Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/433

Rh GOATS.] AGRICULTURE 399 have also Downs and half-breds. Kent has its own sheep, called Rents ; the wool being much finer than the real long-wool sheep, running in quality and weight of fleece between the latter and the Down, something like your half-breds from Cheviot ewes by Leicester rams. They have somewhat of a similar sheep in Devon, Cornwall, Hereford, and Shropshire, but the quality in the two former counties scarcely so fine as the two latter, or the Kent wools. Norfolk has the original Down and the half-bred ; Surrey, Suffolk, Essex, Sussex, and Hampshire are nearly all Down wools, though in these counties, upon some of their best lands, where they can cultivate the turnip, the half-bred are being introduced ; and I need scarcely say to you, the Leicester sheep, as well as half-breds and Cheviots, are to be found in Durham, Northumberland, Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, Lothians, and other parts of Scotland where the turnip is cultivated ; and in those parts where it is not, and on the hills, the Cheviot and blackfaced prevail. The black- faced are used for low padding cloths, carpets, and horse-rugs. The Down wools were formerly all used for cloths and flannels ; but now, from the improvement in worsted machinery, one-third is used for worsted yarns and goods ; and as the portion suitable for comb ing purposes is more valuable for this purpose than for cloths or flannels, the grower aims at getting it as deep-stapled as possible ; and this has led to a great increase in the weight of the fleece, but at the same time a deterioration in the quality. The Leicester, Lincolnshire, and half-bred, and Cotswolds, as well as the Kents and Devons, are entirely used for worsted yarns and goods ; and a very small portion of the wools imported come in competition with them. The nearest approach is a little imported from Holland and Denmark ; but they partake more of your cross from a blackfaced ewe by a Leicester ram. The Irish wools are either the long- woolled sheep similar to the Leicester, the mountain sheep similar to your Cheviot, or the small Welsh sheep. The Irish wools are generally open-haired, and have not the richness of the Leicester or our English, and are not so much esteemed or valuable as English wool of apparently the same quality by d. to Id. per lb. Richness of handle is now very desirable, as there is a demand for what are called glossy yarns, which wools fed on pasture or good new seeds only can produce, and which cannot be obtained from the wools grown on chalk or hard lands, such as our midland counties viz., Oxford, Bedford, and Northampton generally produce. In every fleece of wool there are two or three qualities not more than two or three in the blackfaced, four or five in the long- woolled sheep, five or six in the half-bred, and seven or eight in a Down fleece ; and I may say every fleece undergoes this sorting or separation before being put into any process of manufacture. Of course the more there is of the best quality in any fleece the more desirable and valuable the fleece is ; in blackfaced, to be free from dead hair or kemps ; and we find in all the other wools that the more close the staple and purly the wool, the more it yields of the finer qualities, whilst the open-haired makes more of the lower quality. The breeder should therefore, in selecting his tups with a view to good wool, choose them with a close purly staple. A great deal of the excellence, however, of wool depends upon the nature of the soil on which the sheep are fed. Upon the chalk and sandy hard lands we always find the worst qualities of wool of its kind, whilst the best comes from the rich good lands, where there is plenty of old grass or seeds. Thus the wools of Roxburghshire, as a general rule, are better than Berwickshire or Lothian ; Leicester, Lincoln shire, Nottingham, and Warwickshire, superior to Oxford, Cam bridge, Bedford, or Northampton ; and in Downs, Sussex and Surrey, better than Essex and Norfolk, from their downs being more grassy and the land better. The principal quality required in wool is a rich soft handle, as such is always found to improve in every pro cess it is put through in the various stages of its manufacture, whilst tho wools grown on chalk or hard lands, and which have a hard bristly handle, get coarser as they progress in the manufacture. &quot;With regard to the salves or baths used for destroying vermin, we do not know what kinds are used in the different localities, but of those used with you we dislike the spirit of tar and tobacco. Wilson of Coldstream s dip appears to answer, and one called Ballantyne s, used in Selkirkshire ; but in all these a great deal depends upon their being properly attended to, and being put on at the proper season. If put on in the autumn, we don t perceive that they have been used, and whenever we have to make a complaint on this head, we find it arises from the baths having been used in spring.