n^tyxd«4 > < W WWi>WH «HW i» l i»tw*w»<»w< r-yr-^. ■ ^-xMXKWWMiM'i' ' AN!) in ■-t Class _^_ Gopyi'ight 1^" COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. All IK SC1UH)1, DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS A BRIEF TREATISE UPON THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF DOMESTICATED RACES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT BV E. DAVENPORT, M.Agr., LL.D. PROFESSOR OF TM RF.M M ATOl.OC.Y IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS DEAN OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE DIRECTOR OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION GINN AND COMPANY BOSTON • NEW YORK ■ CHICAGO ■ LONDON copvri(;ht, 1910, I'.v e. davkxpokt ENTERED AT STATIONERS* HALL ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 3 "o-j; c,k^ Cfte gtticnaum Xixtii f.INN AND CliMI'A.NV- I'Kc)- I'KlETOkS • BOSTON • U.S.A. Cci.Aii7:i(;7H PREFACE -\^ Soon after the appearance of "Principles of Breeding" as ^ar college textbook, numerous letters came to both the author and the publishers, suggesting a volume along similar lines, but less technical in treatment and better adapted to the needs of high and normal schools, and appealing more specifically to the general student. These suggestions, together with the growing interest in agri- culture both as an occupation and as a subject for instruction in schools of various grades, encouraged the production of the present volume, which runs along the same general lines as " Principles of Breeding," except that more information is afforded as to the origin of domesticated races and the source of the materials out of which they have been formed, and less space is devoted to function and to the more philosophic treat- ment of variation and heredity. More attention is given also to the general subjects of natural selection and the survival of the fittest as shown in the way of the wild, — subjects of importance to the high-school student as affording the foundation principles for improvement, and also as contributing to a more rational understanding of the general principles of evolution than commonly exists in the popular mind. An incidental purpose has been to insure the student of the secondary school an acquaintance with the essential facts of re- production as illustrated in plant life, and with the foundation principles in heredity, especially in degeneracy and crime, as illustrated in regression tables and the law of ancestral heredity. If the author has been at all successful at this point, the student will derive indirectly and by inference, through this study of IV DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS animals and plants, a certain knowledge of human relations which in all likelihood he would be unable to secure by the method of direct instruction, and yet which all thinking people need to possess, not only for their- own protection, but for the intelligent interpretation of public affairs along sociological lines. After all, the main purpose of the book and the main hope of the writer is to interest the student in affairs of the farm, and to enlist on the part of high schools the same interest in the teaching of agriculture and the preparation for the affairs of country life as is now exercised in the teaching of other sub- jects and the preparation for other phases of life. \\' herever this new departure has been made it has been found that the educa- tional value of subjects drawn from real life is surprisingly great, and the social and economic results are beyond computation. The hope to help this work forward has been, perhaps, the chief inspiration in the preparation of the following pages. EUGENE DAVENPORT University of Illinois Urbana TO THE TEACHER This book is so arranged as to be adapted either to a brief or to a more extended course of study, a double purpose which is accomplished by dividing the subject matter into two parts. Part I may be taken alone, constituting a brief course covering the essential principles that are fundamental to an understanding of hereditary transmission and of the business of plant and animal improvement. Part II can be employed either as additional text or as refer- ence matter, at the option of the teacher, and depending upon the time that is available. In any case, whatever use is made of Part II, either as text or reference, it should be in connection with Part I, and not as succeeding it; that is to say. Part II should be taken in con- nection with or immediately following the first three chapters of Part I, and this use of Part II is highly recommended, be- cause here is a collection of information, not commonly avail- able, that throws light not only upon the sources of material out of which domesticated races have been made, but also upon many of the essential steps in improvement. The author is especially anxious that the suggestions and ex- ercises offered at the close of the chapters be accepted and fol- lowed. Each topic affords material full of interesting and profitable study, always from the standpoint of utility; and if the students will make some independent studies of this kind, they will be doubly repaid not only in the wealth of informa- tion accumulated, but in the experience gained in independent methods of study. With the information afforded in the Appendix the teacher will be able to introduce the subject of stock judging. This in- troduction should be made early and continued throughout the vi DOMESTIC A TKI) ANIMALS AM) I'LAM'S Study of the text. Almost any neighborhood will afford speci- mens entirely suitable for this purpose. A glossary of terms will be found convenient in connection with both text and reference reading. More explicitly, the purpose of the first three chapters is to bring out the way in which our domesticated races canic among us, and our dependence upon their services. In this connection and at this point should come as much as possible of the detailed study of separate species as given in Part II. The intent of the writer at this point is fourfold : first, to arouse interest in the field which affords the subject matter of the real discussion ; second, to bring together a body of knowl- edge about domesticated animals and plants on which the student may rely, making it possible for other chapters to be less con- crete and more abstract; third, to connect that body of knowledge with the zoology and the botany of the high school ; fourth, to give the student some acquaintimce with the behavior of ani- mals and plants both in a state of nature and when undergoing domestication. Chapters V and VI are designed not only to bring out the power of selection, but also to give the student some working knowledge of the complicated manner in which it operates in nature. Both error and bad science abound through the failure to distinguish between the facts of nature and the poetic license that is often employed by writers who choose nature subjects as means of teaching human truths. This kind of anthropomor- phism we may wink at, if we understand what is meant when animals are made to talk and trees and flowers to think ; but we cannot forgive that kind of pseudoscience wherein, though the purpose of the writer is plainly to teach the facts of nature, )-et the facts are either badly distorted or incompletely conveyed. In Chapter VII the distinct purpose is to draw the attention away from the animal or plant as an individual and direct it to the more or less independent units of which it is composed. A train of cars seen at a distance looks like a single unit, but TO THE TEACHER vii when more closely examined it is found to consist not only of engine and of separate cars, but also of wheel and axle, brake and drawbar. The whole is actuated by the energy of the coal and controlled by intelligence, acting through steam and compressed air, by means of lever brake and bell cord. Chapter VIII introduces a brief study of the variability of a single character, and it serves not only to fix conceptions as to type, but as an introduction to statistical methods of study now much employed in the problems of breeding. This chapter will afford material for an exceedingly valuable class of problems, and its mastery is especially urged. In Chapter IX the attempt is made to convey the essential facts of reproduction and lay the foundation for the study of heredity through the medium of the plant. The hope is that here and in Chapters X and XI more is taught by inference than is taught directly. It has been a secondary aim of the author to convey knowledge and make impressions that are applicable to certain human relations as well as to the subject in hand, but which from the nature of the case cannot be conveyed by the direct method. Chapters XI and XII are designed to teach rational notions of descent and to correct the prevalent notion that heredity in some way fails unless the offspring is a duplicate of the parent. The old dogma that like begets like, and that the offspring is like the parent, is modified to read, " The offspring is like the parentage," and the succeeding chapter deals with the distri- bution of hereditary family qualities through the various mem- bers of the back ancestry. It is hoped that the careful study of these chapters will prepare the student for the real behavior of characters in transmission, and will enable him to comprehend both regression and progression, as well as reversion and de- generacy. It will also serve to show that transmission and heredity are complicated, not simple, facts. Chapter XIV discusses the relative influences of heredity and environment, a discussion that is useful from the standpoint viii DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS of breeding, and even more so from the standpoint of human experience, particularly when we take into account the popular confusion of mind on these two points. The average student, noting the powerful influence of environment in the develop- ment of inherited tendencies, is likely not to fully realize that the environment is powerless except when the possibilities are presented by heredity. A study of this chapter should help to clear the mind of the student on this point. Chapter XV is designed to acquaint the student with some of the practical facts and problems connected with the actual improvement of animals, and is frankly admitted as designed to stimulate interest in grading. Chapter XVI, dealing with plants, is intended to make the methods of improvement still more familiar and to stimulate a desire to take a hand in its trial, which, if seriously undertaken, will be found not only interesting but highly educative. Chapters XVII-XXI deal with the origin of domesticated races, and are designed as supplementary text or as reference matter, according to the needs of the school. Any good high school may undertake something definite in the way of animal and plant studies with reference to practical improvement. The principles laid down in the text and the dis- cussion are ample to enable it to do so, if teacher and pupil alike are so disposed, and the school may, if it will, become a force in the neighborhood. First of all, it should have a little land on which at least a collection of common plants may be studied. A vacant lot in the city or a corner of a field in the country will answer, but a definite piece of land near the school, set aside for the purpose, is more desirable than either. With the growing interest in agriculture, the best schools are being provided not with a farm which they do not need, but with a field of five to ten acres for experimental and demon- stration purposes, which they do need. This work may well occupy a place in such a field. TO THE TEACHER ix At the least let the school study variability. This may be done advantageously with four classes of cultivated plants, namely, flowers, garden vegetables, small fruits, and farm crops. Of the first, pansies, petunias, sweet peas, and hollyhocks are well adapted to the purposes ; of vegetables, the best are pota- toes and squashes; of small fruits, strawberries and raspberries; and of farm crops, none is better than corn, though wheat, oats, timothy, and clover all exhibit pronounced variations. In some of these cases variability may be conveniently in- creased by crossing, as with the sweet pea, hollyhock, squash, and corn ; and in the potato and strawberry an endless supply of new strains may be had by planting the seeds. If at all possible, this study of variability should be accompanied by attempts at improvement, which is especially easy with flowers and not at all impossible with such crops as potatoes and corn. Large animals are, for the most part, out of reach of the operations of the school, except as it can draw upon the farm animals of the neighborhood, which everywhere afford material practically unlimited, both in numbers and variety. There is no more favorable material for study, however, than chickens, and a small poultry plant is entirely feasible and in every way desirable in connection with the school. It is fundamental that some one be definitely charged with the responsibility and care of any and all plants and animals kept for school purposes. This responsibility and care may properly devolve upon the same party who cares for the building and the grounds. It may seem to some that to do work of this sort, and to study matters of this kind, is not the proper function of the school, and that its advocacy is a passing fancy. To such, let the author say that a new era is upon us, — an era in which at least a por- tion of the time and energ)^ of the schools must be devoted to useful things, and to none more properly than to the industry of agriculture, which directly engages the lives of one third of our population and provides food for all the people. CONTENTS PART I THE MEANING OF DOMESTICATED RACES AND THE MANNER OF THEIR IMPROVEMENT CHAPTER PAGE I. The Dependence of Man upon Domesticated Animals AND Plants 3 Animals and plants as sources of food — As sources of cloth- ing — As sources of shelter — Vegetable products as sources of heat and light — Dependence of man upon animal labor — Animals a means of recreation — Animals and plants as sources of raw material for manufacturing purposes — Medicinal prop- erties of animals and plants — The business of farming II. Domesticated Races originated in the Wild ... 11 Domesticated races vary — Creation not yet finished — Most domesticated races have close relatives in the wild — Domesti- cated species existed first in the wild — Species change in domes- tication — Improvement sometimes slight — Domestication a gradual process — IIow the history of domestication is known — Not always able to identify the original — Distinction between feral and wild III. How Animals and Plants came to be Domesticated 20 Domestication the result of necessity — Need for help in the hunt — Need for additional food — Need for clothing and shel- ter — Need for labor — Domestication the first step in civiliza- tion — The civilizing effect of slavery — What animals have done for us — Unused materials — Lost possibilities — Domes- tication a gradual process — Species that were domesticated IV. Need of Improvement in Domesticated Animals and Plants 35 Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs — Main- tenance of animals costly — Further improvement needed — Need of more economic service — Some individuals better than others— Economic significance of differences in efficiency — The fact of variability established — Variability in a single character — Historical knowledge of original species needed xii DOMES'l'lCATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS CHAPTER PAGE V. The Way of the Wild 50 The astonishing abundance of Hfe — The struggle for exist- ence — Selective effect of the natural conditions — Competition for food — Competition for room — Competition most severe between individuals of the same species^ Natural selection — Survival of the fittest — The individual and the race — Signifi- cance of numbers — Significance of vigor and length of life — Significance of offensive and defensive weapons — Significance of protective coloring and markings — Mimicry — Design in nature — Causes of color in animals and plants VL Effect of Natural Selection 83 Natural selection means progressive development — Effect of selection upon the individual — Selection good for the species that can endure it — Selection fatal to a race that cannot en- dure its hardships — Interest of the individual and the race not identical — A close fit between a species and its environ- ment is inevitable — Apparent exceptions due to absence of severe selection — Adaptation not necessarily perfect — Our standards of selection differ from those of nature — Not all the results of natural selection are useful to us — Our standards often require much readjustment of domesticated species — Natural selection always at work — Tower of selection to modify type Vn. Unit Characters 98 Unit of study — Species composed of definite characters — Every individual possesses all the characters of the race — Characters developed and characters latent — Characters dominant and characters recessive — Correlation of characters — Lost characters — New characters — Characters and unit characters Vin. Variaiulity of a Sinole Character 105 Critical study of a single character — Types — Plotting the frequency curve — The mean — The typical individual — Vari- ability or deviation from type — Average deviation — Standard deviation — Coefficient of variability — Suggestions as to tak- ing measurements — Suggestions as to grouping — Sugges- tions as to numbers — Suggestions as to taking samples — Advantages of statistical studies IX. How Characters are 'rRANSMirrEn 121 Every species of its own kind — The machinery of transmis- sion — P'ertilization — Fertilization in general — The material transmitted — Chromosomes — Development, or growth and differentiation — Termination to growth X. \\'iiEN Development goes Wrong 130 Differentiation with development — Underdevelopment, or dwarfing — Overdevelopment, or giants — Arrested develop- ment of a single character or part — Overdevelopment of a single part — Doubling of parts — Fusing of parts — \Vhen unit characters get misplaced — Abnormal growths CONTENTS xiil CHAPTER PAGE XI. How Characters behave in Transmission . . . .141 Characters tend to combine in definite mathematical propor- tions — Characters that do not blend — Mendel's law of hybrids — Dominant and recessive characters — Pure races may spring from crossing — Very few individuals pure — A second method of improvement — Improvement by hybridiza- tion complicated — Mutation and mutants — Origin of new and improved strains XII. How THE Offspring compares with the Parent, OR Descent with Modification 154 The complex nature of heredity — The offspring not like the parent — Mediocrity the common lot, whatever the parentage ; regression — Some offspring better and some worse than their parents — The exceptional parent and his offspring — Pro- gression — The exceptional offspring and his parent — Rever- sion — Degeneracy XIII. The Law of Ancestral Heredity 166 The extent to which the offspring resembles the parent and the extent to which he resembles more remote ancestors — Chance of resembling a particular individual ancestor — The individual a composite — The number "two" XIV. Heredity and Environment 171 Mistaken estimate of environment — All the characters of the race, both good and bad, are transmitted to the individual by his parentage — The function of environment is to assist or to hinder in development — Environment does not add unit characters — Modifications due to environment XV. Systematic Improvement of Animals 178 Origin of the " pure bred " — Pedigree registers — Advanced registry — Unregistered stock and scrubs — Systems of breed- ing — Source of sires — Herd improvement and breed im- provement — Rational improvement — Choosing the breed — Breed differences slight — Market classes and grades — Knowledge of market requirements needful XVI. Systematic Improvement of Plants 198 Improvement by selection — Crossing to produce new varieties — Application of Mendel's law in crossing — Separation of the desired character — Behavior of the recessive — Behavior of the dominant — When. more than two characters are involved — Systems of planting — Records xiv DOMESTICATED ANLMALS AND PLANTS PART II THE ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED RACES CHAPTER PAGE XVn. Oricin of Domesticatkd Animals 207 Domesticated mammals — The dog — The horse — The ass — The ox — The sheep — The goat — The pig — The cat — Domesticated birds — The hen — The goose — The duck — The turkey — The peacock — The swan — The guinea fowl — Additional races and semidomestication — Unwelcome domestication XVIII. Oricin of Cultivated Grains and Grasses . . 