THE NEW EARTH 



money has been squandered on fancy stock by 

 those whose eyes were blind to everything 

 but the glories of the stud-book and who 

 would content themselves with any sort of a 

 looking brute if only there were an immacu- 

 late pedigree behind; while, indeed, there has 

 been no small danger through the introduction 

 of animals over-bred or in-bred to, and be- 

 yond, the danger point of disease. Yet, on the 

 whole, the process of toning up what may be 

 called the native stock, has had an influence 

 incalculably powerful upon animal life in the 

 United States. 



The greater portion of this so-called native 

 stock dates back for its origin, in the main, 

 either to the Spanish or the English. The first 

 neat cattle came with Columbus, who brought 

 them to the West Indies, from which they 

 spread to Mexico about the year 1525, and 

 thence upward to Spanish territory and to 

 what is now California, New Mexico, Arizona 

 and Texas. Horses came with Columbus, too, 

 and they were put to good service by DeSoto 

 in his western journeyings. Doubtless they 

 were the progenitors of the wild horses of the 

 Southwest, as were his cattle the progenitors of 



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