lo6 XATIRAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



fowls he came with edueation to be the protector and shep- 

 herd of them. He could be taught to work also, the too 

 small to be of value where large beasts of burden are available ; 

 yet that stocky dog, the turnspit, was developed to operate 

 the treadmill. He is a draft animal in arctic lands; there his 

 flesh also sers'cs to tide over many a famine, and his furry 

 coat is used for clothing. It is only in our cities, where 

 removed from the ways of nature, and subject to too much 

 coddling, and developed in freak varieties, that he has become 

 a stupid and useless nuisance. 



Dogs are subservient to their masters in both sexes; wliile 

 the males of the larger domesticated beasts, after centuries of 

 care and training, remain dangerous beasts still. 



One of the greatest advances in agri- 

 culture came with the domestication of 

 the cattle-kind, and their use as draft 

 Fig. 50. Ox yoke: our animal s. Tumiug the soil ^^'ith a 



chief symbol of servitude. , . , 



sharpened stick was, to the early 

 planter, a sore task, and a slow one. When the stick was 

 exchanged for a plow, and the great strength of the ox 

 was set to draw it, then tillage began on a larger scale. 

 Then settled homes, and projjerty in land, began to be 

 develo])ed. Nature cquif)ped the cattle kind to serve us in 

 many ways. She made them excellent producers of flesh and 

 of milk, of hides and of honi. vShe made them hard}', and 

 adaptable to a great variety of climate and of artificial condi- 

 tions of life. She made them to live on such herbage as any 

 meadow, wild or tame, offers. In no other beasts has she so 

 combined usefulness in labor, docility, and productiveness. 

 The horse has been one of man's chief hel]:)ers along the 

 road of progress. Next to the dog he has been man's most 

 intimate associate. He was adinirably adai)ted by nature to 

 su]:>plcment man's physical ]:)owers. He was of the right size : 

 not too small to carry a rider and not too large nor too 