241 Cultivated plants, like domesticated animals, originated in the wild — Wheat — Harley — Indian Corn — Oats — Rye — Rice — Sorghum — Sugar ("ane — Millet — Buckwheat — Timothy — ]51ue Crass — Redtop — Orchard grass — The Festucas — Miscellaneous grasses XIX. Orkhn of the Cultivated Legumes 257 Clover — Alfalfa — The lentil — The bean — The pea — The vetch — The lupine — The soybean — The cowpea XX. Orioin of Cultiv'ated Frulfs 267 The apple — The pear — The plum — The sour cherry — The peach — The apricot — The orange and the lemon — The banana— The pineapple — The grape — The strawberry — . The raspberry — The blackberry — The melon — Miscella- neous fruits XXI. Orioin of Farm and Garden Vegetables and Miscellaneous Plants 285 The potato — The sweet potato — Miscellaneous tubers — Edible Roots — The onion — The beet — Manioc, or mandioca — The turnip — Miscellaneous roots — Vegetables cultivated for their foliage — Cabbage — Celery — Eettuce — Asparagus — Plants cultivated for beverage — Coffee — Tea — Alate — riants grown for sedative effect — The poppy — Coca — The betel — Tobacco — Fiber plants — Cotton — Hax — Hemp — Ornamental plants — Weeds Appendix 301 Glossary 3'- Index ' 3'7 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS PART I THE MEANING OF DOMESTICATED RACES AND THE MANNER OF THEIR IMPROVEMENT CHAPTER I THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN UPON DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS Animals and plants as sources of food • As sources of clothing • As sources of shelter • Vegetable products as sources of heat and light • Dependence of man upon animal labor • Animals a means of recreation • Animals and plants as sources of raw material for manufacturing purposes • Medicinal properties ■ of animals and plants • The business of farming Few realize the extent of our dependence upon the plant and animal life about us, and the variety of ways in which domesti- cated animals and cultivated plants have been made to serve the interests and forward the plans and purposes of man. Animals and plants as sources of food. Aside from air and water there is no article of food, common or uncommon, that does not come directly from the animal or the plant. Meat, milk, and eggs, the three standard animal foods, repre- sent the body and its products. Bread, however made, represents the starchy seeds of certain plants, and edible oils are invariably of either plant or animal origin. To these staples we add, for luxury and for health, a great variety of fruits and vegetables, not to mention sweets, but they all arise from plant life somewhere in the world. Most of the food plants are cultivated, and most of the animals are domesticated. The savage may live by the hunt, but it is one of the first evidences of civilization that a race 3 4 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS provides an ample and assured food supply in its domesticated animals and cultivated crops. To be sure, a certain amount of meat still comes from game like the deer and the moose, but the proportion is small and is growing smaller every year. The pioneer, like the Indians, de- pended largely on the hunt, but the buffalo is extinct and the game animals generally are restricted to the protected preserves where they linger only by virtue of stringent laws. Fish have been strictly undomesticated in the past, but now all the promising rivers and lakes are systematically " stocked," so that even these lowest of all food animals are almost half domesticated, in that they are systematically cared for. Any way we stud\- the problem we always arrive at the same conclu- sion, name])-, that we are absolutely dependent for food upon the products of [)h\nt and animal life. Animals and plants as sources of clothing. Primitive man clothes himself in skins, like the L^skimo, if he needs their warmth, or in grasses, like the I'^iji islander, if he does not. Civilized man, however, refining upon savage customs, weaves a cloth out of the fiber of the pelt or of the leaf, and cuts him- self garments that fit the body and lend themselves to its move- ments. In this way the wool of the sheep and the fiber of the cotton and the flax furnish the material out of which the world clothes itself. Aside from furs, and many of these come from lambs and from cats, we draw our clothing supply from animals and plants living under the direct management and control of man, that is, domesticated. The wool of the sheep, the fur of the vicufia, and the hair of the llama and the alpaca are all body coverings shorn for spinning. The fiber of cotton and of flax represent two of our principal crops the world oxer, and the silk that is spun by the insignificant worm represents an industry invoh'ing thousands of people, millions of worms, and acres of mulberry trees. In clothing, therefore, as in food, our supply is mainly drawn from domesticated races. THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 5 Animals and plants as sources of shelter. Such of our ances- tors as were fortunate enough to inhabit mountain districts lived in caves, but as the more venturesome and ambitious sought their fortunes on the plains, where civilization develops, they made themselves tents or tabernacles of the skins of animals and afterward of woven cloth. Only later were shelters built of lumber, bricks, or stone. Our own race has developed its civili- zation in habitations made of wood, but with the passing of the years and the destruction of natural forests, we shall more and more build of indestructible materials not the product of either plant or animal life. For our furniture and our furnishings, however, we shall always be dependent upon both, and we cannot say, even in this, that man is independent of the humbler life about him. Though in the past his draft for building materials has been upon natural supplies and not upon domesticated races, yet the attention that is now being given to forestry indicates the neces- sity of protecting and renewing the timber supplies in ways that amount almost to a domestication of our valuable woods. Vegetable products as sources of heat and light. For ages wood has warmed the body of suffering man, cooked his food, and lifted the shadows from his soul. Not until after the open- ing of the twelfth century ^ did we begin to draw upon our coal deposits, and not until recent years have petroleum and natural gas ranked as heat- and light-producing materials. But whether wood or coal, petroleum or gas, all reduce to the same ultimate basis, — vegetable growth and the carbon of the atmosphere harnessed by the green of the leaf operating under the energy of the sun. None of these sources of heat is from cultivated plants, but the world supply of coal, and therefore of petroleum and gas, is limited, so that at no distant day we shall be obliged to secure our heat either from the sun direct, from wood growing in 1 It is supposed that the first charter for mining coal was granted by Henry III to Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1239. 6 DOMESTICA'IKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS cultivated forests, or from alcohol produced by the starchy grains and veget^ibles. In early days the fat of animals or of plants served for illumi- nation, but with petroleum they jxissed, probably forever, out of use, and it is more than likely that in respect to illumination we shall be independent of iioth animals and plants. Dependence of man upon animal labor. To harness the ani- mals and put them to work is one of the ])iimitive instincts of Fig. I. 'I'lic laiiiiius I'cichcrun stalliuii Hrilliant After a painting by the great animal artist Rosa Bonheur man, and a book would be recjuired even to outline the thou- sand ways in which man has been helped by his dumb com- panions, and in which his future happiness inevitably rests upon their labors. It is the reindeer and the dog that make the jjolar regions habitable. It was the ox that traveled the plains and developed the Pacific coast in the days of '49. The last of the buffalo gave their flesh to feed the workmen that laid the Union Pacific — that first mechanical bond between tlie Ivist and the West. THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 7 It is the horse that has fougiit the wars of the world and won out human hberty. Besides this, lie lias broken our prairies, sown and harvested our grain, and delivered it to the markets of the world. He has carried messages of victory and of sorrow, and down to the time of Washington he constituted the fastest mode of communication known, if we except only the carrier pigeon. If all the animals of the world should die in a single day, the disaster in respect to labor would hardly be second to that in Fir,. 2. " 1 helped to build the Pikes Peak Railroad." The burro and the pack mule afford the best means of transportation over difficult mountain trails respect to food. We might perhaps turn vegetarian, l5ut if man should lose his animal servants, then he himself would at once be reduced to a beast of burden in a thousand ways not com- monly appreciated or even understood. The camel and the pack mule carry civilization into regions which would otherwise remain wilderness, and just as the burro may be said to have built the Pikes Peak Railroad, so the elephant and the water buffalo each has done and is doing its 8 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS distinctive work, without which man would have failed to develop his civilization at certain significant points. Animals a means of recreation. Wholly aside from the sport of hunting, our animal population contributes not a little to the diversion and the recreation of man. The old-time tournament ^ and the later fox chase ministered to the pleasure sense of man, as does the modern horse race. There is no enjoyment more exhilarating than driving behind a spirited horse, unless it be that primitive pleasure of riding ; and the training of intelligent horses to the higher class of service is a business that rises to the rank of a fine art. Thousands of ponies contribute not only to the health of children but also to their pleasure and development, both physi- cal and mental, for no experience is better suited to stimulate resourcefulness in the child than is the everyday management of an animal of the horse kind. The business of fancy breeding is a refining kind of enjoy- ment that for sheer fascination has no superior. As the clay in the hands of the potter, so is a flexible species in the hand of the breeder, as is evidenced by a glance at what has been done in the breeding of pigeons and of dogs (see pp. 93-95), and as will become evident as we proceed with the study now in hand. Animals and plants as sources of raw material for manufac- turing purposes. Animals ma\' be thought to afford but little raw material for the manufacturer, but the wool and the skins, the bones and the slaughterhouse refuse, all work up into valuable material for factory consumption, providing endless necessities and even luxuries, from the covering of our hands and feet to brushes and combs, buttons and knife handles, gelatin and glue. Plants and plant products are nearly all submitted to some process of manufacture before assuming forms suitable for the uses of man, and this affords opportunity for the exercise of ^ See the story of " Ivanhoe." THE DEPENDENCE OF MAN 9 unlimited employment and skill, not only in design but in execution as well. When we regard facts such as these and consider the mul- titude of purposes to which wood is put, the use of pulp for paper, the flouring of grains, the carding and spinning of vege- table and animal fibers, then it is that we begin to realize how generally and how fully our domesticated animals and plants afford what might be called the raw materials of civilization. Medicinal properties of animals and plants. It is not only in health but also in disease that animals and plants serve our needs. Nearly all medicinal preparations are from some species of plant, and each has its characteristic action on some portion or portions of the body or its functions. Certain glands of animals, too, are coming to be much used in the preparation of medicines. If the thyroid gland of the child, for example, fails to develop, the mental faculties will be impaired; but the calamity can be averted by feeding the subject with the thyroid substance of the sheep. And so in countless ways our lives have come to be bound up with those of the animals and plants that we cultivate, and our ability to maintain our civilization and insure our continued happiness will depend very largely upon the success with which we can maintain these animal and plant assistants and cause them to minister to our good. The business of farming. The systematic and continued pro- duction of domesticated animals and plants, insuring a perpetual supply of their products, is the business of farming. Considered from the individual standpoint, we may like it or not according to our natural bent and our like or dislike of animals and the handling of crops, but looked at from the racial and economic standpoint, there is no more important work for the continued welfare of man than that of maintaining a continuous supply of plant and animal products. Nor is this task a simple one. The supply must be ample for an increasing population with increasing needs, although lO DOMKSTICATEI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS plant production tends strongly to tlie deterioration of the soil. Besides this, both animals and plants must be brought and kept up to the highest standard of efficiency, and it is the purpose of this book to discuss some of the principles involved in secur- ing and maintaining the highest attainable service on the part of both animals and plants ; in other words, their systematic improvement from the standpoint of usefulness to man. This being true, we cannot know too much about them, — their nature, their history, and the significant details of their re- production and development. Accordingly, first of all, attention is invited to tiie source from which they have come down to us. Summary. Wc are absolutely dependent upon plant and animal life for food, clothing, and heat, and very largely so for light, shelter, labor, recrea- tion, medicinal compounds, and the raw material for manufacture. In a very large sense man has drafted into his service all other living things which seem capable of ministering to his prosperity, thus, if in no other way, proving his superiority over all other created beings. Exercises. 1. Write essays showing what the horse has done and is doing for man. 2. Write essays showing how we would be affected, and how we would get on if we should suddenly be deprived of the cow. 3. What is the most useful domestic animal in your neighborhood, and why ? 4. What is the most important crop of the locality, and why ? 5. Calculate the value of all the animals of the United States and of your own state, and express it not only in totals but on the per capita basis. 6. In the same way estimate the annual outj)ut of crops, and compare with this the value of our exports. 7. Do the same for the animal products, meat, milk, and wool. 8 . Calculate the amount and value of the grain and hay consumed annually by our domestic animals, and compare it to the cost of feeding our human population. Reference. Year-Book, United States Department oi Agriculture. CHAPTER II DOMESTICATED RACES ORIGINATED IN THE WILD Domesticated races vary ■ Creation not yet finished ■ Most domesticated races have close relatives in the wild • Domesticated species existed first in the wild ■ Species change in domestication • Improvement sometimes slight- Domestication a gradual process • How the history of domestication is known ■ Not always able to identify the original • Distinction between feral and wild Whence came our domesticated animals and our cultivated plants ? Were our horses, our cattle, our sheep, and our swine created in the beginning as they are to-day, or have they de- scended from other, older, and somewhat different races ? Were they made especially for our benefit, or have we drafted them into our service ? Were our wheat, our corn, our clover and alfalfa, our apples and vegetables, created for the particular delectation of man, or have they been discovered and appropriated by him to meet his special needs ? Were they always as they are now in form and color and quality, or have they been developed from preexisting species and somewhat changed in the process ? Domesticated races vary. The last question is easiest an- swered. The domesticated races were not always what they are to-day, for many have arisen within recent times and some within the recollection of men yet living. For example, the Shorthorn cattle were developed in England within the last hundred and fifty years, and the trotting horse is an American product developed since the Civil War. The most common pig of the Mississippi valley is the Poland China, which developed in the Miami valley as the Chester White developed in Chester County, Pennsylvania. 12 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS Wheat is very old, but corn is relatively new, and the variety known as Rile)''s Favorite was produced by James Riley, still living at Thornton, Indiana. Grapes have been known since the earliest ages, but all the varieties growing east of the Rockies have been developed since the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, and the most popu- lar of all grapes — the Concord — originated within half a mile of the old homes of Emerson and of Hawthorne, and close by the little brown house where Miss Alcott lived and wrote "Little Women." Moreover, the writer has seen the original vine still growing by the old home of its originator, Ephraim Bell, as he has also seen the original stock from which all our navel oranges have sprung.* Creation not yet finished. Just as every torrential storm brings down tons of rock and soil, changing permanently the face of nature; just as the rivers carry this "drift" from the uplands, extending the lowlands farther and farther into the sea ; just as frost and flood combine to tear down the mountains and wear away the hills, so are influences at work everywhere to alter more or less permanently the character of the countless species of plants and animals that inhabit the earth. So the Creator is still at work, and not only the forces of nature but man himself works with God in still further improv- ing the earth arid the living beings it everywhere supports. It is well, then, that man shall learn all he can as to how to oper- ate to the best advantage in discharging his part of the labor of creation. Most domesticated races have close relatives in the wild. The most casual observer recognizes the wolf as a kind of first cousin to the dog, and the jackal as a poor relation. Domestic cattle belong certainly to the same general class of animals as the bison and the water buffalo, ^ It should be understood that the peculiar kind of orange called the navel has arisen at many different times and places in the world. Ours originated in southern California. DOMESTICATED RACES I 3 Any zoological garden or traveling menagerie will show a great variety of animals clearly catlike, and almost every moun- tainous country has its native sheep of some kind. The zebra and the quagga of the circus suggest the horse, and the turkey of the New England forests not only resembles our great Thanksgiving bird, but is known to be its direct progenitor.