PART II 



THE ORIGIN OF DOMESTICATED RACES 



Part II deals with the material out of which domesticated 

 species and varieties have been made. It aims to sketch briefly, 

 as far as it is known, the history of domestication and to indicate 

 a*s well as may be done at the present time the specific wild race 

 to which each domesticated form is supposed to trace when run 

 back to its wild progenitors. The limitations of space forbid 

 anything more than the briefest outline, but to further assist the 

 student the text is supplied with references to fuller sources of 

 information. 



The attempt to trace the history of domesticated animals and 

 plants back to their primitive forms is beset with many difficulties. 

 First of all, the domesticated races have been substantially altered 

 during their long removal from the wild, subject primarily to 

 man's selection ; and again, in the centuries that have elapsed 

 since domestication, many a wild race has become extinct, and 

 because of this we may often be deceived as to the exact par- 

 entage and be inclined to credit it to some near relative that 

 has persisted ; still again, wild races themselves change without 

 man's interference, and for all these reasons this attempt to 

 assign definite sources of our domesticated races must be 

 regarded as more or less approximate in its conclusions. 



The student will be struck with the fact that most of our 

 animals and plants trace to Old-World forms. This is not 

 necessarily because the New World was less prolific in valuable 

 material, but rather because civilization, as we know it at least, 

 commenced in Asia and worked westward. In this way much 

 valuable material indigenous to the American continent was 



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