dairy cow. Nature intended the milk of all the 

 mammals for the use of their offspring alone. To re- 

 move the offspring, to increase and prolong the flow of 

 milk for other purposes, this is perhaps of all imaginable 

 proceedings the most mmatural and artificial, and the 

 dairy cow or goat thus developed is correspondingly the 

 least natural, and the most artificial, and the most de- 

 pendent upon her creator, man, of all the animals in the 

 world. The fallacies that have arisen from this "nature" 

 talk can perhaps be most forcibly illustrated by giving 

 an imaginary chapter from the life of a goat whose " care 

 and management " is wholly in the hands of 

 Mother Nature, 



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