^ Fig. 3. The timber wolf a wild relative ot the domestic dog. Specimens at the National Park, Washington, 1).C. Courtesy of the Superintendent Among plants we have wild oats, timothy, and many kinds of clover ; indeed, most of our pasture grasses are truly wild. We have also wild strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries, wild onions, parsnips, and carrots, and whichever way we turn the domesticated animal and plant is found to have a gypsy relative in the wild. 1 For further data on the turkey, see Part II, Chapter XVII. 14 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS Domesticated species existed first in the wild. The j^lain inference from all this is that domesticated races originated in the wild. This conclusion is abundantly supported by a mass of incontrovertible evidence too voluminous for full presentation here, showing also that man has appropriated these wild species and put them to his service from time to time as he has felt the need. Some of this was done so long ago that the manner of the domestication is lost in the dim and ancient past, and the history of it must be read backwards if it is read at all ; but some of it is so recent that the exact record exists both in printed literature and in the recollection of men that still walk and talk among us. The more ancient races such as the dog and the horse, like wheat and barley, date from a period long before recorded his- tory, and more than likely before the invention of the art of writing ; but on the other hand, the American wild grape that clambers over the trees and shrubs of the eastern United States is known to be the parent of all the cultivated varieties grown east of the Rocky Mountains. In the same way most varieties of plums trace straight to the thickets of eastern American rivers. So again, the gooseberry and the currant, the blackberry and the raspberry, in all their varieties have been developed from wnld races, and mostly within the last half centur)^, just as all the varieties of the rose have arisen from the common wildling of the hedges and the hills. IIow this has been done and the story of it will develop in the student's mind as we come to inquire more specifically into the life history of the separate domesticated species. Species change in domestication. It is not to be assumed that domestieated races are identical with their wild antece- dents. On the contrary, in most cases, substantial improvement has taken place in domestication, as will be seen whenever a domesticated race is comjiared with its nearest wild relative. There are many wild apples, but none so rich or so large as the best products of our orchards. Most wild oranges are DOMESTICATED RACES 15 insipid or bitter. One would have to loolv a long time to find wild grapes equal to the cultivated sorts. No wild potato has ever been found equal to the cultivated either in size or quality. Fig. 4. American wild grape, parent of all cultivated varieties growing east of the Rocky mountains No wild sheep equals the Merino in fineness of fleece or the Shropshire in quality of meat, and no wild animal of the cattle kind was ever known to give as much milk as the domesti- cated cow. 1() l)()Mi:s IICA l'i:i) .\\IM.\I,S WD I'l.WIS Improvement sometimes slight. In a fi-w casi-s (his iinprovc- nu'iit is lai' less pronoiiiux'd than in olhiTs. I'Or t'xainpK', (he bcsl wild slrawlK'iiics aiul bhuklHTrics aiv undouhh-'dly t'ciual in flavor to tlu' i"ul(i\a(i'd, (h()Ui;h far inlrrior in pioductiwness and in si/.c. Ilu' (,'a(a\vl)a .ulapi," was tounil wild in Nordi ("aro- lina, practically iticntical with i(s pi"cscnt foini, hut it was the omI\ \inc of its kind. The fur hearing; animals, like most kinds of lish, have never In-en doinesdead-d ; indi'cd, i( is an open (|Ues(ion if man could main(ain artiiicial ci)ndi(ions (ha( would pii'siT\e in ca|)(i\i(v the same ciualit)' of fur attained in (he wild s(a(e. Domestication a gradual process. C'i\iliza(ion has dexeloped not from one hut from man\' i\-n(ers, and man\' animals and plan(s ha\e heiMi domes(ica(ed, no( once, but many times. I'Acrv " woods ben' " has had his pel " coon " or crow, and every savaj;"c tribe its horde ol doj^s, eaih i^oini; (o the wild for what it wantinl. Some parts o{ (he world wx'ie ahead of odiers in the j^rocess of civilization and also in the business oi domestication. W'iiile our own ancestois wcri' chasing the Aiuoch ' in the wilds of central I'.urope in Ca'sar's time or lumtiui; (he wiUI boar- in (he junkies of (ierman\, .Asia had dexelopeil raix's anti cixiliza- lions that had risen, run (heir coiuses, disappeared, and been fori;o((en, i;ivin!;' place (o o(hers. I'here, then, was j^robably the earliest tlomes(ii.a(ion. .Asia is our lar_i;es( t-on(inen(al area, with the j;teatest tliversitv in st)il, climate, and exposure. It is there- iorc richest in both animal anil |>lant varieties, as it is oldest in civilization ; anil we are no( surpi ised to learn tha( man\' ol om' most useful species were here domesiicated so lonj;' ai;c> that it is impossible to sav when. hmv. or bv whoni it was accomplished. I .ater (ban all (his. howexi-r. ami contemptMancous with the cultine that belon^etl to (iieece and the i;lory that was Rome's, the Indian of our own countrv was as wild as the buffalo and ' 'I'iu- |)ioi),»l)l(.' pio';i-nit(M- of nn)st I'Airopoan l>iooils of cattle. ■J The wild pannl ot i (.rt.iiii lauopean breeds of pifj. DOMKS'I'ICA'I'Kl) RACKS ^7 the bear that he hunted or tlic turkey that our Puritan fore- father tamed. VVlien Demostlienes was developing his oratory, and Alexander and Ciesar were extendin*;' their dominions, the Six Nations had probably not yet made the be<;innin}^ of what in time would undoiibk'dly have developed into an Indian civ- ilization, had it not been interrupted and finally destroyed by European discovery and invasion. Within the recollection of men now livinj;' the Sandwich Islanders were savages. Head-hunters and cannibals are not quite extinct in the Pacific Islands, while in Africa men are yet hunted like wild animals by their savage neighbors. Thus savagery lingered even until our own time. So it is that civilization is constantly springing up from new centers, giving us the oj^portunity of studying the methods of its beginning ; and so it is that tiie ways of primitive man are well known and are made a part, not of our imagination, but of authentic history. .So it is that we arrive at conclusions not only by inference and through relics of ancient peoples, but by actual observation of what men do in the primitive state, — of the real behavior of many and widely separated races that have for one reason or another been belated in their start towards civilization. In this way we are able to study the methods of domestication at first-hand. How the history of domestication is known. In the case of all tiiese peoples, however savage, some start has been made toward domesticating at least a few wild animals, and it is by jnitting together fragments such as these and adding the facts of recorded history that the story of domestication may be written almost if not quite from the beginning. Iwen little matters throw great light upon such a history. For example, the bones of animals that were hunted for food during the stone age are left behind in great heaps, called " kitchen middens," ^ while the bones of domesticated animals 1 Especially numerous in western Europe. Most of these long bones have been split to get at the marrow. iS DOMKS'riCA'I'Kl) ANIMALS AND J'l.AN'I'S are often found buried with human remains, as would be hkelv with special favorites. In those days, of course, animals were not yet domesticated for food, but only to assist in the hunt, an inference perfectly safe from the fact that most of the remains in the middens are of deer and reindeer, e\'en yet not domesti- cated.^ In all these various ways the histor) of domestication of many if not most of our animals is well known, if not in detail, at least in a general way. Not always able to identify the original. However this may be, and however confident we may feel as to the processes of domestication, we often cannot speak with assurance of the exact wild species from which each particular domestic animal has been developed. We know that the ancestor was a wild animal, but which one or ones of the many similar races that must ha\'e existed in those remote times we have but scanty means of knowing. This is partly because, through breeding and care, all domes- ticated races have been greatly changed from their appearance in the wild state, and partly because in very many cases the wild original may itself have changed, or even, perhaps, long ceased to exist anywhere on earth ; indeed, it looks sometimes as if domestication had been the principal if not the only means of saving some of our most valuable species from utter extinction long ago. Distinction between feral and wild. Ihitil recent years im- mense numbers of so-called wild cattle, and of wild horses as well, roamed over our own western plains and over the pampas of South America. Sucli animals are not trul\- wild, because they do not represent an original stock, being merely the de- scendants of the cattle and horses brought over by the Spanish invaders, some of which escaped and " ran wild." Finding conditions favorable, such escaped specimens throve and freely multiplied, ultimately stocking the plains with roving bands of 1 This statement may be questionable as to the reindeer, which is now semidomesticated. DOMESTICATED RACES 19 both cattle and horses, as truly wild in temperament as any species that ever ranged the natural pastures. Such descendants of escaped domesticated races, however, are called " feral," to distinguish them from a truly aboriginal stock, like the buffalo, that ranged our plains with our feral horses. Many cultivated plants also freely revert to the wild in unoccupied lands, but they are spoken of as having " escaped " from cultivation, so that the term "feral " is limited to animals. Feral animals have most of the characters and appearance of the domestic forms from which they spring, except in respect to temperament, which is that of the truly wild, all of which consti- tutes an additional argument for their origin in the wild.^ The next step is to see how it was that animals and plants came to be domesticated and taken out of the wild for the benefit of man. Summary. Domesticated animals and cultivated plants originated and existed for indefinite generations as wild, from which state they have been taken by man to meet his needs, and cultivated in order to insure a suf- ficient and unfailing supply. Some of these races were domesticated ages ago, some within the lifetime of men yet living, and all have been more or less modified from what they were in the wild state. Exercises. 1. What wild animals or plants in your vicinity are, in your opinion, related to domesticated or cultivated forms .>" 2. What animals or plants that have never been domesticated would, in your opinion, prove valuable to man ? 3. Make a list of the wild fruits and nuts native to your vicinity. 4. Make an exhaustive list of the cat tribe of wild animals, with notes on the character and habitat of each. 5. Make the same sort of study of the clog tribe, including wolves, foxes, and jackals. References. 1. " Wild White Cattle of Great Britain." Storer. 2. The zoology and the botany in use in the local school. 3. Any good cyclopedia, or, better, a special treatise such as Lydekker's Library of Natural History (6 vols.) 1 In this connection read Jack London's " Call of the Wild," one of the strongest pictures of this reversion that has ever been drawn, and an excellent dog story withal. CHAPTER III HOW ANIMALS AND PLANTS CAME TO BE DOMESTICATED Domestication the result of necessity • Need for help in the htint ■ Need for additional food • Need for clothing and shelter • Need for labor • Domesti- cation the first step in civilization • The civilizing effect of slavery • What animals have done for us • Unused materials • Lost possibilities • Domestica- tion a gradual process • Species that were domesticated Domestication the result of necessity. Domestication both of animals and plants came naturally out of the needs of primitive man. If he could have maintained himself successfully on the spontaneous products of nature, he would never have undertaken the trouble of domesticating the wild animals and plants about him, and of assuming the labor and responsibility of their main- tenance and care. It early became, however, a matter of necessity. Primitive man, like the animals about him, lived under hard conditions. The " law of the wild " ^ was the law everywhere. Everything subsisted by virtue of its strength, its endurance, or its wits, and man, like his animal neighbors, spent most of his time in get- ting something to eat and in avoiding being eaten himself. As compared with the other animals, — for primitive man is little else than an animal, — our barbarian ancestors found themselves at no little disadvantage, purely on physical grounds. They w-ere not as strong as many of the animals and were no match for them in fair battle. They were not as fleet of foot as most of the game they hunted. They could not trail by scent like the wolf, and if the hunter by sheer endurance stalked his game and walked it to death,^ he was far from camp or cave where his 1 See Chapter V. 2 Man is probably the best walker among the animals and can easily outwalk even the horse in an endurance test. DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 2 I little ones were, and most of the carcass was worthless when at last he had obtained it. Primitive man was not long in discovering that his chief ad- vantage lay in his wits. He was the only animal that knew enough to pick up a club and use it as a weapon, either of offense or defense. He was the only one that could manage fire.^ He was the only one that could hurl a stone or make a machine to send a projectile of any sort.^ By aid of various devices, such as weapons and traps, the savage continued to subsist by his wits, and he was hard on the species he hunted. As a consequence game not only grew more scarce but it gradually learned the methods of this dangerous enemy, who struck where he was not, and became exceedingly wary, till scarcity and starvation were inevitable, calling for a fresh draft upon the wits. Need for help in the hunt. The hunting habits of the wolf must have early attracted the attention of our barbarian ances- tors. His ability to trail by the scent and his habit of hunting in packs, as well as his fieetness and his relentless endurance, could not have failed to impress themselves upon hungry hunters in very early times, and to possess a pack of such helpers must have been a primitive ambition. P'ortunately the nature of the wolf is such that he is easily tamed if taken young, and he succeeds well in captivity. His intelligence is of an order that responds to that of man in his hunting temper, and it is not strange that wherever primitive 1 Monkeys and baboons will warm themselves by a fire, but do not know enough to replenish it. Fire was almost certainly at first obtained from volca- noes. Its production by friction and by flint and steel must have been much later achievements. 2 The ingenuity of primitive man in making projectiles is truly remarkable. Bows and arrows, blowguns, and afterwards firearms, are progressive tributes to increasing intelligence ; but of all projectiles, the boomerang is the most wonderful, considering the grade of savage that produced it. The writer has been told by travelers who have seen it done, that a skillful thrower could strike a mark with the boomerang, which would then return and fall near the thrower's foot. 22 nOMKS I'KA l"i:i) ANIMALS AND ri-ANTS man has been discowMvd ho has had cxlcnsixc packs oi doti^s, ccrtainh il woKos of an\- kiiul wciv t'ouiul in thai pari of the workl.' The cU\i;- was oasil\- tamed, Init he was Heeler of foot than man. his master, antl both game and doj;s were ahiiost certain to be soon k>st in the distance, leaving the master to come be- hind and lake what was left after the death. Accordingly the horse must ha\e earh appealetl to the primitive hunter on aee(,>unt o( his tleetness.'-^ With his horse and his do<2; and his Kie.. 5. llcail of the collio and of the coyote. Note similarity in outline and general efl'cct weapons, howexer, the man was match (ov anything tiiat roamed the forest or the plain, and with them he has established and made good his claim as lord of all creation. Need for additional food. lUit all this was still harder upon the hunted, ami game was raindlv killed off or driven awav, till many a time the hunter retiuned empl\-handed. Then it was that a few nuts or seeds gathered h\ the wtimen brought grate- ful relief from what would otherwise have been distressing fast, 1 Reference has already been made to the fact that our American Indians had made doj^s out of the coyote or wild wolf of the prairie. ■■^ As late as the times of the Ok\ Testament, even the wild ass is frequently alluded to as a symbol of swiftness. This is especially true in Job and the prophets, having reference, probabiv. to the Syrian wild ass figured in the Ninevite sculptures. DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 23 and thus it was that agriculture had its l)eginnings in the fre- quent failure of the hunt. As game grew more and more scarce the favorite fruits were held in higher esteem, the places where the large-seeded grasses grew were carefully protected, the other vegetation was cleared away, and the beginnings of cultivation were made. The next step was to gather stores of fruits, nuts, and seeds for the winter, and, last of all, to plant and care for the very best in some open space or bend of the river where fresh new soil awaited occupation. Thus did cultivation begin, and thus were women the first farmers. Nothing was more natural than that the best should be gathered for eating, and the very choicest only reserved for planting. In this way the first steps in plant improvement were introduced at the very beginning of cultivation, and thus did our ancestors early learn the fundamental lesson of all breeding, namely, the better the parentage the better the offspring. This utilization of plants as well as animals added vastly to the food supply and greatly insured its constancy and regularity. Savages who followed this course prospered and encroached upon their neighbors, while those who depended solely upon the hunt suffered periodic famine and faced, in the end, extinc- tion,^ for in a state of nature the " law of the wild " obtains among men as well as among the animals. However, man was unwilling to give up his animal food with the growing scarcity of game. He had been in the habit of slaughtering the best,^ without regard to the future, — an utterly wasteful proceeding, for in this way the hunt was not only fear- fully destructive of numbers but of quality as well, and it is little 1 Read the liistory of tlic Iroquois, or Six Nations, who raised crops, in con- trast with that of the C!anadian Indians who subsisted entirely by the hunt and were often forced in winter to eat the skins and even the bark of their wigwams. - It is always the largest buck that is singled out for the chase. The best of everything is hunted, just as the woodsman, cutting a tree, even for exercise, chooses always the straightest and best, while the forester, who is the product of civilization, cuts always the worst, giving the best a still better chance. 24 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS wonder that hunting men starved periodically, when it took, as estimated, forty acres of good hunting ground to sustain one individual. It was inevitable that the time should come when man must take better care of the wild animals or give up animal food. The first step was to hunt and destroy the wild animals that preyed upon those that were of value to man,^ and the next was to spare the finest males and all females with young.