FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



139 



equally true, and that as a general law large 

 seeds produce stronger plants with a greater 

 capacity for reproduction than small seeds 

 of the same kind. In the economy of Na- 

 ture, as the food supply is lessened, a greater 

 effort is made on behalf of the parent plants 

 to enhance the chances for perpetuity, but 

 at the same time the largest seeds, having 

 the greatest potentiality, stand the best 

 chance in the future struggle, and, although 

 the best, nourished plants produce the fewest 

 seeds, their greater size gives them decided 

 advantages over seeds from starved plants. 

 The two laws acting together, therefore, aid 

 in maintaining the perpetuity of the species 

 and its full measure of vigor. The two cate- 

 gories of methods for the improvement of 

 crops are the enrichment and cultivation of 

 the soil and the selection of seed, especially 

 of large seed. It is desirable to know that 

 intensive farming will give a better return in 

 all crops grown for fodder, or for the roots, 

 or other portions of the vegetative part of 

 plants, than in those grown for grain and 

 fruit. In either case, but more especially in 

 the latter, the highest vigor and best returns 

 can be obtained only by the use of the best 

 and heaviest seed. When this is done high 

 tillage will increase the yield and make pos- 

 sible the greater improvement of succeeding 

 crops. 



Happiness of Animals. "What makes 

 the happiness of wild animals ? " asks a 

 writer in the London Spectator. What the 

 happiness of wild creatures consists in, he 

 continues, "can perhaps be best judged by 

 their daily habits. Within certain limits 

 they are free to choose their life, and pre- 

 sumably they choose what pleases them best- 

 In nearly every case this is one of pure routine. 

 It consists in a daily repetition of a limited 

 series of actions, the greater number of 

 which seem to give them satisfaction rather 

 than pleasure, but make up in the aggregate 

 the sum of animal happiness. Unlike the 

 domestic dog, which welcomes any break in 

 the monotony of life, they never, except in 

 the courting season, seem to seek change, or 

 adventure, or excitement. It may be doubted 

 whether, if the food supply were plentiful and 

 constant, animals or birds would ever care to 

 move beyond the circle in which they can 

 find enough for their daily wants. The prob- 



able whereabouts of deer at any time in 

 the twenty-four hours, and their occupation* 

 whether feeding, sleeping, or resting, are 

 known with the utmost certainty by those 

 whose business it is to watch the forest, and 

 could be predicted for any month in the year. 

 . . . The adventurous life, if it is found any- 

 where among wild creatures, belongs to the 

 carnivorous animals. Yet most of these only 

 wander just so far as is necessary to find their 

 prey, and then prefer to kill some creature that 

 will provide a meal for more than one day. 

 They are naturally indolent, and active only 

 from necessity." Even lack of space is not 

 a serious drawback to the happiness of most 

 animals at the London " Zoo." " The lions 

 and tigers feel the confinement of their inner 

 cages and often strike impatiently at the 

 doors which separate them in winter from 

 their summer palaces, and the wild cattle 

 would enjoy life far more if a roomy pad- 

 dock could be added to their pens. No 

 hawks or eagles can be happy in cages, be- 

 cause exercise in flight is essential to their 

 health. Parrots, on the other hand, dislike 

 exercise, and consequently live to the great- 

 est age of any creatures in the gardens. 

 Bears seem to share this dislike for unneces- 

 sary movements, and 'my lords the ele- 

 phants,' and all the camels, with true Ori- 

 ental indifference, would prefer to stand all 

 day doing nothing, if they were not com- 

 pelled to earn their living by carrying visitors. 

 All the reptiles lead the life of lotus-eaters, 

 and, so far as their brief day lasts, the trop- 

 ical butterflies in their cages seem equally 

 happy with those which flit among the flow- 

 ers that line the garden walks." 



Pletnresqne Arctic Natnre. How small, 

 says Julius von Payer, is the matter for ar- 

 tistic reproduction in the old civilized world 

 compared with the rest of the globe ! " Has 

 the desert been depicted in such a manner 

 as it undoubtedly deserves to be? Or the 

 Tundra, the primeval forest of the Dark Con- 

 tinent, the swampy shores of Lake Chad, the 

 bridle-path of the Cordilleras, the Tibetan 

 mountain lake, or the coral islands ? What 

 of the animal world, if we except our do- 

 mestic animals and some wild game : the 

 Indian beasts of prey; the African pachy- 

 derms ; the troops of monkeys or tortoises 

 of Brazil ? And then the scenes of human 



