Goat's milk

“ Persons in poor health have been greatly benefitted by the use of goat's milk. This is probably due to the fact that the fat in the milk is so distributed that a large percentage of it is taken up by the digestive apparatus. ”

“ The Goat as a Source of Milk Supply.—The milk goat is especially useful to those who desire a smaller quantity of milk than that produced by a cow and where the space is inadequate for keeping a larger milk-producing animal. In composition, goat’s milk closely resembles that of the cow, the butter fat ranging from 3.2 per cent to 4.4 per cent with total solids of nearly 12 per cent. ”

“ No one can say the milk is watered if it comes fresh from the udder.”
“Goat’s milk is light and very nourishing; it [285] agrees with weak stomachs better than the heavier milk of the sheep or cow. It is remarkably abundant, too, considering the smallness of the animal. Two liters of milk a day, from six to nine months in the year, make but a moderate yield. There are goats that, when well-fed, give three and four liters a day. ”

“ The latter are more commonly kept than cows, and that both should be dry is a still commoner occurrence. Goat's milk is so rich that, if not intended for sale, one feels it no crime to water it; but to milk a goat is back-aching work, and makes one wish that the creatures stood upon a pedestal. ”

“ From time to time the old maquis is burnt, but it is never long before new shoots spring up, which are more suitable for food than the old dry branches, though the goat is a true mountain animal, and, unlike the sheep, will eat practically anything.
Goat’s milk is used in making a soft white cheese called broccio or brôche, which is one of the specialities of the island, and is obtainable everywhere. When sprinkled over with sugar it is a most delicious and refreshing dish. The peasant, to increase the flavour, is fond of adding a little cognac. About May the goats are shorn, just like sheep. ”

“ The milk is very nice, almost as rich as cream. I think they told me it was goat's milk. The strawberries are very small indeed, like our field strawberries, but not as good. One devours them with great relish, simply because the keen air of the mountain disposes one to eat something, and there is nothing better to be had. They were hearty, rosy-looking girls, cheerful and obliging, wore the flat, Swiss hat, and carried their knitting work along with them, and knit whenever they could. ”

“ Cow’s milk cannot be obtained outside of the large cities, and even there it is scarce and expensive. Nearly all Greeks use goat’s milk. Both goats and cows are driven into town every morning and milked at the doors of the customers. ”

“ Many breeders have obtained a goat with the sole object of rearing a litter of puppies on her milk, and have eventually discarded cow's milk altogether, using goat's milk for household purposes instead. As soon as the puppies will lap they should be induced to take arrowroot prepared with milk. ”

“ Goat’s milk, ewe’s milk, et cetera, are the fresh, clean, lacteal secretions, free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of healthy animals other than cows, properly fed and kept, and conform in name to the species of animal from which they are obtained. ”

“ Of this animal there are many species, some wild and some domestic. They seem to be a link between the sheep and antelope, and to partake of the qualities of both. In some European countries, goat's milk is used, by the poor, as a substitute for that of the cow. ”

“ Goat's milk best, cows milk next. If the child thrives on this nothing else should be given during the hot weather, until the front teeth are cut. Get fresh cow's milk twice a day if the child requires food in the night, pour it into a glass fruit jar with one-third pure water for a child under three months old, afterwards the proportion of water may be less and less, also a trifle of sugar may be added. ”

“ A small quantity of milk has been forced from some men after puberty; from others a great quantity has been produced by suction.
5. There is a fatness in milk which becomes oily when it is cooked. In Sicily, and other countries, when there is an abundant supply of goat's milk, they mix ewe's milk with it, and it coagulates readily, not only because it contains abundance of curd, but also because it is of a drier nature. Some animals have more milk than enough for the support of their offspring, and this is useful for making cheese, and for putting aside. ”