^ Thus were the first steps in domestication and the beginning of im- provement instituted at substantially the same time. The next step was to provide food for this increasing stock of valuable semidomesticated animals. This was done in two ways. The easy way was to herd and drive the bunch to fresh pastures where there was good water. This required a consider- able force of men and horses, not only to herd the animals but to protect them from robbers, because these herds were none too plenty and the feeding lands none too extensive.'^ The other plan of providing food was to supply it directly from cultivated plants, confining the animals more and more as natural feeding grounds became exhausted. This is the more laborious of the two methods, but it is the one followed when natural feeding grounds (plains) are not extensive, and it is the one necessarily followed wherever lands become valuable. Thus did man save to his own use and preserve from extinction not only the dog and the horse, but all the animals good for food, and thus, in a measure, has he become their servant and care- taker in consideration of what they can do for him. 1 To the knowledge of the writer a wolf hunt occurred in Illinois as late as the very close of the last century, — 1 am quite sure in 189S. 2 At the discovery of South America the Peruvian Indians, orAztecs, were found to have already instituted an annual hunt by which all the animals of a great region were rounded up in some mountain valley, driven to close quarters, the worthless and dangerous beasts of prey systematically killed, and the supply of meat taken not from the best, but from the common animals, being careful to release the best for breeding purposes in order that the quality of the supply should not deteriorate. 8 Read again the story of Abraham and Lot, Genesis xiii, 7-1 1. DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 25 Need for clothing and shelter. Food was not the only need of man supplied by the beast and bird of the forest. The skins were good for clothing and for tents, enabling the primitive hunter to leave his cave and other natural shelters, and erect his home wherever inclination or necessity dictated. The skins of those taken for food were, however, not enough to meet this need, and the world over animals with especially fine body covering have been hunted almost to the point of extermina- tion for their fur, originally as a matter of necessity but in these latter days as a matter of luxury and profit.^ So relentless has been that warfare, and so systematically has it been conducted, that our valuable fur-bearing animals are nearly exhausted and we ourselves will soon face the same issue with respect to these animals that our barbarian ancestors faced with respect to food animals, — domesticate or go without. Even this has not fully met our need for the products of the animal body, and many species with a long coat have from time immemorial been shorn of their fleece, the "wool " to be woven into cloth and the animal saved to grow another crop. Thus did the scarcity of animals add one more step in our march of civili- zation, and add the loom to our industries. Even this was not enough. The wool of sheep and the hair of goat and alpaca alone could not meet our new demands for fabric. Then came the resort to vegetable fiber, not only for clothing, but for cordage to take the place of the more expen- sive, and at last impossible, dried sinew and leather lariat.^ Thus 1 The Hudson Bay Company was founded in 1670, and chartered by the British government with special privileges to hunt fur-bearing animals in the Canadas, especially in the Hudson l^ay territory. These hunters and trappers were really the first explorers, for they not only subsidized the Indians to hunt and trap, but themselves penetrated to the remotest depths of forest and moun- tain in search of the precious pelt. The quest for seal was no less ardent upon the water than was that for otter, mink, and beaver on the land. - In certain portions of the tropics a tough and slender vine is used for binding together the timbers in fence and building construction. The cipo (pronounced see-po) is a vine of this kind, and is suggestively called the Brazilian nail. 26 domesticatp:i) animals and plants a new list of plants came into cultivation, greatly extending our farming oj:)erations, — all in order to meet the needs of an ad- vancing civilization. y\nd the end is not yet, for the demand is still for more and better fabrics. Need for labor. From the beginning man was a lazy animal. Like his associates, he bestirred himself only in the presence of extreme necessity. He acquired the horse to add to his fleet- ness of limb, and thereby learned the lesson that riding is not only faster but easier than walking. Besides, when man undertook the somewhat wholesale domes- tication of animals and plants he assumed an immense burden not only of responsibility but of labor. If now he was to under- take to provide the horse's food, what more natural than that the horse should pull the plow ^ to raise his own provender ? Then, too, with the accumulated property to be carried from place to place, not only for storage but for trading with people who desired exchange, still new uses for the horse were found. In this and other ways not only the horse was put to work, but other animals like the ox, the camel, and the llama were domesticated chiefly for their labor. Thus with the passing of the hunt the old occupation of the horse is gone, but he has found other uses which are no less valuable in our eyes, and we cannot foresee the time when the so-called "horseless age" will be truly ushered in.^ Domestication the first step in civilization. Every hungry man is a savage, whatever his stage of development, and no race is ready to lay even the foundations of a civilization till it has provided itself with an ample and assured food supply. As long as primitive man depended solely upon the hunt, so long did he alternate between fast and famine, with the certainty that in the end the famine would gel liim. ^ The original plow was not the traditional forked stick. It was without doubt simply a sharp stick drawn i)y a cord or vine, and held by the attendant in a slanting direction. 2 In spite of all the talk about doing away with horses, their numbers and prices are steadily increasing. DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 27 But with animals to care for came property interests to de- fend, and a feeling of responsibility developed which only can stimulate that sober activity which marks civilization as distinct from savagery. With the primitive crops land came to have a value. This, too, had to be defended, for savage enemies were not long in learning that cultivated fields on which were growing the next winter's food constituted the most vulnerable point in a neigh- bor.^ Stores of grain also constituted peculiar temptations and necessitated walled or otherwise defendable cities. The civilizing effect of slavery. There is a chapter of this ancient history most unpleasant to revive, but yet upon which we ought to be intelligent. It is difficult for us now to realize how slavery ever did any good in the world, or how it ever helped along towards civilization, yet a little reflection will serve to show how at one time it played an important part. In the primitive division of labor it was natural that the men should be the hunters while the women stayed behind with the children. It was natural, too, that upon the return of the suc- cessful hunters, tired and hungry, their duty ended when the game was brought home and laid at the feet of the women, whose natural duty it was to skin the animals and prepare the meal. Again, nothing was more natural than that the women should, during the absence of the hunters, scour the neighboring forests for such nuts and fruits and seeds as they could pick up ; for experience taught that the hunt was not always successful, and that a dinner of herbs was better than none at all, besides contributing to the good humor of the men, who, in savagery, did not hesitate to abuse anybody who was unable to success- fully resist. Taken altogether, the lot of the women of primitive races is a hard and laborious one, with plenty of abuse thrown in. Now it is easy to see how scarcity of game, restricted hunting grounds, cultivated fields, and stores of food lead to warfare. But ^ How this led to war has already been noted in connection with the Iroquois. 28 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS warfare means j^risoners, and there is one thing more satisfying to a savage victor than to kill his prisoner and use his skull for a drinking bowl, and that is to take him home and turn him over as a slave to his savage wife, who is not slow to make him per- form her labor and to vent upon him the abuse she has so often suffered herself, and which she and her children so well know how to bestow. Imagine the satisfaction with which a victorious savage would regard the chief of a rival tribe whom he had brought as a present to his wife, as he saw him day after day doing the work of women ! Imagine, too, the satisfaction of the woman in ha\ing the opportunity to belabor a man and perhaps encour- age the children to practice CRielty upon him whom they had once learned to dread as a great warrior. It is a hard picture, this primitive slaver)-, but it is only under conditions such as these that the savage man and the barbarian woman first came to stand on terms of equality ; thus it is that slavery w-as the first emancipation of woman, and it is this in- stitution, bad as it is, that first made leisure possible to woman- kind, and g-ave her honorable stiinding in the e\'es of man. With the later chapters of slavery and its degradation to both races we are more familiar, but we cannot afford to forget, in our horror of this now extinct institution, the great service it once rendered to woman when the world was young. What animals have done for us. The want of space does not permit the expansion of this thought, but it is one to which young people may well give some special study, for animals not only give their bodies and body products to be consumed, but they toil day after day for our advantage. With the recent mechanical inventions, the business of carry- ing both freight and men has been largely removed from our animals, especially in our most highly civilized countries. And yet w^e do not forget the pony express of our western plains, nor fail to remember that it was within the memory of men yet li\'ing that the patient ox toiled day after day to drag endless DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 29 emigrant trains across the boundless prairies, through the bottomless "sloughs" and over the Great Divide. "Westward the course of empire takes its way " would never have had its full meaning for us, except for the thousands of cattle that dropped by the wayside and left their bones bleaching on the prairies beside those of the buffalo relative, as tribute to the march of civilization westward.^ The development of South Africa is yet almost unwritten history.^ Here no animal but the ox can endure the endless toil of the treeless plain, and he has been the constant attendant of the Boer from the Great Trek till the present, as he is likely to be for a considerable time to come. Nothing is more common than for people that have become prosperous to forget, even perhaps to despise, the very means by which their prosperity came about, — to overlook the means in the enjoyment of results. These animals literally give their lives to our service, with no returns but feed and care, a fact which raises the question of our natural obligation in exacting this service. We are practicing upon them the " law of the wild " even yet. Doubtless the end justifies the means, and without a doubt it is right to use our animals to our own ad- vantage, but every law, both human and divine, forbids that we abuse them. In a large measure life in any form is a sacred thing. A man's horse or cow belongs to him only in the restricted sense that he is entitled to the service, and if necessary the life, only when he provides generously for the needs of the animal and surrounds it by as much comfort as possible. At best our ani- mals are bits of God's creation which we are entitled to appro- priate and use only under terms which we can justify before Him who is the judge of all. 1 Even the first material for the Union Pacific was hauled by oxen, so that the ox gave his labor as the buffalo gave his flesh, and both gave their lives to this first connection between the East and the West. 2 See James Bryce's " Impressions of South Africa," an excellent book dealing with primitive conditions. 30 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND I'LAXI S Unused materials. It has been frequently mentioned that the world migiit have been much richer in domesticated races if it had seemed worth while, or if we had really set about it. The bison, whether European or American, would have made a good domestic animal of the cattle kind. The quagga could be domesticated if we needed him. The bighorn of the Rockies would make a sheep, and the peccar)' or the wild boar would make a pig. The prairie hen would make a better fowl than the guinea hen, and any number of new dogs could be devel- oped from the foxes and the wolves. The wild rice of our northern lakes would make an excel- lent grain for lowlands. The milkweed ma}- have possibilities as a fiber plant. Many of our native fruits and nuts have never been domesticated, and it is a startling fact that our original native grasses of the prairie, numbering many species, are being allowed to disappear without contributing a single new race to our cultivated grasses, — this, too, in face of the fact that we have yet no grass without a serious defect. Except for the difficulty of restraint, the deer and the antelope would make valuable domesticated animals. The semidomesti- cation of the skunk has already begun on the great skunk farms where they are raised in numbers for their skins. The frightful odor of this animal when on the defensive has given him an evil reputation, but in truth he is a most gentle animal, with much the disposition of the cat and without its savage ways. The flesh is exceedingly sweet and tender, and it is altogether likely that this little beast may yet become more nearly domes- ticated than will ever be possible with the ostrich, which seems incapable of affection. Lost possibilities. W' ithout a doubt many an animal or plant now extinct would have made a most valuable domesticated species, had it been taken in time. It is difficult to give ex- amples because we know so little of extinct species, and because it is impossible to make direct comparisons between a domesti- cated and a wild race, either of the same or a different species. 31 32 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS Many good and useful species, however, have been lost, and many far less valuable have lingered. Just now we are beginning to realize the possible value of a species that has come upon the earth, made its way, and main- tained its place among competitors, if perchance it possesses qualities that are now, or that by attention may be, developed into characters useful to man. The muskmelon is an example of a species most unpromising in nature, and therefore neg- lected almost until our own day, yet yielding readily to im- provement and producing most delicious fruit. The tomato is another example, and asparagus another. Recognizing these facts as never before, the Department of Agriculture at Washington is scouring the world in search of plants of possible economic value, or those that are likely to yield to the ameliorating influences of the breeder and the cul- tivator. Even if not now valuable, those that are likely to be- come so are well worth the most careful consideration. In this way domestication of plants is at last becoming a systematic, not to say a scientific, business. This search for the possibly useful is coming to be nearly as systematic and far-reaching as the scouring of the earth, by such firms "as Parke, Davis & Company, of Detroit, for plants with new and possibly valuable medicinal qualities. Domestication a gradual process. Southeastern Asia w'as un- doubtedly the first area of domestication, with Egypt a close second. Europe came later, and America last of all. Each made its contribution to the stock of domesticated animals and plants by adding what was lacking, by making use of some specially valuable native, or by utilizing the wild stock of the region when the cultivated races failed to acclimate, as was the case with European grapes in the eastern United States. In a general way the history of these civilizations is the story of their domestications as well, and a critical reading of that history with this particular subject in mind affords many side lights on the people, as, for example, the terror of the Indians DOMESTICATION OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS 33 at the Spaniard on horseback, or the IsraeHtes' fear of the mounted ami)' of the Assyrians before the Hebrews obtained horses after the Exodus. Species that were domesticated. The only consideration that seems to have guided man in his work of domestication is the possible usefulness of the species. No labor or pains seem to have been so great, and no timidity or ferocity so extreme, as to deter him from his purpose in the presence of a need unsatisfied that some natural species might gratify. At this point, and before taking up questions of improvement, the student is strongly urged to turn to Part II and make a detailed study of the sources from which our domesticated ani- mals and plants have been drawn. If it is impossible to do this for all species, let him at least do so for a selected number. The chapters in question are separated from the body of the work, so that they may be used either as text or reference, according to the circumstances and the need of the student or the school. Summary. Domestication was, in the beginning, a matter of necessity in order to insure a constant and adequate food supply, and it has been con- tinued as a means of contributing to the comfort and general prosperity of man. We have used what we needed and left the rest alone, leaving unu- tilized much valuable material. Without this domestication oiif present state of civilization could not have developed, and we could not spare any of the prominent races now, either plant or animal, without detriment to man. The facts of this chapter will enable us to realize why the list of domes- ticated species is so extensive, and it will prepare us for a more particular and detailed study of special races both of animals and plants, as outlined in Part II, as it will also prepare us for a realization of the need of still further modifications and the means for effecting this improvement. Exercises. 1. In what respects do pioneers experience the hardships and assume the habits of primitive man ? 2. In what respects do camping parties revert to the primitive state ? 3. Show under what disadvantages we would live without the horse, the cow, or any other common animal or crop. 4. Make a list of the domesticated animals and plants kept by the Egyp- tians during the sojourn of the Jews in bondage, in the delta of the Nile. 5. Make a list of the domestic animals kept by the Jews during the forty years' wandering in the wilderness. 34 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 6. What domesticated animals and plants did the Jews acquire after ob- taining the Promised Land, and how did it affect their civilization.'' When did they acquire horses? 7. What animals and plants had been wholly or partialh- domesticated by the natives of North and South .America before discover)- b\- the white man ? References. 1. Any good book dealing with primili\e or pioneer life, such as " The Oregon Trail " by Parkman, or the " Winning of the West " by Roosevelt. 