udes it is
of the utmost value to man. No other of our domesticated creatures,
except the camel, is so specially adapted to the needs which
peculiarities of climate impose upon their possessors.

[Illustration: Bedouin Goat-Herd--Palestine]

The relations of the goat to mankind are in certain ways peculiar. The
creature has long been subjugated, probably having come into the human
family before the dawn of history. It has been almost as widely
disseminated, among barbarian and civilized peoples alike, as the
sheep. It readily cleaves to the household, and exhibits much more
intelligence than the other members of our flocks and herds. It yields
good milk, the flesh is edible, though in the old animals not savory,
and the hair can be made to vary in a larger measure than any of our
animals which are shorn. Yet this creature has never obtained the place
in relation to man to which it seems entitled. Only here and there is
it kept in considerable numbers or made the basis of extensive
industries. The reason for this seems to be that these animals cannot
readily be kept in flocks in the manner of sheep. They are only partly
gregarious, and tend to stray from the owner's keeping. There seems
reason also to believe that they cannot easily be made to vary in other
characteristics except their hairy covering at the will of the breeder,
and so varieties cannot be formed, as is the case with sheep, to suit
each peculiarity of soil and climate. Thus in Europe, where it would be
easy to name a score of distinct breeds of sheep, each peculiarly well
suited to the conditions of the country where it had been developed,
the goats are singularly alike. The original stock of these creatures
appears to have been adapted to feeding on the scant herbage which
develops in rocky and mountainous countries. They do not seem able to
make the perfect use of the resources of a pasture which sheep do.
These inherited peculiarities in feeding enable them to pick up a
subsistence where they may range over a considerable territory, even
where it seems to afford no forms of food for the hungriest animal.
Thus in that part of the city of New York known as "Shanty town," goats
may be seen in fairly good condition, although the sole source of food,
besides a few stray weeds, appears to be the paste of the paper
advertisements which they pick from the rocks and fences.

Although goats appear to be characterized by invariable bodies, our
sheep are, in phy