Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1862-02-28
A AGRICULTURE AL.
About Keeping Goats.


superior quality. A goat, well kept, vii
yield from three pnts to two quarts OF mill
daily, for a large part Of the year, the guam
tity diminishing in the cold weather as thu
time of kidding approaches. 1t is mucl
cheaper TO keep goat in town than 10 pa,
milkman, and families everywhere vii
find the milk very nutritive and wholesome
and especially good for children in mos
cases. An English writer estimates tina
two goats are equal to a small Shetland COW
Goats may be very cheaply supported
If picketied in a pasture in warm weather
or allowed to be at large, they will pick uf
their own living, eating readily almost every
sort of green thing. Grass, weeds, twigs oil
bushes, vegetables, fruits, nearly every
thing that grows, will utiheir taste. They
are fond Of dry leaves, corn-stalks, horse
'chestnuts, and even eat poisonous plants
with IMMUNITY. If confined in yard, or in
closer quarters, they will take the scraps
and waste of the kitchen. Some persons
allow them TO feed out of the swill-pail, but
this practice cannot be commended. Cob
'bett says, in his j" Cottage Economy !"
When / was in the army, in New
Brunswick, where, be it observed, the snow
lies on the ground seven months in the year,
there were many goats that belonged 10 the
regiment, and that went about with it on
shpboard and everywhere else. Some of
them had gone through nearly the whole
of the American war; We never fed them.
In summer they picked about wherever
they could find grass and in winter, they
lived on cabbage-leaves, potato-peelings,
and other things flung out of the soldiers
rooms and huts. One Of these goats belong
ed to me, and on an average throughout
the year, she gave me more than three halt
pints of milk day. / used to have the
kid killed when few days old aud, fo'
some time, the goat would give nearly, or
quite, two quarts Of milk day. She was
seldom dry more than three weeks in the
year."
The same writer adds, that 'goats will
pick peelngs out Of the kennel and eat them.
They will eat mouldy bread or biscuit
fusty hay and rotton straw; furze-bashes,
heath-thistes and, indeed, what VIII they
not eat, when they make hearty meal on
paper, brown or bite, printed or not print
ed on, and give milk all the while!" may
add to Cobbett's list OF odd delcacies by
stating that my own goats have gnawed
smooth the rough side Of my pile of hem
lock bark, and have cleaned out all the
powder post from the sils Of the wood-shed
But goats, like most other animals, prefer
clean food and will not deveur all the
aforementioned things if supply of more
desirable edibles are at hand. In the win
ter, it is well to lay in few hundred pound,
of hay-second crop is preferable--a few
carrots and some fine feed. Indian meal is
sometimes given to them, but it is too dry
ing. They need water occasionally, but
do not drink much.
The goat is one of the most hardy OF our
domestic animals, enduring easily all ex-
tremes Of heat and Geld 1t needs
shed or barn in wintry and stormy
weather, and win lie anywhere on the floor,
preferring board TO bed. lis natural
activity and nimbeness, together with a
capricious disposition, fit this creature TO
enjoy state of freedom. When roaming
wild, on its native mountains, it loves to
climb the most dangerous and inaccessible
places, clinging on the verge of precipices
by its wide-spreading and sharp-edged
hoofs, and defying the pursuit Of the hun
ter. This inclination it manlesis in domes-
tic life, by scaling sheds, walls, wood-piles,
&c, with great agility. But the goat win
bear confinement extremely well, continu
ing in good health aud yielding the usual
quantity Of milk. On shipboard it is health
Ter than any other domestic animal, and is
highly valued on account of its sportive-
ness, its familiarity, and its ability to give
milk upoh such waste food as there is OBJ
tainable.
The milk Of the female goat is sweet,
rich and nourishing. it has the body and
smoothness of cream, is viscid and strength
eniug, little productive of oil, but abundant
in the matter of cheese. In tea and coffee
it is far superior to cows milk, and will 90
at least as far againin imparting favor and
color. in all kinds Of cooking it is equally
excellent II has no peculiar or unpleas-
ant taste, and is not affected by what the
creature eats. Onion tops have been given
TO the females, by way Of experiment.
without imparting an oniony taste to the
milk. ] consider two pints of goats milk
TO be as good in a family, 10 every way, as
three pints Of cows milk.
For most feeble and sickiy children, as
well as those in health, it is invaluable. 1t
does not tend to form curds ia the stomach.
as cows milk does, and is therefore fire.
quenily prescribed by physicians in cases
OF extreme weakness. 1t is sold for this
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