2. The earlier chapters of the Old Testament. 3. " The Conquest of Peru." Prescott. 4. Any good book on the North American Indians, such as l^arkman's "Jesuits in North America.'' CHAPTER IV NEED OF IMPROVEMENT IN DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs • Maintenance of animals costly ■ Further improvement needed ■ Need of more economic service • Some individuals better than others • Economic significance of differences in effi- ciency • The fact of variability established • Variability in a single character • Historical knowledge of original species needed Natural species not perfectly adjusted to our needs. If our animal and plant allies had been especially created for our serv- ice, it is to be assumed that they would have been perfectly adapted to our needs ; but as they were appropriated from the wild, they ofttimes but imperfectly meet our requirements. For example, the horse is a little too timid, the bull too un- trustworthy and ferocious, the wool of the sheep either too coarse or too short for many needs ; and all animals make meat only at enormous expense of feed, requiring, roughly speaking, about ten pounds of grain or its equivalent for one pound of meat. Corn has a little too much oil and not quite enough protein for the best feeding purposes, and the stalk is larger and heavier than we would like. Oats do not yield sufficiently in the warmer sections, and we still lack an ideal pasture grass for most regions of the earth. And so we might go on indefinitely, enumerating particulars in which we could wish our domesticated races were better adapted to our requirements. Maintenance of animals costly. Few realize the expense of maintaining our extensive animal population. One cow will eat thirty dollars' worth of feed in a year at ordinary prices, and more if she can get it. A horse will eat from fifty to seventy- five dollars' worth, according to the way in which he is kept. 35 36 DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS AND PLANTS Besides this, these animals recjuire a large amount of labor in earing for their needs, and a still additional expense for the shelter of themselves and their feed.^ The animal population of the United States in millions as compared with the human is substantially as follows : Human population Horses, mules, and asses Cattle of all kinds . . Sheep Swine Census of 1900 75,000,000 2 1 ,000,000 67,000,000 61,000,000 62,000,000 Estimated for igio 90,000,000 27,000,000 73.000,000 67,000,000 68,000,000 With fi\e jK'oplc to the lamil)-, we can say that in general and on the average every famil\- has one horse, four head of cattle, four sheep, and four swine, with several millions left over, — a total average of three animals for each human inhabitant, or fifteen to the familw The estimate for 19 lo can be only approximate, for these proportions vary greatly. It is little wonder that we raise immense acreages of hay, corn, and oats to maintain all these animals. It is only on care- ful thought that we realize how much of our lands and how much of our labor are devoted to the care and maintenance of the animals we have domesticated and brought to live among us, and whose support we have undertaken. There is argument enough now for the highest attainable efficiency on the score of expense, but it must be evident to the most casual reader that with the increase of human ]oopulation 1 Read Circula}- 118, Experiment Station, University of Illinois, and see how extensive the barns must be to shelter the large number of inefficient cows necessary to return the same profit as would be returned by a few economical producers. In the case in hand, one class of cows return fourteen times the profit of the other. This would mean that in order to realize a certain net in- come, fourteen times as many cows of the one kind would have to be kept as of the other, which means fourteen times as much barn room, fourteen times as much capital tied up in feed, fourteen times as much milking, and more than fourteen times as much waste and risk. NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 37 and the enhanced value of lands, the time will come when it will be difficult, if not impossible, to support as large an animal population as we should like.^ Surely it is high time even now to push forward this increase of efficiency to the end that values shall not be wasted, and to the further end that as population increases, our animal friends shall be less a burden upon us as we continue to enjoy their service. Further improvement needed. With some of our older species the service is entirely satisfactory as to quality, but with most of the newer and many of the older there is yet much to be desired. For example, wheat and oats are, so far as we know, ideal in their quality, except that we should like to see a larger propor- tion of strong plants with less shrunken grain. This, however, expresses itself in a matter of amount rather than in quality of food product. The cow gives us good milk, but not enough of it for the feed she consumes, and so others might be mentioned that are satisfactory except as to amount. Coming to corn the case is different. This is preeminently a stock food, but it is deficient in both nitrogen and minerals, especially phosphorus. Can this deficiency be wholly or partly remedied by mixture with other crops, such as alfalfa, for ex- ample, or does something remain to be done in the way of altering the chemical composition of corn itself ? If the latter, the indications are that we can accomplish it. Horses are now certainly fast enough. A two-minute gait is at the rate of thirty miles an hour, which is neither safe nor desirable for ordinaiy use. However, in the opinion of city teamsters, the horse is not yet large enough. For their business 1 Let the student exercise his imagination in picturing the condition as we approach the density of population of China, 400 to the square mile. How then shall animals be kept? Our population has doubled four times in the last hundred years. What will be the condition if this rate of increase should con- tinue another hundred years ? Let the student make some estimates covering this question. Let him also determine the effect of education upon coming problems of this kind. 38 DOMKS'riCATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS it is dcsirahli' Id liaul as nuK'h lR'ii;ht as possibK- with oiu- team, one waj^on, and one driver.' I lowcvcr lasl the horse may ^o, he rarely jjleascs us in his gait or his endurance, nor are his intelligence and docility yet ideal. The horse is naturally a timid animal, and with his great ])()\ver is dangerous and growing more so with his increasing s])irit, unless his intelligence and tractahleness are made to keep jxRe with his increasing energy and action. Our safety depends not upon our strength in his management, but ui)on the extent to which the horse will take training and our ability and skill in imparting that training.^ Before a large proportion of our spirited horses are satisfactory at this point much is needed by way of further improvement. In respect to fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants much remains to be accomplished. Most of our fruits are relatively new and not completely acclimated or fully adapted to all our soils and conditions. Added to that is the fact that conditions in fruit raising have suddenly changed. The time was when every man picked from " liis own vine and fig tree," but now we expect that most fruits will be transported long distances^ and still reach the consumer not only sound but fresh. This is asking much, and the present call is for desirable " market varieties," meaning those which yield well, are of good quality, and will stand shipment, especially the latter. 1 As a good example, Ciiiin and t'ompany, tlie publishers of this book, had in their service a single team that could and did haul a load of over eight tons. It mattered but little that the wagon weighed three and three-fourths tons. One man drove the whole, and expensive labor and long delays were avoided. 2 People who are not horsemen often think they are " able to hold any horse." Real horsemen know better, and fully realize that the bit and the line are at best only guides of a superior intelligence over one that is inferior but willing to yield itself to guidance. For driving purposes, therefore, a horse is valuable and safe in proportion as he has been trained and educated, and always under all circumstances amenable to direction and control. * Consider the shipping of such delicate California fruits as peaches, pears, and grapes over the entire United States and the exportation of apples to Kuro]3e. NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 39 There is no especial difficulty in combining yield and quality, but the best varieties are in general too delicate to withstand shipment for long distances unless picked green, which is an in- jury to the flavor, except in such cases as the banana and the pear. That the ideal market apple has not yet been produced is a fact that shows what remains to be done. Many more new varieties of pears, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries will continue to be produced before all sections will be supplied with the best varieties both for home use and market purposes. Vegetables are in much the same condition as fruits. Vast improvement in most kinds has been effected within recent years, and it is still going on at a rapid rate. The tomato has been developed from the worthless " love apple " within the life- time of men yet living, who remember when this now luscious fruit suffered an evil rejjutation as the supposed cause of cancer. Asparagus, lettuce, and radishes have been wonderfully im- proved within a generation, not to mention celery and sweet corn ; and as matters are going now, onions will be made more delicate in their flavor, and many a vegetable will come into common use that is hardly yet introduced. The development of new and beautiful varieties of flowers and other ornamental plants is only begun. Out of the mate- rials at hand new and unheard-of effects will be produced now that plant breeding is coming to be studied and understood as a science. Need of more economic service. The first great need for better plants and animals is in the interest of larger return for the expense involved. It costs no more to fit and cultivate the ground for a fifty-bushel crop of corn than for a thirty- bushel crop,^ in which case the extra twenty bushels are clear gain. If ten or twenty ears of corn of the same variety, and as nearly alike as possible, be planted in separate rows side by side, 1 The average corn crop is aliout thirty bushels, yet the most profitalile crop at the University of IHinois has averaged ninety-six bushels for the last three years. 40 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS it will be found that some of the rows will \ield two and often three times as much as others,^ all of which proves that some varieties or strains will produce fifty bushels as easily as others will produce thirty, showing conclusively the need of better seed, or rather of the best that is obtainable. Professor PYaser, head of the dairy department at the P^ni- versity of Illinois, has conducted many hundreds of actual tests, aiming to secure reliable data on the relative efficiency of cows. These tests are of two general kinds : one conducted away from the University on the commercial herds of the state, aiming to secure the yearly product with only approximate reference to the food consumption ; the other conducted at the University under the most careful conditions, and aiming to secure records of the nutrients consumed, as well as of the milk and fat produced. Of the commercial-herd tests something over twelve hundred individuals have been tested for periods running from one to three years. Their average animal }Droduction was 5521 pounds of milk and 219 pounds of fat distributed as follows : Relative Milk-Producinc; I'owers of 1200 Cows for One Year Milk Number below Percent below Number above Per cent above Average 2,000 lb. 10 I — 1 190 99 + 5,554 lb. 3,000 lb. 69 6- '•3' 94 + 5,704 lb. 4,000 lb. 243 20 + 957 80- 6,092 lb. 5,000 11). 495 41 + 705 59- 6,650 lb. 6,000 lb. 753 63- 447 37 + 7,322 lb. 7,000 lb. 963 80 + ^37 20 — S.oSi lb. 8,000 lb. 1096 9' + 104 9- 8,943 lb. 9,000 lb. 1 1 60 97 - 40 3 + 9,770 lb. I0,OQO lb. 1 186 99- 14 I + 10.734 lb. I 1,000 lb. 1 197 3 1 1,893 '^• 1 2,000 lb. 1 199 I 12,1 17 lb. " This is an cxpcriniciu that every student can readily verify, and it is recommended that he do it. NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 4 1 Relative Fat-Producing Powers of 1200 Cows for One Year Butter fat Number below Per cent below Number above Per cent above Average 50 lb. 2 I — I198 99 + 2191b. 100 lb. 24 2 1.76 98 222 lb. 150 lb. 194 16 + 1006 84- 238 lb. 200 lb. 490 31 - 710 59 + 263 lb. 250 lb. 837 70- 363 30 + 302 lb. 300 lb. 1065 89- 135 II + 353 lb. 350 lb. I 140 95 60 5 394 lb. 400 lb. I 178 98 + 22 2 - 438 lb. 450 lb. I 194 99 + 6 I — 477 lb. 500 lb. I 199 I 539 lb- These tables should be read as follows : In the first table, 10 cows, or I per cent of the whole, gave less than 2000 pounds of milk ; and 1 1 90, or 99 per cent, gave more than 2000 pounds, the average of these being 5554 pounds, and so on for other values. Some comments on these facts are significant. The average production of these 1200 cows was 5521 pounds of milk, and 219 pounds of butter fat. The best one fourth were able to pro- duce an average of 7813 pounds of milk and 312 pounds of butter fat per year, while the poorest one fourth were able to produce on the average only 3435 pounds of milk and i 37 pounds of fat ; that is to say, waiving all questions of food consumption, the poorest one fourth produced but something over 43 per cent as much milk and fat as did the best one fourth. A series of publications from the department shows exhaus- tively the meaning of these facts. Some of these were published before the entire number of records were in, but the relation between the good and the poor cow was substantially the same. Some individuals better than others. One of the most strik- ing facts in the above herd tests is the wonderful difference in efficiency of individual cows, even of the same age and breed. Thus they ranged all the way from less than 2000 pounds of 4^ DOMKSTICA TKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS milk per year up to over 12,000, and from Irss than 50 jjounds of butter fat ^ to over 500 pounds. Manifestly a whole herd like the poorer cows would swamp their owner unless prices were enormous or unless their food consumption were correspond- in<;h' lower. To test this point, the dejjartment conducted investigations into the relative efficiency of commercial cows on the basis of food consumed. Accordingly two or more cows were ])urchased from each of several of the largest commercial herds of the state, the aim being in every case to secure the very best and the very poorest individuals in the herd, according to the best basis of judgment at hand. The yearly record of these cows is shown in the following table : VAKiAi-.n.nv oi' Cows on i'mk Basis ok P'ood CoNsuMrriox No. of cow 2 Grades Total milk Total fat Digestible nutrient* Ratio n-j-m" Ratio n^f 83 84 Good roor 11.794 8.157 382 324 7418 0.63 0.82 19.42 20.79 8s 86 Good Poor 9.59' 3.097 406 119 7532 4998 0.78 I.61 '8.55 42.00 93 94 Good Poor 9.473 7.845 358 282 7604 6706 C.80 0.85 21.24 23.80 95 96 (jood Poor 14,840 7,685 469 324 8379 6871 0.56 0.81 17.08 21.20 97 98 Good Poor 8,562 1,41 1 291 52 6893 4062 0.80 2.88 23.68 78.00 ' Hy butter fat is meant not hulter, hut the fat of butter. Commercial butter contain.s about 85 per cent fat, the rest being water, salt, curd, etc. 2 Numbers by which the cows were designated in the records. •' Each group from the same herd. * After multiplying number of pounds of fat by 2.4. This represents the amount f)f food digested by each cow. '' n -^ m = nutrients divided by milk ])i'o(luced. ® n -=- f = nutrients divided by fat produced. NEKI) Ol' IMrROVKMKNT 43 A miinlKT of sii^nilicaiU fads a])])c'ar in this tabic. The herd which furnished Nos. 83 and 84 was evidently a j^ood lu-rd, for they were both good cows, though one was bought for a jjoor cow. While the two differ widely in total jjroduction, they differ almost correspondingly in food consumption, and the ratios for fat production were close together. On the other hand, Nos. 85, 86, though coming from the same herd, betray wide differences. The good cow, No. 85, was more than twice as eflficient as her mate, No. 86, whether we consider fat or milk. Nos. 93 and 94, coming from the same herd, were both me- dium cows, which goes fai" to show thai the herdsman's estimate of his cows is frequently far from correct. The very low producing" power of No. 98 is remarkable, rc- (juiring 2,88 pounds of nutrient for a ])ound of milk, and over 78 j)ounds of nutrient for a pound of fal, not cjuite one ciuarter the efliciency of No. 83. The very high efficiency of two of these cows is noticeable, being more than five times that of the poorest cow mentioned before, and more than twice the efficiency of the poorer cows in the permanent herd. In addition to the above, some especially good individuals have been pitted for a long time against others of inferior ability. For example. Rose and Nora ^ consumed within a year almost exactly the same amount of the same kind of k\-i\, the difference being less than 5 per cent. They were both rela- tively heavy feeders, each consuming something over 6000 pounds of digestible nutrients. Rose produced 564.82 pounds of fat, and Nora 298.64, a ratio of 1.9 to i. When we remem- ber that Nora, the poorer cow, was not a poor cow at all, but that she belongs with the best fourth of the 1 200 tested in the 1 The story of Rose and Queen, the latter another and a really poor cow, has been entertainingly told in Circular loj of the dairy department of the University of Illinois, which has issued also Circular /iS, Cows 7',*. Cows, deal- ing with the difference in efficiency of cows, and its meaning to the profits of dairying and the cost of dairy products to the consumer. 44 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS commercial herds of the state, this difference is exceedingly sig- nificant. Rose was, of course, an exceptional cow, producing in another test over two and one-half times as much as her com- petitor, and making a twelve-year record of 7258 pounds of milk, and 360 pounds of butter fat on the average (384 pounds of fat for ten years), and never being beaten but once in all the dairy tests ever conducted at this station. Professor Mumford, also of the University of Illinois, has shown that substantially the same differences exist between beef animals in respect to the amount of gain for food consumed,^ so that the principle involved seems general. Economic significance of differences in efficiency. The mean- ing of all this is not at once clear, and some little effort is needed to fully appreciate the economic significance of differ- ences such as are here brought out, and the consequent desira- bility of bringing our common animals to the highest possible degree of efficiency. When one cow can make two and one- half times as much as another on the same feed, the difference is not as two and one-half is to one, but many times greater. Under these conditions, when one cow makes 100 pounds of butter, the other will make 250 pounds on the same feed ; but the question of relative profits depends also upon two other factors, — the cost of feed and the price of butter. For the sake of illustration let us suppose, first, that it costs the value of 50 pounds of butter to pay for the food consumed, which is the same in both cases. The profit would then be, in the one case, the value of 100—50 (or 50) pounds of butter; and in the other, 250 — 50 (or 200) pounds, which is not tn'o and one-half but four times as mueli. Suppose again that feed is higher or butter lower, so that it now costs the value not of 50 pounds but of 90 pounds to pay for the cost of feed. In this case the profit for the poorest cow is the value of 100 — 90 (or 10) pounds of butter, and for the other it is the value of 250 — 90 (or 160) pounds of butter, ^ See " Principles of 15reeding," p. 82. NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 45 which is sixteen times as much, not to mention the additional expense for shelter and labor, or the extra capital involved in the larger amount of feed consumed by the less economical cow. Surely we need no better argument to show the necessity for further improvement of cows. We are in a transition stage, also, in the matter of meat pro- duction, and have need of the most economical consumers of our feed. If we neglect this point, our own meat will not only cost too much, but we shall be driven out of foreign markets by such competitors as Argentina. The first to suffer in such an event would be the farmers, and afterward all classes of people would suffer together.