The Alpine Ibex. Note the Curiously Knobbed Horns
In modern times Greece and its islands have more goats than they have people and there are many in Malta and Corsica, Italy and Spain. They are not kept largely in the United States, there being about one goat to every fifty sheep.
The goat will thrive where the ox and the sheep would starve, as on rocky hill-sides or thin, poor soil. There is little they will not eat, though you had best not believe that they are fond of old tin cans or any diet of this kind. One bad habit they have is to gnaw the young shoots of trees, of which they are very fond. This makes them deadly to forests, for no young trees can grow where they are kept. The goat has done much to kill out the trees on the hills of southern Europe and Asia and thus to destroy the forests of those regions. It is also fond of the grape-vine, and on this account, in ancient times, it was sacrificed to Bacchus, the god of wine.
The goat is far from being so dull and stupid an animal as the sheep. It makes friends with its keepers and is a cunning and curious brute, though too fond of using its horns. This is often done in play, but in a way that is not very funny, except to those who look on. It will rear up and pretend to attack you with its head and horns, but this is only its way to ask you to play with it. The playful pranks of the kid, or young goat, are often spoken of in poetry. It is a gay little creature, fond of capering about in an amusing way.
In fact the goat is not at all stupid and has often shown sense and cunning. There is a story of a goat that rang a door bell when hungry for its dinner, by hooking its horn in the wire. Another story is of two goats that came face to face on a narrow ridge in the rocks. There was no room to pass and after looking at each other for some minutes one of them lay down and let the other walk over its body. Two men could not have done better than that. The long-eared Syrian goat is trained to do all sorts of tricks. One of these is to balance itself on a pile of small wooden blocks built up to a height of several feet. Fancy a sheep doing this!
Milk Goats in the Alps
If it be asked what are goats kept for, the answer would be, chiefly for their milk. Goats' milk is very rich and is easy to digest and this makes it of much use for sick or feeble persons, to whom cows' milk is at times dangerous. It is very good for consumptive people. In parts of Europe it is thought that certain diseases of horses and cattle will not come when goats are with them, so they are often kept in stables and cow-barns to ward off disease.
Though the goat is a small animal it gives a large quantity of milk, often from four to six quarts a day and sometimes more than this. There are cases where twelve quarts a day have been given. The milk is apt to have a bitter taste and an unpleasant odor, but that comes from the way the animals are fed and kept. With good care and food, the milk will lose this taste. The goats of Syria and Palestine give sweet milk and goats' milk is much used in that part of the world, as it was in the old Bible times. The Arabs have a great dislike for cows' milk.
The milk of the Syrian goats is also very good for making butter and cheese, which are said to be of very fine quality. Much butter and cheese are also made in Europe from goats' milk. These have a special taste of their own, but are much eaten, for one soon gets used to the taste.