30 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



stage without having known anything resembling a pastoral in- 

 dustry. It is not improbable that, in a few cases, such as the an- 

 cient Phoenicians, commerce developed directly out of fishing. 

 The Indians of North America, before the coming of the white 

 man, had never domesticated any animals except the turkey and 

 the dog. The domesticated turkey played such an insignificant 

 part in the Indian economy, and in so few places, that, so far as 

 the present discussion is concerned, it may be ignored altogether. 

 The dog was used chiefly in the chase, though occasionally for 

 food, and therefore belongs to the economy of the hunting 

 rather than to that of the pastoral stage. We do not find in these 

 two cases even the semblance of a pastoral economy ; that is to 

 say, there were no Indians in North America who ever derived 

 any appreciable part of their subsistence from the herding and 

 breeding of domesticated animals. Even after the coming of the 

 white man the horse was for many years the only domestic 

 animal added to the wealth of the Indians, and he, like the dog, 

 was used mainly in war and the chase, and therefore belonged 

 also to the hunting economy. On the other hand, agriculture 

 was everywhere practiced except in the far north, where it 

 was impracticable. Among some tribes, such as the Pueblos 

 and the nations in Mexico, the art of cultivating the soil had 

 reached a tolerably high state of development. Therefore 

 we may safely say that the Indians of that part of North 

 America now comprised within the territory of the United 

 States were passing directly from the hunting and fishing 

 into the agricultural stage without passing through the pastoral 

 stage at all. According to another view they had formerly 

 been agriculturists, but had taken to a hunting life because 

 of the abundance of game, especially after the relatively late 

 increase of the bison. 



Our own ancestors probably herdsmen. However, it seems to 

 be well established that our own ancestors, the peoples of western 