&quot; CHAPTER XVIII. LIVE STOCK GOATS, &C. Section 1. Goats. Goats never occupied an important place among the domesticated animals of the British Islands, and, with the exception of Ireland, their numbers have been constantly diminishing. By the statistical returns it appears that in 1871 there were 232,892 goats in Ireland, which in 1872 had increased to 242,310. The value of goat s milk, as a source of household economy, is much greater than is usually supposed. This is so well shown by Cuthbert W. Johnston, Esq., in an article in the Farmers Magazine, that we shall quote from it at some length. &quot; The comfort derived by the inmates of a cottage from a regular supply of new milk need hardly be dwelt upon. Every cottager s wife over her tea, every poor parent of a family of children fed almost entirely on a vegetable diet, will agree with me that it is above all things desirable to be able to have new milk as a varia tion to their daily food of bread and garden vegetables. Tho inhabitant of towns and of suburban districts, we all know, is at the mercy of the milk dealer ; the milk he procures is rarely of the best quality, and under the most favourable circumstances he receives it with suspicion, and his family consume it with sundry misgivings as to its wholesomeness. &quot;Having personally experienced these difficulties, and having about three years since commenced the attempt to supply my family with goat s milk, and as our experience is cheering, I desire in this paper to advocate the claims of the milch goat to the attention of the cottager, and the other dwellers in the suburban and rural districts. &quot; Few persons are perhaps aware of the gentleness and playful ness of the female goat how very cleanly are its habits, how readily it accommodates itself to any situation in which it is placed Confined in an outhouse, turned on to a common or into a yard, tethered on a grass plat, it seems equally content. I have found il readily accommodate itself to the tethering system, fastened by a leathern collar, rope, and iron swivel, secured by a staple to a heavy log of wood. The log is the best (and this with a smooth even surface at the bottom), because it can be readily moved about from one part of the grass plat to another. The goat, too, uses the log as a resting-place in damp weather. The goat should be fur nished with a dry sleeping-place, and this, in case of its inhabiting open yards, can be readily furnished ; anything that will serve for a dry dog-kennel will be comfortable enough for a goat. &quot;The milk of the goat is only distinguishable from that of the cow by its superior richness, approaching, in fact, the thin cream of cow s milk in quality. . The cream of goat s milk, it is true, separates from the milk with great tardiness, and never so com pletely as in the case of cow s milk. This, however, is of little consequence, since the superior richness of goat s milk renders the use of its cream almost needless. The comparative analysis of milk of the cow and goat will show my readers how much richer the latter is than that of the former ; 100 parts of each, according to M. Regnault, gave on an average Cow. Goat. Water 847 82 6 Butter 4 4 5 Sugar of milk and soluble salts 5 4 5 Caseine (cheese), albumen, and insoluble salts, 3 6 9 - So that, while the milk of the cow yields 12 6 per cent, of solid matters, that of the goat produces 17 per cent., goat s. milk yield ing rather more butter, rather less sugar of milk, but considerably more caseine (cheese) than that of the cow. &quot; It must not be supposed that the taste of the milk of the goat differs in any degree from that of the cow ; it is, if anything, sweeter, but it is quite devoid of any taste which might very reasonably be supposed to be derivable from the high-flavoured shrubs and herbs upon which the animal delights to browse. &quot;The amount of the milk yielded by the goat varies from two quarts to one quart per day ; it is greatest soon after kidding time, and this gradually decreases to about a pint per day, a quantity which will continue for twelve months. This is not a large supply, it is true ; but still it is one which is available for many very useful purposes ; and be it remembered that when mixed with more than its own bulk of lukewarm water, it is then in every respect superior to the milk supplied by the London dairymen. &quot; In regard to the best variety of goat to be kept, I would recom mend the smooth-haired kind, which are quite devoid of beards or long hair. In this opinion I am confirmed by an experienced correspondent, Mr W. H. Place of Hound House, near Guildford, who remarked, in a recent obliging communication I found that the short-haired goats with very little beards were the best milkers ; but from these I seldom had more than four pints a-day at the best (I should say three pints were the average), and this quantity decreases as the time for kidding approaches (the goat carries her young 21 to 22 weeks). They should not be fed too well near the time of kidding, or you will lose the kids. In winter I gave them hay, together with mangel-wurzel, globe and Swedish turnips, carrots, and sometimes a few oats, and these kept up their milk as well as anything, but of course it was most abundant when