f they get into a
_garden_, they destroy every thing. But there are seldom trees on commons,
except such as are too large to be injured by goats; and I can see no
reason against keeping a goat where a cow cannot be kept. Nothing is so
hardy; nothing is so little nice as to its food. Goats will pick peelings
out of the kennel and eat them. They will eat mouldy bread or biscuit;
fusty hay, and almost rotten straw; furze-bushes, heath-thistles; and,
indeed, what will they not eat, when they will make a hearty meal on
_paper_, brown or white, printed on or not printed on, and give milk all
the while! They will lie in any dog-hole. They do very well clogged, or
stumped out. And, then, they are very _healthy_ things into the bargain,
however closely they may be confined. When sea voyages are so stormy as to
kill geese, ducks, fowls, and almost pigs, the goats are well and lively;
and when a dog of no kind can keep the deck for a minute, a goat will skip
about upon it as bold as brass.

191. Goats do not _ramble_ from home. They come in regularly in the
evening, and if called, they come like dogs. Now, though ewes, when taken
great care of, will be very gentle, and though their milk may be rather
more delicate than that of the goat, the ewes must be fed with nice and
clean food, and they will not do much in the milk-giving way upon a
common; and, as to _feeding them_, provision must be made pretty nearly as
for a cow. They will not endure _confinement_ like goats; and they are
subject to numerous ailments that goats know nothing of. Then the ewes are
done by the time they are about six years old; for they then lose their
teeth; whereas a goat will continue to breed and to give milk in abundance
for a great many years. The sheep is _frightened_ at everything, and
especially at the least sound of a dog. A goat, on the contrary, will
_face a dog_, and if he be not a big and courageous one, beat him off.

192. I have often wondered how it happened that none of our labourers kept
goats; and I really should be glad to see the thing tried. They are
pretty creatures, domestic as a dog, will stand and watch, as a dog does,
for a crumb of bread, as you are eating; give you no trouble in the
milking; and I cannot help being of opinion, that it might be of great use
to introduce them amongst our labourers.

CANDLES AND RUSHES.

193. We are not permitted to make candles ourselves, and if we were, they
ought seldom to be used in a labo