The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-10-14
Goats Milk for London.


Inn-Fields is the goat-herd going on his
daily rounds: There is sometime ex.
ceedingly primitive and even romantic
in the spectacle. The French peasant
who owns the small flock of goats which
supply many families with their morn
ing's milk saunters slowly behind his
docile herd. They know the round as
well as their owner, and pick their way
across the network of streets with the
utmost familiarity, nor do they neglect
to pick up any vegetable garbage that
may be lying across their path. When
he nears the house of customer the
goat-herd plays on a pipe, supposed to
resemble that of the NEUROLOGICAL Pan, a
the melancholy howl of the native milk
man. When the order is given the goats
halt before the door, a penny-worth of
milk is drawn off into tiny measure,
nearly a score of which barely fill a
quart. While ne goat is being MIXED
the others stand by nibbling stray cab
bage-leayes or eagerly eating the crusts
of bread which children bring to them
from their mother table. The milking
over the herd moves on to make another
halt where another penny-worth is re-
quired, when the process is repeated
The procession is again resumed, and
kept up until the end of the walk is
reached or the goats are dry. 1t is
curiously Arcadian custom to exist in the
heart of London, and it may be doubted
whether one Londoner in hundred has
ever heard of the existence of the wander
ing gOat-herd and his Obedient flock.
In and around London the goat is
known almost exclusively as beast of
burden. 1t is to be found, harnessed to
small cart, under the beeches at Ep-
ping Forest. 1t is in great demand at
Blackheath on Bank holidays. Thus re-
duced to work for its living, it is no
longer the agile, caprioious creature that
it would have been if it had remained in
its natural state. Attached to its goat
carriage it ambles along very sedately,
looking out of its sad eyes mute pro-
test against its unnatural fate. A goat
which is required to drag children about
for twelve or fifteen hours a day, and
which is kept to o proper sense of its
duties by the occasional application of a
whip, may easily be supposed to have
serious doubts as to whether life is worth
living. If it could reason, it would
probably reflect that a creature which is
so inexpensive to its owners sufficiently
discharged its obligations to the human
race by daily yielding a certain quantity
of rich milk, which is all that is de-
manded of its foreign sisters, to whose
matutinal round we have just referred,
although these mich goats are both
larger and stronger than the docile' ami
mails which drag goat-carriages on
Blackheath and at Brighton. 1t is some
what strange that, although firm ar
ticle of faith among many English
matrons that goats milk is excellent for
children, it is by no means easy to pro-
cure it in London. 'Purveyors of asses
milk there are in almost all parts of
the metropolis; but the goats milk trade
still stands in need of development In
the first few months of the present year,
indeed, it seemed as if it were
about to assume considerable pro-
portions. A French peasant, wear
ing blouse and the foreign equivalent of
the Scotch bonnet, began to drive a flock
the courts and alleys off Bow Street and
Drury Lane. He spoke no English, and
even his French was a patoiS; yet he
contrived to make it understood that his
business was to sell penny-worths of
goats milk to any one who cared to buy
In short time he had instituted reg
ular "milk-walk," which extended al
most in a straight line from Leicester
Square to Lincoln s-Inn-Fields. The
news of his prosperity travelled all the
way to the gOat-farms of the Pyrenees,
and in a short time he had three rivals,
who, paying no regard to his vested in
terests and probably having no concep-
ton of the vast extent of London, COM
peteG with him on his own ground
Goats milk became a drug in the
market. The rival dealers, after period
OF cut-throat competition, went home
again, leaving the original goats milk
merchant to enjoy their discontinue.
With his six large goats he every morn
ing makes the tour of the district to
which he was attracted on his first ar
rival. 1t is remarkable that he goes into
the poorer streets by preference. His
receipts are almost all in pennies, and
may be calculated at about eighteen
pence for quart of milk. Two quarts
seem to be about the average yield of
each of his six goats, so that his takings
may be reckoned at eighteen shillings
day, which to French peasant must
seem almost like the wealth of Pactolus,
even though it is earned by two hundred
separate milkings of his herd.
1t is not surprising that the expert
ment of this adventurous Frenchman
should act as aspur to English enterprise.
Before long it is probable that it will be
as easy for all classes of Londoners to
procure goats milk as to obtain any
other luxury. In one of the prettiest
spots in Surrey, on the crown of the
wooded hills which stretch from Dorking
to Guildford, regular goat farm has
been established to supply the London
market. The experiment is almost
unique, for there is no other goat farm
within reach of London. As beginning
the farm has been stocked with 107 mich
goats, with two other for stud purposes.
They are MIXED morning and night by
a man, but in spring they will be MIXED
thrice daily. 1t is tedious operation,
and takes up good deal of time. Goats
are awkward to milk, they will not yield
to stranger, and by the time they are
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