43 



servant stockbreeders together, and thus combine 

 the valuable knowledge of both. 



There is all the difference in the world between 

 the wild mare of the prairie and the in-bred pedigreed 

 Clydesdale and Shire. The highly-developed instinct 

 of the former enables her to roam over a large area 

 of ground in search of the materials of existence, 

 and to take good care of herself when unexpected 

 emergencies arise. This enforced activity in her 

 progenitors for thousands of years has developed her 

 instinctive functions to their highest capacity ; whilst 

 those of the Clydesdale and Shire, on the other hand, 

 have been reduced by domestication to the lowest 

 point — bare rudiments of the former. It is a mistake 

 to imagine that domestication develops the instincts 

 of animals ; the habits they acquire by civilised 

 association with men and things have no continuity, 

 and are never inherited and reproduced by their 

 progeny, which is conclusive testimony that instinct 

 is only maintained under natural laws, and that all 

 acquirements under domestic existence are necessarily 

 artificial. Domestic acquirements are never contribu- 

 tive to the general betterment of animals ; only those 

 specialised by training and favourable surroundings 

 attain to a kind of comparative civilisation — a civilisa- 

 tion, however, which is hampered and circumscribed 

 by the narrowness of its understanding, and which 

 dies with the animals that acquire it. 



When parturition approaches, the wild mare seeks 

 a sheltered place and foals, as a rule, in safety. Her 