“ Human milk is light and strengthening and much used in eye diseases. Cow's milk increases the secretion of semen. Buffalo's milk induces sleep when taken in large quantities. Goat's milk is sweet and light, and is recommended in phthisis and blood diseases. Sheep's milk is hot, and is believed to promote the growth of hair. ”

“ Without it we would starve, though eating plenty of proteins, carbo-hydrates, fats, salts and water. Nothing will sustain life if the vitamins are absent from the diet. Goat’s milk contains these important substances in greater abundance than any other animal food. ”

“ A good milch goat gives more and richer milk than the average mountain cow. And a kid yields excellent fresh meat in manageable quantity, at a time when no one would butcher a [Pg 45] beef because it would spoil. I used to shut my eyes and imagine the transformation that would be wrought in these mountains by a colony of Swiss, who would turn the coves into gardens, the moderate slopes into orchards, the steeper ones into vineyards, by terracing, and who would export the finest of cheese made from the surplus milk of their goats. ”

“ The provision of milk for the young led to earlier weaning of babies, hence to the bearing of more children by the mothers thus relieved of their sometimes temporary barrenness, while the use of cow's milk and goat's milk greatly reduced infant mortality. Before the herding stage of society, mothers used to nurse their babies until they were four and five years old. ”

“ Milk, when digested, is nutritive, but is injurious to the gums and teeth; and, therefore, after taking it, one ought to rinse one’s mouth, first with honied water, and then with an astringent wine. It also produces headach, occasions flatulence of the stomach, and hypochondria, and engenders stones in the kidneys. The more watery kind contains less nourishment, but is more laxative, while, on the other hand, the thick is more nutritive, and moves the belly less. That of the goat is of a middling consistence, as that of the sheep is thicker ”

“ It is an herb of Saturn, and therefore no marvel if it has some sullen conditions with it, and would be far safer, being purified by the art of the alchymist than given raw. If any have taken any harm by taking it, the common cure is to take goat’s milk: If you cannot get goat’s milk, you must make a shift with such as you can get. The roots are very effectual against all melancholy diseases, especially such as are of long standing, as quartan agues and madness; it helps the falling sickness, the leprosy, both the yellow and black jaundice, the gout, sciatica, and convulsions ”

“ In the temperate regions of the earth many pastoral tribes subsist mainly upon the milk of the sheep. In some rocky regions the goat is invaluable as a milk-yielder; and the buffalo is equally so amid the swamps and jungles of tropical climates. The milking of ewes was once a common practice in Great Britain; but it has fallen into disuse because of its hurtful effects upon the flock. A few milch asses and goats are here and there kept for the benefit of infants or invalids; but with these exceptions the cow is the only animal now used for dairy purposes. ”

“ Almost any kind of food seems to suit them. Not even the pig has so varied a diet as the goat; it consumes and converts into milk not only great quantities of garden-stuff which would otherwise be wasted, but also, thanks to its love for eating twigs and shoots, it enjoys the prunings and loppings of bushes and trees. In the Mont d'Or district of France the goats are fed on oatmeal porridge. With this diet, and plenty of salt, the animals are scarcely ever ill, and never suffer from tuberculosis; they will often give ten times their own weight of milk in a year. ”

“ The milk is rich, but tastes rather too strong of the goat to be agreeable to every one at first, although probably we should soon have thought cow's milk comparatively insipid. On the day's journey we had seen some of these goats at a considerable distance from the auberge, and a young man who carried our luggage, after giving chase to several, at length caught one, and in spite of her remonstrances, milked her by main force into the cup of a pocket flask, that we might enjoy a draught of the beverage. ”

“ Goats' milk is not only considered to be thicker, but to have a richer flavour than that of the cow; and, in some situations, especially on ship-board, where the goat thrives better than any other animal, it is peculiarly valuable. ”

“ The Goat, next to the cow and the sheep, has been always reckoned, especially in ancient and patriarchal times, the most useful domestic animal. Its milk is sweet, nourishing, and medicinal, and better adapted for persons of weak digestion than that of the cow, as it is not so apt to curdle on the stomach. The female has generally two young ones at a time, which are called kids. ”

