Meat Production in Swamps 



37 



caught; this time a two-year-old cow. 

 A week later, the third, a young three- 

 quarter-grown bull was taken." 



The difficulties of transport to the 

 coast, and thence to Europe, were 

 great, but the animals stood them well, 

 and apparenth^ are not troubled by 

 small discomforts or bothered by over- 

 sensitive nervous organization. There 

 is every reason to suppose that they 

 would be adapted to semi-domestica- 

 tion in the swamps of the south, unless 

 the supply of food in winter proved too 

 small for their needs. Such a question 

 can only be tested by actual experi- 

 ment. In case they proved unable to 

 live comfortably on the roots which 

 they could grub up during the colder 

 months, it might be entirely practicable 



to pen them up and feed them. 



As to their hardiness in the open air 

 in the gulf states during winter, there 

 is no evidence, but it need not be 

 prestuned that because they come from 

 a tropical countr}--, they could not 

 adapt themselves to the southern 

 United States. IMany of the domestic 

 animals in the temperate zone are of 

 strictly tropical origin. 



At present the cost of breeding ani- 

 mals is prohibitive, the New York 

 Zoological Society having paid $12,000 

 for three, but if this difficulty is over- 

 come, animal breeders will have an 

 opportunity to try an experiment 

 that will be as certainly interesting as 

 it will be probably important. 



P. B. P. 



The Control of Heredity 



Natural selection and the survival of the fittest will not of themselves perform 

 miracles of regeneration. They represent the method followed by the workings of 

 heredity. Where the hiiman race is concerned, men have now the power consciously 

 to direct them into barren or profitable channels. The whole fate of civilization 

 hangs on the question of whether this mighty engine of construction or destruction 

 is to be used for good or evil. — W. C. D. and C. D. Whetham: Hereditv and 

 Society (1912). 



The Influence of Environment 



I will not dogmatically assert that environment matters not at all; phases of it 

 may be discovered which produce more effect than any which we have yet been 

 able to deal with. But I think it quite safe to say that the influence of environment 

 is not one-fifth that of heredity, and quite possibly not one-tenth of it. There is no 

 real comparison between nature and nurture; it is essentially the man who makes 

 his environment, and not the environment which makes the man. — Karl Pearson: 

 Nature and Nurture (1910). 



