Man Improves the Animal 3 



glands of the champion butter cow, the delicate fiber of 

 merino wool, and the marvelous speed of the modern 

 race-horse are evidences of man's skill in recasting 

 natural types into forms of greater usefulness to him. 

 From the animal of nature, under the direction of a 

 higher intelligence, has proceeded the animal of. civil- 

 ization, an organism obedient to the environment which 

 has been created for it. 



This interdependence of man and the lower orders 

 of life has a vast economic significance. A large part 

 of human activity is devoted to the production and 

 transportation of food for animals and to the traffic in 

 the products of the dairy, slaughter-house and sheep- 

 fold, and to their utilization in various ways. The 

 l^rosperity of every farm is maintained to a greater or 

 less extent by feeding domestic animals, and our rail- 

 roads, our markets, in fact, nearly all our important 

 business enterprises, are more or less dependent upon 

 the extent and prosperity of animal husbandry. 



THE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN 

 FEEDING ANIMALS 



The first and simplest form of animal husbandry is 

 that which was practiced by the nomad. His flocks 

 and herds subsisted wholly by grazing and were moved 

 from place to place according to the supply of forage 

 afforded by different localities. No shelter was pro- 

 vided for the animals and no food was stored for their 

 use. The only intelligence or special knowledge that 

 was brought to bear upon the business of the herdsman 