^ The fact of variability established. All this tends to establish the fact that all individuals of the same species are not equally valuable, and plenty of evidence of a similar character can be adduced to show that no two individuals, even of the same species or breed, are exactly alike. Of the many hundreds of thousands of people personally seen by each of us, we find many similarities but no dupli- cates ; moreover, the differences are many and extreme. Some individuals have dark hair, others light ; with some it is thick, with others thin ; now it is straight and again it is curly or wavy. Some eyes are blue ; others are black or brown. One man is tall and slender, while even his brother is short and stout. Some are broad-shouldered ; others are thin-chested, with narrow shoulders. Some have large hands and feet, others small, and a few have small hands with large feet. One has a mole on his cheek ; another has one on his neck or his nose or perhaps none at all. One man has an extra thumb on one hand; another has six fingers on each hand. One is bow-legged ; another is knock-kneed. Here is a hunchback, there a giant, and again we see a dwarf. One is crazy ; another is a criminal. Some are handsome and others are ugly. Some are brilliant, 1 The student may well study this question and show, by written argument, how it is that all classes will prosper or suffer together with the farmer. 46 DOMl'.S'l'K A TK-I) AN'IMAI-S AND PLANTS others idiotic. Sonic arc deaf, others lame or blind. Some arc deficient by a hand ; others lack a leg. Some are musicians, others orators or actors. Some like mathematics ; others love literature. Some are farmers, others lawyers or engineers. Many succeed ; many fail. Between even the traditional twins that " look so nearly alike that their mother could not tell them apart," important differences will be found if a trained observer looks closely enough. • All this is e(|ually true of animals and |)lanls. It is only to the untrained that all individuals of the same species look alike. Horses diffi-r so much in size, color, conformation, gait, and disposition liial it is dilfu-uU indeed to get together a " matched span." - Some are intelligent and proud of their work ; others are foolish, sluggish, and unreliable. Sheep differ not only in the quantity of the fleece but in the fineness of the fiber as well as in the density and the evenness of covering,'^ No two trees bear apples alike, and even different apples on the same tree differ not only in size but in quality. Some melons are fine in texlurt- and flavor ; others of e(|ual size are "like pumjikins." One tree bears specially luscious i)eaches ; another is next to worthless. Among wildlings the same jirinciple holds. .Some horses are fleeter than others and some wolves more cunning.'* lu'cry woods boy knows the bushes that bear the most luscious berries and the tree that bears the largest and the best flavored nuts, 1 Kvcn opposite sides of the same individual arc slightly different. One shoulder is higher than the other ; one leg is longer or stronger than the other, meaning a longer step and causing lost people to travel in a circle. l'",vcrybody is either " right-" or " left-handed," meaning by this that the cor- responding side is the better developed and capable of stronger or more accurate action. 2 To the casual observer two iiorsos colored alike are niattlud. hut tiu- horseman looks fust to the gait, then to confunnalinTi and size, and last of all to the color. " The wool is (inest and longest on the sides and liaik, shorlcsl undernealh, and coarsest on the thighs. ■• Read the story of Lobo in " Wild Animals 1 I lave Known," by 'i'hompson- Seton. NI':i:i) Ol' IMI'ROYKMKN'r 47 and every botanist will tell you that we may hunt forever with- out liii(lin<;- two plants exaetly alike, so mij^htily are the inati-rials mixed out of wjiieh races and individuals are made. This is variation or variability, and upon this fact are selection and improvement based. Variability in a single character. Variability arises in two distinctly different ways : first, by different associations of char- acters, as when one individual is red and white and another is black and white ; and, second, by different degrees of develop- Fic. 7. Jersey cow, Figgis 76106, property of ('. 1. Hood & Company, Lowell, Massachusetts. Champion and Grand Champion, World's Fair, St. Louis, 1904. 547 lbs. 6 oz. butler in 7^ months. Such a cow is worth perhaps a dozen of the ordinary kind that make IJ5 lbs. in a year iiieiit of the separate eharaeters, as when one indixitlual in simply larger or fleeter or darker-colored than another. lather <;ives rise to what is known as \ariation. and either may afford the basis for natural .selection. Ilowever the racial characters may be mixed in different in- dividuals, it will be found on close inspection that the separate characters are them.selves hij^hly variable ; that is to .say, varia- bilit)' is not confined to individuals but is a property of each and 48 DOMHSl'irAlKI) ANIMALS AND PLANTS every character that enters into the composition of individuals and of races. Thus among sweet apples some are sweeter than others within the same variety, and this is true quite independent of color or size. Of all the trotting horses in the world some can go in 2 : 40, some in 2 : 30, a few in 2 : 20, and a very few in 2 :o5 or less. Of a thousand ears of corn taken at random from the same field and of the same variety, some will be short and others long, while the rest will stand between. This is variability in a single character. It is, moreover, a kind of variability that can be exhaustively studied by exact statistical methods, — a study that is strongly recommended not onl\- for its exactness but for its influence in fixing definite notions of t)-pe and that devi- ation from type which is called \ariability. These methods of study are given in a later chapter, a careful study of which is strongly recommended at this point. Historical knowledge of original species needed. In order to devise practical methods of still further improving the domesti- cated races and more completely adapting them to the service of men, we need, first of all, to know ever}'thing possible of the character of the original species as they lived in a state of nature, — how they behaved toward one another and how they prospered before man interfered with their affairs. In other words, from the way of the wild we can learn substantial lessons as to methods of improvement, and this we propose to outline in the next chapter. Summary. No plant or animal has yet been brought to its highest state of efficiency, though some individuals are vastly superior to others, and vari- ability is universal. Besides this, our needs and our desires are constantly changing, mostly by way of advance. There is need, then, for still further improvement, and the best course to pursue in deciding upon methods is, first of all, to study species in a state of nature, where these species existed in the wild for many generations previous to domestication. Exercises. 1. The student should calculate with as much accuracy as possible and report upon the cost of maintaining domestic animals in his own neighborhood, especially as influencing the cost of meat and milk production. NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 49 2. Let him compute the amount of land and the proportion of our crops devoted to the support of our animal population. Let him also estimate the relative cost of vegetable and animal food, remembering that a pound of meat contains no more nourishment than an equal weight of grain. 3. Take the domesticated animals and plants one by one and describe the changes we should like in each to still better adapt it to our needs, going well into the subject ; as, for example, that blue grass would be a better pasture grass if it had, or could be given, a deeper rooting habit. 4. Plant ten ears of corn that look as much alike as possible, each in a separate row, and take the yield of each. 5. With the scales and the Babcock tester test at least ten cows for relative amount of fat in the milk. 6. Point out definite respects in which cows and corn, for example, need improvement, and do the same for other animals and plants. CHAPTER V THE WAY OF THE WILD Tlie ast(>nisliinj4' abundance of life- The struggle for existence • Selective effect of the natural conditions • Competition for food ■ Competition for room • Competition most severe between individuals of the same species • Natural selection • Survival of the fittest • The individual and the race • Significance of numbers ■ Significance of vigor and length of life • Significance of offensive and defensive weapons • Significance of protective coloring and markings • Mimicry • Design in nature • Causes of color in animals and plants l^efore we can discuss to best advantage the means of futther improving our animals and plants it is necessary that we under- stand as well as |)ossil)]e the conditions and habits of life to which they were accustomed in the natural state before they came to us, because out of this we shall evolve a method of procediuc tor fiuther improvement. The astonishing abundance of life. The most conspicuous fact in nature is the astonishing abundance of life and the ex- ceeding rapidity with which all living beings multiply. Whether animal or plant, large or small, powerful or puny, every species multiplies according to tlie laws of geometrical progression, each with a ratio of its own. The effect of this fact upon mere ntunbers is a point not easily comprehended. The fastest-multiplying forms are the bacteria, some species of which are able, imder good conditions, to double ever\^ twent_\- minutes. At this rate a single individual with its descendants would, if uninterrupted, fill all the oceans of the earth in an incredibly short space of time. A single ear of corn of good size has one thousand kernels, and an average ear has, say, six hundred, each capable of repro- ducing a similar ear. How long would it take at this rate for the product of one ear to cover the ctiltivated earth ? 50 THE WAY OF THE WILD 5 I Man is one of the slowest of animals to multiply, yet under good conditions his numbers may double in twenty-five years ; indeed this rate has been maintained in this country because the population of the United States has doubled four times in the last century, with four wars to reduce numbers. If this ratio could continue for another hundred years, we should have by that time no less than fourteen hundred millions of people in this country, making a denser population than that of China to-day.^ Few wild animals are known but will breed faster than man, and it takes but slight exercise of the imagination to see how reproduction might go on, were there nothing to check it, until there would no longer be even standing room on earth for the animals alone, to say nothing of their food. The possible rate of increase of plants is indeed enormous. It is said that the common pigweed ripens from three to four thousand seeds, and a large plant of purslane as many as a million, explaining one reason why they are such troublesome weeds. I^lants that seed thus freely are exceedingly difficult of eradication, especially if the seeds are hardy.^ Plant lice are still more prolific than weeds. Dr. S. A. Forbes, state entomologist of Illinois, is authority for the statement that a single corn-root aphis is capable of producing ninety-eight young, and that sixteen generations are possible in a single season. At half this rate of increase he computes that if the successive off- spring of a single female and her descendants for a single season could be put upon an acre of land at Cairo at the southern end of the state and placed as thick as they could stand, then on top of this set another acre, and so on without crushing till the end of the season, and if then the column could be tipped to 1 Showing the extent to which social, economic, and poHtical considerations will shortly turn upon our power to feed our people, and that in turn upon questions of land fertility. 2 The cocklebur ripens two seeds in one bur. One of these is larger than the other and under equal conditions will germinate first. This weed, there- fore, has two distinctly separate chances of propagation with respect to con- ditions of germination alone. 52 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AXD PLANTS the north till it should lie upon the fj^nuind, it would reach to Chicago (360 miles) and twenty-three miles beyond into Lake Michigan ; that is to say, that the descendants of a single corn-root louse at half the maximum rate could in a single sea- son, if unintermpted, reproduce enough t(j make a solid column I acre square and 383 miles long, — a perfectly inconceivable number. After this computation it is not difficult to believe the truth of the assertion that certain bacteria that can double in about twenty minutes would be able in a few days, if unre- stricted, to fill all the oceans of the earth. With this enormous birth rate it becomes important to study carefully the checks to increase, and the various means by which hving things have been prevented long ago from absolutely overrunning the earth, where standing room, to say nothing of food, is limited. What, now, are the conditions and mutual relations between these immense numbers of diverse species as they live together in a state of nature ? The struggle for existence. In general, it may be said that species, are indifferent to each other except when interests clash, and then one or the other must go under, for the law of the wild is that everything lives not where it chooses to live but where it is able to live. When so many more individuals are produced than can possibly find food and room to survive, there ensues at once a battle for life, which has by common consent been called, as Darwin named it, the struggle for existence.^ This is a many-sided struggle, — a kind of three-cornered fight, — first against natural conditions in general, then against the competition of other species, and, last of all, against the competition of its own kind. This elemental w^arfare, for it is a warfare, though generally unknown to the participants and often not noticeable except to the trained observer, — this warfare is ^ In this general connection read " Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," by Charles Darwin. It is an old and much misunderstood book, rather difficult, it is true, but well worth the careful reading of all students of life in the wild. THE WAY OF THE WILD 53 always on, and its complications are so many and so intricate and its consequences so profound that a little space is well de- voted to its analysis. Selective effect of natural conditions. There is a blind but wholesale struggle of living things against what may be called natural conditions, which assert their influence independent of struggle against competition with other living beings, and gen- erally before it begins. First of all are climatic and seasonal influences. Hosts of young things, both plant and animal, come into existence only to perish on the spot from adverse climatic influences. Many species exist, in northern latitudes for example, only by the narrowest margin, and one exceptionally hard winter will close them out by the millions. In this way whole fields of wheat and clover are "winter killed," as we say, and whole forests die after an exceptionally dry summer followed by an unusually severe winter, A sudden freshet may wash away in immense numbers the season's crop of seeds of maple, elm, or oak, and send them downstream to rot in the lowlands. The same freshet may kill a valuable lot of mature timber downstream and change forever the flora of the locality.^ A wet summer may drown most of the bumblebees, and then the farmers need have small expectation as to the crop of clover seed, which is dependent upon bees for fertilization. A late fall may so stimulate growth in peach trees and other tender plants as to prevent that " ripening " of the wood neces- sary to a successful endurance of extreme cold. On the other hand, a "warm spell " in winter may start the buds, after which a " cold snap " will kill outright in a day the prospective crop of the year. The apple crop is occasionally lost by late cold weather after " setting " of the young fruit. Of course this ^ When the Chicago drainage canal was dug, many bodies of timber along the banks of the Illinois were killed by the new water level established, and many damage suits resulted. 54 DOMKS'I'K \l'i:i) ANIMALS AND PLAN TS ixirticular inslancx- has no diivcl (.■fiV'cL upon wnvtalion, but it serves to illustrate the aeeident of season and its influemx' upon a new erop of seed. Extreme and continued rains at j^ollination will reduce the yield of corn.^ A hot wind nia\' have the same effect In' kill- ing and drying up the tender \-oung silk before the ])ollen has opportunity to fertilize. Fire plays frightful havoc with vegetation, especiall)- in the forest, and utterly prevents the appearance of certain species on fire-swept lands ; ^ indeed, few can endure a periodic baptism of flame. Again, every species has its northern and its southern limits, as well as its limits of higher and lower altitudes. As it nears these limits it not onl)- exists with greater difficulty, but its existence is more precarious, and a little thing will turn the tide for thousands of individuals, perhaps temporarily, perhaps permanentl}'. The liard winter not only kills vegetation but freezes up the water supply and often shuts off the food till bird and beast in the melting snows next spring give mute testimony to the sufferings they have endured and the losing fight they have waged, just as a number of years ago the longspurs were caught in passage b\' a Dakota blizzard and were literally killed by the millions. In this general way what may be called the blind forces of nature take their toll of life, and it is a heavv toll indeed, whole- sale and sweeping, relentless as fate and tireless as time. Competition for food. After all this, however, a heaxy balance remains, — a balance always too heavy for the food supply. 