Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1917-11-09
GOAT IS THE SOLUTION OF THE
MILK PROBLEM.

.aSehI Oh tne IN. " W., sends out the
following article from Roanoke:
In Continental Europe four-fifths
OF the milk supply is obtained from
Toggenburg and Saanen mich goats,
which have been brought to a high
state of pix production during the
past. two thousand years. If there is
one feature of agriculture and home
economics more worthy of develop
ment than any other, it is the mich
goat industry. Goats have been as
sociated with man from the very
dawn of history. In the Scriptures
goat milk is mentioned more fire.
luentiy than any other kind of milk
an evidence that it. has been used
is food by mankind from remotest
periods. The goat supplied three of
| ancient mans most important requi-
sites-meat, milk, and clothing, and
IN many countries of Europe, Asia and
Africa the goat is the chief sustain
er of the inhabitants today.
With the exception of California,
the mich goat industry in the Unit
ed States is in its infancy owing to
the fact that it involves large expense
in securing importation of animals
froal countries where the best milk
producing strains are to be had.There
has been so much ridicule attached to
the goat i'll America for some un-
known reason that people have been
slow to accept them. California,
however. alive to the possibilities in
every line, has developed this inrus-
try right extensively, and in the vi
cinity of San Francisco The Wide
man Goat Milk Company maintains
the largest mich goat herd in the
world. This concern milks four tkous-
and goats daily, disposing of one.
third of the fresh product in San
Francisco, putting the othe VI
thirds through their condenser and
shipping the condensed milk all over
the world. The Toggenberg goat from
Switzerland is the favorite here. Tho
doe will give from one to three quarts
daily in full lactation and in quality
equal to the best Jersey milk It IS a
gentle, clearly animal, usually Invite
and tan in color and makes a fine
home pet.
The Saanen is also q Swiss nreed
more scarce than the Toggenberg
ENTHUSIASTICALLY larger. Like the Tog-
genburg, the doe isusually hornless
and in color pure white OF creamy
white and gives about the same guam
tity of excellent milk with a slightly
less butter fat content than the Tog-
genburg.
The Nubian, Anglo-Nubian, or the
American Nubian are the largest of
all milk goats, weighing from 12O to
200 pounds. Their color is not fixed.
ranging from solid black to tan or
red, with or without tan mixture.
They are hornless or nearly so, short
haired and beautiful in conformation.
They are beardless and have no wat
ties or bells on their necks. All mich
goats have distinctly less odor than
the common goat, but the distinctive
feature of the Nubian is the absence
of the characteristic odor so preva--
lent in the bucks of other breeds.
In Flanders, Belgium. Holland. and
Switzerland and France most every
householder keeps at least one doe,
and if these attractive, gentle animals
were more generally kept in the home
yards of America, the increasing
milk shortage problem would be solv-
ed. A good plan for the beginner is
20 purchase a doe ready to breed so
it will kid in the Spring. If sever
al families in the neghborhood secure
does, then it will justify the purchase
of good buck for breeding purposes.
A year ago l bought ten or twelve
of these Toggenburg and Saanen
does at an average cost of $500 to
$4,000 each and then secured a Tog-
genburg buck at about double the
price of does. This herd was dictrib-
uted among the colonists on the Rich
land Heights colony near Grottoes,
Virginia, and several of these colo
nists now have mature kids in which
excellent milk lines of their parents
are reproduced
| on, ooaeJa,,4 @Lo4
is going to develop rapidly in Amer
lea in view of our dwindling dairy
herds. The goat is absolutely i'm
mune to tuberculosis and the milk is
in great demand by hospitals and
sanitariums on account of it's nutri-
tive and health-giving qualities. Pu-
ny babies that can take no other nour-
ishment, not even mothers milk, gen-
orally thrive Justify when put on
goatmilk diet.
The best recommendation for the
mich goat is that it consumes only
about one-eighth the food consumed
by the average cow, at the same time
giving one-third the milk of the av-
erage cow. A good doe will general
ly drop two kids a season, and the
kids are worth half the price of the
doe at weaving time. Thousands of
Little Landers, farmers from one to
ten acres in California, get their sup
ply frmo one or two does, which in
turn geot more than half of their feed
browsing on the roadside or in-the
home lots. Therefore, the milk sup
ply costs them little or nothing.
recommend the introduction of
these attractive, gentle, little ami
mails more generally throughout the
South, and on request will give par
ticulars regarding same, where they
can be secured and what they will
do iu reducing the cost of living in
these strenuous times.