Goat
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Goat. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a hardy, horned animal, closely related to the sheep. The various domestic goats are thought to be descended from the wild goat of Persia. Goats are favorites with the inhabitants of rocky, precipitous countries. The agile, sprightly, playful goat can make a living on scanty shrubs and coarse grasses where a sheep would not fare well. Goat's milk is considered healthful and nutritious. In many oriental cities the milkman drives his herd along the street and milks his goats at the customer's door. The flesh is valuable for food. The hair is spun and woven into clothing, and the hide makes famous leather. The male or he-goat is known colloquially as a "billy goat." His horns and beard give him quite a reverend appearance. The female is known as a "nanny goat," and the young, usually two in number, are called kids. The Cashmere goat of northern India and the Angora goat are famous for their long, silky hair. Mohair is an Arabic term applied to the hair of the Angora goat as well as to a kind of fine cloth made of goat's hair. Wool and cotton dress goods made in imitation of the genuine article are often called mohair. The term is closely akin to moire, a French name of watered silk. On account of their brush-eating propensities, goats are especially valuable in clearing up wild land, but, generally speaking, they are less profitable than sheep and are not raised extensively in America. The goat is an animal of endurance. A four-goat team was driven from Hastings, Nebraska, to Portland, Oregon, and thence to San Diego, California,--a distance of 4,000 miles--traveling an average of fifteen miles a day. Seventy-seven thousand five hundred thirty-four American farms and ranches report 1,948,952 goats, worth on an average $1.75 apiece. In 1900, 454,932 goat and mohair fleeces were shorn, with a total weight of 961,328 pounds. The American fleece averages less than three pounds in weight. Kansas City is the leading American goat market; 60,000 head were sold there in 1907. There is an extensive trade in the skins of Angora goats. Thousands of them are brought to this country yearly from Turkey and the Cape of Good Hope . Domestic skins are also on the market. Angora skins are worth from 35 cents to $3.50. They are easily dyed and make handsome rugs and robes. In America the goat is not considered seriously. The country would get on quite as well, perhaps, without goats; but in a large part of the world, particularly in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean, the goat takes the place of sheep, hog, and cow. The inhabitants are dependent on the goat for wool, meat, milk, and leather. From the Year Book of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1908, we learn that the number of goats in the world is approximately as follows: Europe 21,197,000 Asia 40,000,000 Australia 124,000 Africa 20,296,000 South America 5,800,000 North America 6,296,000 Total. . . . . . . .93,713,000
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
Capra hircus, the domestic goat, which exists, in a wild or semi-wild state, in all the European mountain ranges. It is generally supposed that it may be a descendant of the paseng of Persia (C. ægagrus). The males fight furiously with each other in the rutting time. They have an offensive smell. A most important variety, formed into a breed by artificial selection, is the Angora goat, where almost the whole body is enveloped in that long, silky, white hair. The Angora goat has been introduced into Cape Colony, Australia, and the United States. The Kashmir Muffin ANGORA GOAT goat, from Tibet and Bokhara, is almost equally valuable, furnishing the white to brown hair used in making Kashmir wares. It has been successfully acclimatized in France. A third variety, is the Mamber goat from Asia Minor Minor and Tartary, distinguished by its long pendent ears. The Syrian goat, which also has long ears, is trained in the East to all manner of tricks. The Alpine ibex is a magnificent goat, without beard, but with very strong, slightly divergent much-ridged horns. It is now rare. The goat is capable of the most perfect domestication, and becomes extremely attached and familiar. The flesh is good; that of the kid, or young goat, is in most countries esteemed a delicacy. Requiring but little attention, ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT and able to subsist on rough diet, the goat is in many countries "the cow of the poor." The milk is very rich and nutritious, more easy of digestion than that of the cow, and often useful to consumptive patients. Both cheese and butter are made of goats' milk; they have a peculiar peculiar but not disagreeable flavor. Goats' milk is still very much used in Syria and other parts of the East. The skin of the goat was early used for clothing, and is now dressed gloves and the as leather for making finer kinds of shoes (see GLOVES). The hair is used for making ropes which are indestructible in water, and for making wigs for judges, barristers, and other functionaries. For the latter purpose the hair of white goats is used. The horns are used for making knife handles, etc., and the fat is said to be superior to that of the ox for candles. The Rocky Mountain goat is an antelope rather than a goat. See ANGORA GOAT. In Christian art the goat is an emblem of impurity.
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
The devil is frequently represented under the shape of a goat, and as such presided over the witches' Sabbath. The goat is also the " emblem of sinful men at the day of judgment." (See Baphomet ; Witchcraft .) 66