1 This is due to the fact that the pollen grains stick together and fall in little pellets rather than singly, as they should, in a fine yellow dust, reach- ing each of the thousand silks of a single ear, for every kernel has its in- dependent silk. 2 The jack pine has taken possession of certain old pine lands only because it has the habit of holding its cones and shedding its seeds gradually. If, there- fore, the tree should be killed, there remains a stock of seed for renewal. All other species are e.xterminated by these fierce fires till the ground is again reseeded by the slow processes of nature. THE WAY OF THE WILD 55 Besides, these calamities of climate and season, of fire and flood, are occasional and local in their happening, not constant and general, so that in a large sense the free and unrestricted in- crease of earth's millions is thrown upon the world for main- tenance, and there is not enough. The only alternative is a Fig. 8. In a fight against snow and cold the bison can hold his own wholesale destruction of individuals by starvation, in which the strongest alone survive. The competition for food is, therefore, the chief element in the struggle for existence. There is no common food supply for all species, but everything, from the biggest to the littlest, from the strongest to the weakest, lives upon its neighbor, and it is literally true that the chief concern of each inhabitant of the wild, and the one upon which he bestows most of his time and his principal attention, is to secure something to eat and to avoid, in return, being eaten himself. With one eye on his prey and the other on his enemy he balances his chances and gambles 56 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AM) I'LANTS with death every day of his Hfe. — all without reah;:ing either the magnitude or the intensity of tlie game he is plaving.' The big tish eat the httle ones ; the wolf and the jackal hunt beast and bird ; the feathered tribe makes life intolerable t\)r beetle, bug, and worm ; and while beak and tooth and claw are busy with destruction, the parasite sucks the blood of the depre- dator or gnaws his vitals out as he hunts his defenseless prev. Nothing is exempt. It is a warfare not onl\- of strength ami cunning but of resistance and endurance as well. This consumption of one species as food for another is im- mensely destructive of individuals. ,\ single large animal in a day will consume seeds or small plants literallv b\- the thousand ; often, besides, it destroys as much as it eats. It is estimated that each cat on the average destroys fifty birds per \ear. One large fish will consume immense numbers of small fiy. Most eggs of birds serve as food for snakes or other birds. Only a few are hatched, and most of these follow the fate of the egg in which life was destroyed before it appeared.- Broadly speaking, and in general terms, animal life subsists upon plant life, and it in turn upon the mass of nonliving matter of W'hich the world is made, so that the two together complete a kind of cycle, ending where they began, after the animal has finished its life and returned to dust. It will not do, however, to rest so important a matter on such generalized and imperfect statements. Briefly and substantially the facts are as follows : All li\ing structures ^ are characterized by more or less highly organized compounds, of which carbon, owgen, and nitrogen are 1 Man is undoubtedly the only animal that has any true kno\vledjj;c (if death, or appreciation of it when it has occurred. \ViId animals attack moying things and are entirely satisfied with simulated death ; that is, they fight whatever moves, but desist when motion ceases unless impelled by hunger, in which case they do not wait for cessation of motion, but eat the prey alive or as soon as its escape no longer seems likely. 2 It is impossible to estimate the destruction wrought by such predatory animals as the blue jay, the kingbird, the hawk, and the cat. ^ I?y this is meant the bodies of animals and the stems and leaves of trees and plants. THE WAY OF THE WILD 57 characteristic and essential elements. Now the world's supply of these important elements is in the form of exceedingly raw material floating in the air. Oxygen can be taken in by the leaves of plants and the lungs of animals and used at once and directly by the organism. Carbon and nitrogen, however, exist in the air in a condition useless for the direct needs of either plants or animals. The great problem of subsistence is therefore, primarily, to get carbon and nitrogen, which all animals and plants alike, whether large or small, high or low, must secure in large and constant quantities in order to maintain life and its activities. Now carbon exists in combination with oxygen as CO2. This is a very simple but a very stable compound, and in this form no animal can use it. Only the green chlorophyll of leaves, and that in the presence of sunlight, can break this compact with oxygen, and thus the pioneer labor of securing carbon and bringing it into more complex compounds, especially those including hydro- gen, is, and must be, performed by the higher plants ; and on these and their remains must all animals depend for their carbon supply, as must also the nonchlorophyll plants like bacteria. Of course many animals live on other animals and thus short- circuit the carbon problem, just as many bacteria are directly parasitic on living plants and even animals. In general, plants and animals both take their oxygen direct from the air, but a few bacteria and other low forms of plant life depend upon getting oxygen as they do carbon, — by taking it from its combi- nations, even in a living plant or animal. Such parasites are, of course, dangerous to life, and they lie at the base of some of our most troublesome plant and animal diseases.^ Nitrogen is still more difficult than carbon to bring into the combined state. It is a lazy element, and the immense stock in 1 It would be a mistake to assume that all diseases, even those of a germ character, are due to vegetable parasites. It is now generally held that the germ of smallpox, for example, is a protozoon, that is, animal rather than vegetable, though at this level of life we are down where plants and animals shade into each other by almost imperceptible differences. 58 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS the atmosphere is useless alike to animals and plants except a very few species of bacteria which constitute, so far as we know, the only means for collecting available nitrogen except the slow and irregular action of electricity.^ In this way all life, both plant and animal, depends almost absolutely for its nitrogen upon bacteria, the smallest of all organisms, invisible to the naked eye and so exceedingly minute that a hundred of them placed end to end would not reach through the thickness of this sheet of paper. On how slender a thread does the life of the world depend ! Every species, therefore, lives wherever it can find suitable food, and does not hesitate to attack another, living or dead, and consume its substance either by the rending of its flesh and the consequent quick destruction of life, by sucking its juices as an external parasite, or even by invading the very body of its prey and consuming its vitals with slow destruction. This is very common among insects, one species la}'ing its egg in the body of another, where it hatches, producing a larva that lives at the expense of the host till death ensues, by which time he is ready to undergo one of his transformations and afterwards ""go it alone." ^ And so it is that food means indiscriminate slaughter by both sudden and lingering methods, so it is that the struggle for existence is chiefly fought out at this point, and so it is that the food supply is the chief consideration in fixing the prosperity and the life tenure not only of individuals but of species as a whole. Competition for room. This is no less real than is competition for food, but it applies to plants rather than to animals, which seldom suffer for mere space. When, however, by chance plants come up too thick for standing room, they are bound to suffer 1 The electric spark serves to combine nitrogen and hydrogen in small amounts, but the world's supply of nitrogen is supposed to be dependent upon bacterial action. '^ It is common for wasps to sting a supply of insects, paralyze them, plant an egg in each, and pack them securely away to serve as food for the young larvae as they hatch. THE WAY OF THE WILD 59 and the weakest are doomed. Under such conditions there is, of course, a competition for food from the Hmited amount of soil at hand, as there is also for moisture in time of drought ; but the chief competition is for sunlight. All growth in weight of plants is attended by the fixation of carbon from the carbon dioxide of the air, but the process is a chemical one that takes place only in the direct rays of the sun. The growth of plants is therefore absolutely dependent upon their leaves being constantly exposed to direct sunlight. When, consequently, individuals are closely crowded together, only the tallest can push their leaves up into the light, while the others are overshadowed and shut away from the only power that can put carbon into their structure. Accordingly they must die, not exactly from starvation but rather from inability to make use of the plant food of the air. This is the principal way in which tall, quick-growing weeds injure crops by getting the start, and, being able to keep it, they kill the crop or greatly check it by shutting off completely or partially the direct sunlight. This is why sweet corn and Kafir corn are so much more difficult to raise than is Indian corn, especially in the moist climate of the so-called corn belt. The plants themselves are at first small and slow-growing, while the weeds of this region are quick-growing with rank stems and broad leaves, which quickly overtop and shut out the sunlight from the crop. The same effects will follow the attempts to get a " stand " of alfalfa unless these weeds are kept cut off. The young alfalfa sends up at first but a slender stem with few leaves, and until the root is well established it is no match for rank weeds that reverse the process, namely, expend their first energies in pro- ducing stem and leaf. Indian corn, on the other hand, will, with a fair chance, grow almost as fast as any weed, and in any event always " keeps its head up." We take advantage of this principle in killing especially troublesome weeds like Canada thistle and quack grass, which 6o DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS have the underground rootstock. Everybody knows that orcUnary cutting or pulHng avails nothing, for they merely send up new- shoots from the buds already formed in the running rootstock under ground. If, however, this new shoot and leaf are killed by cutting off at once, and the next and the next treated in the same way as soon as they appear, the plant will die in time, for it has but a limited number of " buds" and a limited amount of food stored in the stem ; and if it cannot soon get new leaves to the sun for more carbon, it must give up the fight and die. Plow- ing thoroughly once a week for a single season will kill any weed. This struggle from overcrowding is best seen in the growth of young trees in the forest. Many more seedlings wdll start than can possibly live, for a fully matured tree needs and will take a space from ten to fifty and in some cases even one hundred feet across. Accordingly when young trees stand thick a struggle at once ensues as to which shall overtop the others and get to the sun- light. The strongest will, of course, be the tallest and get the most light. This in turn gives it more carbon and greater growth, with still further advantage over its fellows, which manage to live as long as they can keep a few leaves in the sunlight, and then die when the failure, which is inevitable, really comes. It is interesting and almost pathetic to sec the extent to which this struggle for sunlight and life is sometimes carried. The writer once saw a specimen that had recently died out of a thicket of young maples. It was thirty-six feet high, yet was but one and three-fourths inches in diameter at the largest place, so completely had its little growth been converted into height at the expense of size in the vain effort to keep its few leaves bathed in the precious sunlight. This tree never stood quite alone, but leaned helplessly against its stronger neighbors after the fashion of a vine. Among the trees that remain, the same principle applies as between the upper and the lower limbs. As new branches start THE WAY OF THE WILD 6l out above in the struggle upward, the lower ones are shaded the same as those of the lower- growing trees, and ultimately for the same reason die and drop off. In this way trees growing in close proximity to each other develop tall bare trunks valu- able for timber, while those growing in the open would not be forced upward by competi- tion nor would the lower limbs be killed. Such trees develop beautiful tops, being lighted on all sides, but they never make timber trees, however old or mature.^ Competition most severe be- tween individuals of the same species. At first thought it would seem that members of the same race would live in peace and harmony together, and that the competition would be between different species only. But that is not so. In so far as compe- tition exists at all between indi- viduals of the same race it is the most severe of all. In the competition for food, whether plant or animal, the needs of the same species are identical, the methods of growth in plants and the hunting habits among animals are the same, and the competition is much more direct than where needs are not quite the same and habits are somewhat different. 1 It is suggested that the student verify the foregoing statements by visits to weedy fields and to young forests. Fig. 9. The best possible condition for rapid growth, as it affords oppor- tunity for maximum exposure of leaf surface. This grapevine consumed four years in covering the first ten feet of the derrick, but with this start it ascended the remaining forty feet in one year 62 DOMESTUA I'Kl) A\IM.\1,S AND I'LANTS In respect to room tlic same princii^c holds, rhmts ot" the same species have a nearly equal rate of growth, so it is a neck- and-neck race from start to finish, and often the stmggle is so nearly equal that they all go down together. It is the case of Greek meeting Greek over again. The best example of this is the familiar one of oversecding. Ofttimes the farmer in finishing his seeding of oats or wheat will drive across the end of the lieUl to cover unseeded spots. In this way much of the strij) thus covered gets a double seed- ing. The slender, " spindling " growth of leaf or stem and the greatly reduced yield of such places are familiar to all grain farmers, as is the general appearance of most fields of "sowed corn," where so much seed is put on that there is neither room, moisture, nor fertilit}- to mature it all, so the total result is a weak, stunted growth of all the plants, engaged as the}- are in a mutually destructive competiticMT. The fact that a hea\ier \ield of ha\' and jxisture can be jiro- duced by ground sown to mixed grasses than when st)wn en- tirely to one variety depends partly upon the principle here under discussion, and partly, cspeciallv with pastures, upon the fact that different sj)ecies take on their best growth at dif- ferent seasons of the year, thus lessening by that much the direct competition. The fiercest battles among animals are not those waged for food, which are for the most part exceedingly unequal confiicts. They are those waged between the males of the same species, which are in almost constant confiict. especialh' during the breeding season, those of different species rarely troubling each other except for food. Among animals that herd in the wild, like horses, cattle, and bisons, one mature male in the i)rime of life assumes the leader- ship of the herd, and he will maintain it as long as he can master an\' vounger aspirant that feels he has attained the strength and endurance to tr\- conclusions. Some da\' the success- ful aspirant w ill arise and prevail o\er the favorite, who will then I'lIE WAV OI' THE WILD 63 retire to the rear, and tlie- IutcI will accept the new leadership. In this way only the very choicest and most vigorous survive to head the herd. Natural selection. And so the competition f^oes on against fire and flood and drought and cold ; against talon, tooth, and claw, till the weakling goes to the wall. When there is not enough for all, when the dinner of one means the death of another, when the problems of life become reduced to the elemental instincts of hunger and self-preservation, then slaughter begins and death and extermination are everyday employments. This is natural selection, or the weeding out of the weakest. This reduction process of nature is not always attended with violence and bloodshed, but is often silent and inconspicuous though none the less relentless. The woodpecker digs his worm out of his burrow in the timber, and only the longest and hardest bill will provide enough when worms are scarce. This compe- tition based on quality of bills is not conspicuous, ])ut it is, after all, direct and effective. A mass of vegetation of many species is growing on the same area.^ As none can move they all must stay and fight it out together. Now is the struggle for room combined with that for food, and it is a battle royal with no noise but with plenty of fatalities.^ In this selective process the vigor of the conflict and the intensity of the selection are much dependent upon conditions, whether favorable or unfavorable to life in general. It might seem at first that where conditions of life are least favorable, 1 Try the experiment of counting the number of different things that can be found growing together on a square yard of old turf. '^ Read " The Battle in the Meadows," by Maxwell T. Masters. This fasci- nating little book describes the effect upon the mixed herbage of an old park at Rothamsted, England, when fertilizers of different kinds were applied. The effect of each upon the struggle between the different species growing together, some being favored by nitrogen, for example, and others by potas- sium or by phosphorus, constitutes one of the most fascinating nature stories ever written. 64 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND I'LAN'I'S the reduction would proceed furthest, but, in general, such is not the case. For example, many more species of plants will grow together on poor land than on rich, and if fertilizer be applied to such a spot supporting a feeble growth of many species, their number will be at once reduced. The reason of it is that under generally hard conditions noth- ing succeeds well enough to institute a vigorous fight, but as soon as conditions are improved, as by the addition of fertilizer, then at once some species will succeed so well as to crowd others down and possibly out. This is one test of the natural fertility of lands, namely, the number of species found growing together upon it in a state of nature ; and the same principle is employed by good farmers who make the land so rich that the crop will choke out the weeds. ^ Survival of the fittest. The result of natural selection is the survival of the fittest. This does not mean the best from any standpoint of ours, but it does mean the ones that fit best into all the conditions that determine the issue of the struggle.^ It would be the woodpecker with the longest and hardest bill, the wolf with the best scent and the highest speed, the bull with the sharpest horn and the strongest neck ; indeed, among savage animals it means the supremacy of the longest tooth and the sharpest claw. Among the hunted it means the horse with the fleetest foot and the greatest endurance. It means the deer or moose with 1 This principle also explains the relative inaction of the desperately poor and distressed portion of the degenerate class. If they were better fed, they would be more aggressive and consequently more dangerous. So does natural selection work among humans as elsewhere. 