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. 



