ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL SHOWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 8

ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL SHOWS.

' (Fbox Our Owh Cqhbksp orbxst.) LONDON, July 25. —The Virtues of the Goat.Dr- Chappie, who has been attending a round of agricultural shows during the last few weeks, has come to the conclusion that the county shows are- very small fry compared with, the RoyaL At the Sussex show, for instance, there wer only three pedigree shorthorn bulls and' one or two heifers. At the Royal there were 452 entries in the shorthorn class alone. The special breeds of Sussex cattle and Sussex fowls t were, of course, well represented,' and among them, were some magnificent specimens of their olass. The distinctive feature of 1 the show was the n-vniber .of. goats tljat were entered. They were fine animals, and some of' them had rejuJhe.i a gallon per day milk yield, which, is the end for whioh goat-breeders strive. A good gpat fetches. £5, bat tbe v prize goats exhibited were marketable- at much higher prices. —The Value of the Goat.— "I have always urged," says Dr Chappie, "that the goat is a useful domestic animal quite unjustifiably despised. It is clean, wholesome, and- healthy. It can be kept in a backyard or -garden of very small dimensions. It wilt thrive on ki taken refuse such as bread, potato peelings, cabbage leaves, etc. Its milk is more like the human milk than that of any other domestic animat Children thrive upon it infinitely' betfer than they do upon cow's milk, both, of course, being appropriately treated with water' and sugar! Many families take goats, to the seaside with them, and find them convenient as welt as profitable. ' They are very little liable to disease, and tubeccolosis *s practically unknown among them. I believe that infant health would be greatly promoted aad infant mortality greatly reduced if goats' milk were more largely used for the supply of 'the home with milk. "The objection to goats is their mischievous destructibility. One .goat at the show was found by me judge to be ravenously Consuming her prize card. Another helped herself to a prize, rosette, and a third- had cleared off all the number tickets attached to "her stall. This is capable of remedy, however, for they dp not fret on. the chain, and' being very oleanly. in their habits they can be kept in quite a small area and close to the house. I think it would pay- well to hreed- a good class of milking-%oat iri''Ne* Zealand, and that this would be Hone if their virtues were more generally known." — Some Dairy Cows. — In the dairy class at the Sussex Show a grade cow won the prize with a morning yield of 431b of milk and evening yield of 2331b— 66i1b in all. The^tefet showed 4 per ent. of butter fat. The looked to be a croßs between a shorthorn - and a Sussex. A Jersey, cow took the secoad prize with a considerably smaller yield. The winner in the dairy class of the Royal show was a pedigree shorthorn cow belonging to JLord Rothschild, 12 years of age, and just calved one month. Her yield was .801b of milk in the 24 hours, and she took second prize for butter-fat. She had been giving a ton of milk per month up to the time of the show. The dairy shorthorn is being developed in Britain, and the .ehoithprn with a milking strain is in many places regarded as the best all-round utility breed.