ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY. 



405 



of taking training, ability to become adapted to new 

 surroundings, some love of locality, and usefulness for 

 food or for some Other of man's real or fancied needs. 

 The effect of domestication on animals has been to soften 

 and dull their original wild instincts, to render them less 

 active and alert, to render them dependent on the' care 

 which man gives them, and to produce a tendency to 

 take on fat easily when food is plenty. 



406. The Animal Industries. The animal industries clus- 

 ter chiefly, but not wholly, about the domestic animals. 

 These domestic industries relate to horses, cattle, mules, 

 sheep, hogs, poultry (including chickens, turkeys, pigeons, 

 geese, and ducks), and constitute a large part of agri- 

 culture in the United States to-day. The successful 

 pursuit of these industries involves a scientific knowl- 

 edge of the animals reared and of their possibilities and 

 demands. Much of this in the past has been done in a 

 haphazard sort of way, somewhat incidental to the raising 

 of crops. In the last half-century, however, there has 

 been a better application of the known principles of 

 stock-breeding and of selection than before. The modern 

 stock-breeder crosses and re-crosses various strains of 

 cattle or hogs" in order to get variety of result. Then 

 he selects what pleases him most and breeds that in such 

 a way as to fix and increase the features which he regards 

 as most profitable, whether it be swiftness, size, milk- 

 giving, cream-producing, finer wool, fertility, or the 

 power to take on fat. This is the reason we have so many 

 varieties of all the animals that have been long in domes- 

 tication. Different breeders have been, more or less 

 consciously, selecting different qualities in animals. 

 Men are now pushing this process even further, and are 