2 For example, a savage and a sage may be so situated that skillful running alone will save life. Then for that purpose running becomes the test of sur- vival, and the savage alone may be able to meet the test, in which case his is the best " fit " with the conditions. Under most conditions, however, the sage would have the advantage. All this means that the best trained man is the one that is able to meet and fit into the greatest variety of conditions that are likely to come his way. THE WAY OF THE WILD 65 the most inconspicuous color. For example, the white color of the albino deer, shown on page 102, would be against him, as it would be in favor of the polar bear with his different surround- ings. It means the bird or beast most successful in hiding or in eluding its pursuers, and everything which helps in this will help to make the '" fit " more perfect and thereby to more certainly insure survival. With plants it means the fastest-growing stem which will most certainly reach the sun, or the deepest-running root which alone will secure moisture in time of drought ; it means the most spiny covering which protects best against herbivorous animals, the most showy flowers or the most penetrating odors which best assure fertilization, or the most toothsome and conspicuous seeds which best attract bird or squirrel to carr)^- off and bury, some portion of which is never recovered. These are the circum- stances that determine the fitness to survive. On careful study it will be seen that eveiy species has some natural trait or character, which, in a state of nature, enabled it to survive, else it would not be here now ; and of this species the individuals that possess this character in the great- est perfection are the ones that best withstand the rigors of natural selection. Species and individuals not possessing such natural advantages at once become extinct, as do those whose advantage is rendered worthless by some sudden change in the surroundings. For example, the natural advantage of the birds generally is their aerial flight and their powers of rapid reproduction ; with the yellow butterfly it is his offensive taste ; wdth the caterpillar it is his hairy covering, which, like the spines of the porcupine, are unpleasant to the attacking party ; with the cat tribe it is the prehensible claw and the silent tread ; with the antelope it is his wonderful scent and his fleetness ; with the pig it is his long snout with its remarkable rooter ; with the elephant it is his trunk ; with the beaver it is his tooth and his tail ; with the snake it is his venom and his incurving teeth ; with the sheep, 66 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS bighorn, and chamois it is the abiUty to climb wlicrc onh' the eagles can follow, and to take flying leaps from crag to crag. All species and individuals not possessed of some such natural advantage, or with whom the advantage has been rendered worth- less, go down early in the struggle. Of course such great natural calamities as fire and flood, making wholesale destruction, take ever)'thing both good andJpad, fit as well as unfit. Such events come so infrequently and so suddenly that nothing can meet their exactions. The fate of species, however, is not settled by these sudden and calamitous events except in rare cases and for certain localities.^ This fate is settled by the slow and relentless method we have described, in which literally thousands of every species undertake to supply the cravings of hunger and the needs of life to the best of their ability, but go down in the struggle to defeat and death, while others carry on the struggle with occa- sional success. These alone count in the line of descent. The individual and the race. It is, indeed, a savage picture that we draw when we attempt to depict nature at work in her workshop with hving beings for her tools and her materials. Everything is relentlessly pursuing its own advantage and spend- ing its time in killing and eating or in being eaten in turn as it surrenders to the inevitable, — a savage tearing mass of animated matter spurred on by instincts not understood and by impulses incapable of comprehension, the end of which sooner or later, whether successful or unsuccessful in the struggle, is death. Looked at in this large way, life at best is but a doleful picture, for, as some one has remarked, the life of every animal in the wild is a constant terror and its end a tragedy. The pathos of ^ It is more than likely that such sweeping changes as the glacial epoch do operate to exterminate species at wholesale off the face of the earth. Instances arc not wanting where species have been stranded by the retreating glacier, such as the wild primrose on Mount Washington and on the north side of a single ledge in southern Michigan. Many species, too, were swept off as the glacier advanced, and were unable to return with its retreat, as in England, which has a much simpler flora than has France, just across the Channel. THE WAY OF THE WILD 67 this fruitless struggle of millions as they stem the tide with diffi- culty for a moment, then join the inevitable stream of death, and the apparent heartlessness of it all, lead us sometimes to question the plan and to wonder if, after all, life is worth the living. This is a gloomy view, however, to take of life, whether animal, plant, or human. There is another and a brighter picture, if only we will clear our vision to its gerception. Existence is a great mystery. The individual is but a unit in a gigantic plan — a never-ending, always-changing panorama of life. As Shakespeare says, "All the world 's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." Each acts his part and says his lines, then passes off, giving place to another, that the great drama may proceed and the whole picture be presented. The individual, therefore, is fleeting, but his race goes on forever, or as long as the balance of life is in its favor ; and one of the duties of the individual is to help preserve that balance, which he often does by surrendering his life.^ Among the lower species the grade of intelligence does not enable the individual to see the plan or even to know the issues, much less to anticipate its fate.'^ Accordingly it derives its en- joyment day by day in living its life, seeking its food, and rearing its young as if it were to live forever, and when the un- consciously approaching end comes — a brief struggle, lasting but a moment, and all is over. So nature is, after all, happy, for the tragedies of life are mostly unknown in advance, they pass quickly when they come, and are soon softened if not forgotten. If only the fittest survive, then will the next generation be born of highly selected parents, and so will the race progress. This is evolution ; and whatever the place of the individual in the scheme, the race as a whole is bound to advance. Though 1 In the time of war men do not count their Hves in the struggle to preserve the nation or to repel invaders, any more than they have counted the cost of human liberty. 2 As has been remarked already, the animal has no knowledge of death or of the meaning of life. Man is probably the only one that has the slightest intimation that life is limited. 68 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS the plan seems heartless, it is, after all, beneficent, when we regard the future and the coming generations as well as the present and the individuals. So there is another and a brighter picture. We humans have been given a larger view of life than have the animals about us, and while we cannot comprehend all the plan, we cheerfully devote our lives not solely to our own enjoyment but also to that larger service to mankind in general, to the end that future generations may be the happier because of our having lived. Just as we are realizing the advantages of what our forefathers did for the world before us, so w-e make our contribution for the benefit of those that shall come after us. It is for us, therefore, to recognize the fact of this great w-ar- fare in nature, and in man's affairs as well, without permitting it to embitter life ; and to order our own lives and their activities to the advantage of the common good, getting our satisfaction day by day as we go along in the consciousness of faculties well employed, thankful after all for the opportunity to live, to enjoy the world, to contribute our share to the great upward struggle of the race, and to act our part and say our lines in the great drama of existence, all of which is a part of the divine plan, too large for our comprehension, just as the stars are too many and too far away, and the universe too vast and too complicated, for our understanding.^ In proportion as we see the distinction between the in- dividual and the race, in that proportion will we understand the true meaning of the " great debt to nature," and w-e will come to appreciate that the principle, "to him that hath shall be given," is not so much for personal benefit as for the general good. 1 This digression is made for the reason that many, especially young people, not knowing thoroughly the field of evolution but stumbling upon a portion of it by accident, are led to gloomy, short-sighted, and morbid views of life. It is hoped that as the subject is further pursued, the discussion may make clear many of the points which trouble the minds of many people often through life. IHE WAY OF THE WILD 69 Significance of numbers. In so far as natural selection is a contest between different species the question of relative numbers is an important one, because the hazard of a good " fit " is greatly reduced with increasing numbers. Rare and slow-multiplying species not only run the chance of few good fits with the environ- ment, but they recover slowly after disastrous experiences. The stronghold of insect life is their rapid reproduction. A succession of adverse seasons may seem to have almost, if not quite, exterminated some troublesome species, but a few espe- cially hardy and resistant individuals manage to live over, and, with their rapid breeding powers, soon produce a new stock even more vigorous than before. This is improvement by natural selection. In this way adversity is good for the species, — though fatal to most individuals, — and, providing only enough can live through to restock the region, the species will be rapidly modified by the selective process. When it is a troublesome insect or weed that is involved, we are not interested in its prosperity, but the same principle applies to valuable species even in domestication. For example, it is the pigs that produce large litters whose descendants finally constitute the herd, while some favorite may, from sheer lack of breeding powers,^ leave nothing behind. The perfectly wholesale production of seed by plants in gen- eral is, to a considerable extent, an offset against their natural disadvantage in being fixed as to habitat and unable to move away from undesirable conditions to find better ones. Significance of vigor and length of life. This is of even more importance to the race than is rapid reproduction. The experi- ences of life make the mature individual of higher usefulness than the younger, especially with races in which the young are cared for and to some extent trained by the parents. 1 Farmers often fail to notice the operation of this principle, and keep many breeding animals because they are favorites in form or have fine pedigrees, when they are doing practically nothing as breeders. The herd will of course consist of the descendants of prolific breeders, which alone can produce numbers sufficient to afford material for good selection. yo DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS It the i;ivat probK'in in cxistciKc is llic poriK'tuaiion t)f the species, then the individual helps the object forward in either one of two ways, — by reproduction to insure new numbers, or by improvinj:^ conditions of life, thus reducing selection and lengthening existence. The number of any race at any given time, therefore, is quite as much dependent upon the length of life as it is upon the rate of reproduction ; ^ indeed, man)- disappearing races of men are slowly failing in the face of rajjid rej:)roduction because the in- di\iduals are not well enough conditioned to attain full and ripe maturity and establish and maintain good conditions of life. This principle is of special application in the breeding yards. Suppose, for example, the farmer has three classes of cows of different degrees of fertility, — one that will raise but two calves, one that will raise four, and one that will raise six, before they die or stop breeding ; and suppose, for sake of the illustration, that the descendants will do the same respectively. Remem- bering now that onlv half the descendants will be females, let us see how the account would stand with these three classes of cows and their descendants, say, at the end of the fifth generation ."^ TiiK Mi:ANi\f; ok 1\KLAti\'I': FicKTn.nv Classes Female offspring Generations First Second Third Fourth Fifth First .... I I I I I I Second . . . 2 2 4 8 16 32 Third .... 3 3 9 27 81 243 It is easy to see that cows of the third class and their de- scendants would not only soon constitute the herd but afford abundant material for selection in the meantime. It is so with ^ Race suicide that is now so much talked about is not so much a matter of the size of families as is commonly supposed ; it is quite as much involved in the matter of health and long life. - .See " Principles of lireeding," p. 199. THK WAV OK TIIK WIIJ) 71 wild species ; the new f^enerations and, in the end, the stable stock is constantly arising, not from the general mass, but from a few exceptional family lines of great vigor, long life, and fair fecundity.^ Significance of offensive and defensive weapons. It has been remarked before that man is the only animal able to use weapons other than those with which nature endowed him. Some of these natural endowments are, however, remarkable both in their character and their usefulness. It is natural for any intelligent being to make use of any part that will help either in defending himself from his enemies or in assisting him in taking his food. In this essential business some make use of one part, others of other parts. In general, the extremities are likely to be covered with hard and often more or less sharp or cutting parts. If so, they are exceedingly useful to the possessor as means of inflicting injury by blows, puncture, or tearing. Horns, hoofs, teeth, and toe- nails are mighty weapons on the earth, and when the same species happens to have two or three of these natural weapons well developed at the same time, he is a formidable enemy. A notable instance is found in the tiger and the cat family generally. The grizzly bear has both tooth and claw terribly developed, but his claws are not retractable, and he is incapable of the stealth of the tiger.2 Not all species are armed with such terrible weapons, though every one has some advantage sufficient to enable it to secure 1 It is so with people. Comparatively few individuals alive now will be in any way represented in the blood lines that people the world five hundred or even one hundred years from now. The people then living will trace their ancestry to a few of the most vigorous and virile, but not necessarily the most prolific, of existing families. The future of the human as well as other species depends quite as much upon quality and longevity as upon numbers. 2 Enthusiastic amateur students of natural history often descant upon the beneficence of nature in thus providing her children with certain means of getting food, forgetting, it must be, the interests of the victim and assuming a partiality between the species that does not exist. Nothing was made es- pecially to be eaten, nor are all the favors bestowed on a few species (see a later paragraph on Design in nature). 72 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS its food, else it would not have persisted ; and species not so endowed, of which there have been many, have long since disappeared from the earth. It is only when the food is alive and able to fight or run that weapons of offense are useful except to rival males in battle. Herbivorous animals, like cattle, and vegetarians general]}" do not need weapons of offense and commonly do not possess them, though tiiere are abundant exceptions. The ostrich, for example, has no need of weapons of offense and its great speed constitutes sufficient defense ; yet it can use its strong leg to advantage as a weapon in striking. The giraffe is without weapons, offensive or defensive, and cannot exist in the presence of enemies except those he can outrun. The ele- phant's trunk is primarily useful as a feeder, but he uses it upon occasion as a weapon of terrible execution. For the most part the snake has no weapon but his teeth. Some parahze by venom, but most of them are comparatively helpless, ha\'ing no extremities but a harmless head and a use- less tail. If, as in most cases, they are armed with incurving teeth, the victim once caught cannot well get awa\- ; but in gen- eral the snake must swallow the prey alive or kill it in the only way possible, namely, bv crushing with its own body, — a most awkward but terribly effective way of getting on. A few animals like the skunk are able to discharge an offen- sive secretion to a considerable distance and thus manage to secure a pretty wide berth. Others, like the hyena, ^ can dis- charge a liquid not particularly offensive but directed with con- siderable accuracy and disconcerting effect. A few lucky fellows like the hedgehog, whose custom it is to let others alone, are so provided that they can roll themselves into a ball and defy the world. Others, like the squirrel, not so endowed must show a clean pair of heels. ^ Said to be the only animal that hates everything and everybody, itself included. Practically incapable of taming, it never forms friends among either animals or attendants. THE WAY OF THE WILD 73 Some utterly useless species are well protected. The miser- able little grass, DanthoJiia spicata, that grows freely over New England hills is thickly studded at the base of the stem with short but sharp hairy spines that cattle avoid. The nettle is covered with fine needlelike hairs which on contact discharge minute bits of acid capable of giving a burning sensation to people and thin-skinned offenders, but useless with most wild animals. The thistle, however, has a weapon worth while. Speaking generally, weapons of offense or defense, especially the former, are good things to have, and when present are gen- erally made the most of ; but when absent another way is sought, and if one good enough is found, the species can be successfully preserved without weapons, as is the case with the antelope and deer, which are the gentlest of animals. It is notable, however, that the character or part on which the species depends most for its existence is most highly de- veloped, even though in other respects the animal or plant may be very defective. This, of course, is due to the fact that the effects of natural selection have been long felt in that particular part, while others have been neglected and left undeveloped. In this connection compare the remarkably efficient trunk of the elephant with his exceedingly awkward feet, which belong not to this but to prehistoric times, and have remained practically undeveloped and unchanged since the earliest ages. Space could be filled indefinitely with this vast and most in- teresting phase of the subject. The important point is, however, to note the fact that while weapons are convenient they are not indispensable, and that some species that have the least use for them have some of the best ones, — bees, for example, — though whether in remote times they may have been more useful we can hardly say with confidence, because sometimes a sudden change in the surroundings renders useless a part that before was next to indispensable. Fig. 10 represents a tropical butter- fly that spends much of its time on stakes and stubs where it is practically indistinguishable from the lichens, especially as it has '4 DOMKSI'U'A rKl) ANIMALS AND I'l.W I'S the habil of resting' with its \vini;s spread tlat and not folded back, as is eharaetoristic of m^st species of the butterth'. Significance of protective coloring and markings. Otiite akin to tiie utihty of weajx^ns is tlie whole matter of protective color- iiii;. H\- this is meant in i;eneral that ci>lor or an assemblage of colors which so blends with the stirroundings as to make creatiuvs inconspictiotis on the one hand, or, on the other, to look like somethin;^ which thev are not. as. for exanijile. when an insect or animal is colored similar to the pxiund or the foli- ai^e it inhabits, or when it looks like anotiier species that is Fir., lo. Lower and upper surface respectively of ./;