“ Should a woman die while her child is still too young to be fed with a spoon, a sheep or goat is killed, and the windpipe, thoroughly cleansed, is [Pg 97] used as a feeding-tube, down which the milk is slowly poured into the child's mouth. If it is not expedient to kill an animal, a female goat in milk is procured, and the child taught to drink from the goat's udder. In these cases the goats become more attached to their "foster children" than to their own offspring, and will return at regular intervals to the hut to suckle the child. ”

“ If the owner should desire to fatten a she-goat, he ought to tie up the udders so tightly that the milk cannot come into them, and the nourishment is therefore converted into fat instead of milk. Also, he should take care to keep his Goats away from the place where bread is being made, as they are very fond of the unbaked dough, and always die if they eat it. ”

“ In the Ilyat camps there is plenty, but as it is customary to mix the milk of sheep, goats, and cows, and to milk the animals with dirty hands into dirty copper pots, and almost at once to turn the milk into a sour mass, like whipped cream in appearance, by shaking it with some "leaven" in a dirty goat-skin, a European cannot always drink it. ”

“ Butter everywhere is a very scarce and inferior commodity. Housewives know nothing of making and caring for this article, which to Americans is a prime necessity. The most primitive means are employed in its manufacture. In some places the milk is put into a sheep or goat skin, then fastened on a mule or burro, usually the latter, and trotted at a rapid rate. ”

“ American farmers currently raise roughly 250,000 of these hardy animals, which can thrive even in harsh areas and have a long association with our country. Columbus and Cook and other famed explorers carried dairy goats aboard their ships for milk and meat, and pioneers and settlers transported them to every part of our land.
Dairy goat products are increasingly popular as items for export and for domestic use. The number of producers of goat cheese, or Chevre, is rising. An extraordinary variety of American-made goat cheeses is available, as are goat milk, ice cream, and yogurt. ”

“ When it cannot be had, artificial food must take its place, and it is in the selection of it where most mistakes are constantly made. This much is certain, that without animal's milk no infant can or ought to be brought up; as ass's milk can be had only exceptionally, and dog's milk, which has been said to cure rachitis, is still less available, the milk of either goat or cow must be utilized. ”

“ We may here remark, that of late years some doubts have arisen, and not without foundation, respecting the wholesomeness of goats' milk, hitherto believed to be, in many respects, superior even to that of the cow. The goat was much venerated by the ancient Egyptians, and never sacrificed, because Pan was represented with the legs and feet of that animal, but the Greeks destroyed it on account of its cropping the vines. ”

“ Then the supply of good fresh cow's, goat's, or ass's milk may carry them well through infancy, while a regimen of arrowroot or gum-arabic and water, or stale, half sour milk, may either starve or sicken them to death. ”

“ The flocks are driven into Damascus in the morning; [167] and instead of a milk-cart calling, the flock itself goes round the city, and particular goats are milked before the doors of regular customers.
The European goat is a very useful animal for providing milk to poor families in large towns. The sheep, while preserving its hardy habits in some districts, adapts itself to richer food, and acquires the habits as well as the digestion of domestication. The goat remains, as in old days, the enemy of trees, inquisitive, omnivorous, pugnacious. It is unsuited for the settled life of the farm. ”

“ Goats may be successfully fed with the same rations as the dairy cow. Although they consume only about one-seventh as much feed as the cow, the common impression that the goat can produce milk on practically no feed is erroneous. A ration for winter feeding, suggested by the United States Department of Agriculture, consists of 2 pounds of alfalfa or clover hay, 11⁄2 pounds of silage or roots and from 1 to 2 pounds of a concentrated grain ration, composed of 100 pounds of corn, 100 pounds of oats, 50 pounds of bran and 25 pounds of [Pg 168] linseed meal. ”