EFFECTS OF FOOD AND CLIMATE 189 



to produce slight variations in other directions. Food 

 furnishes the material with which to produce variations; 

 inheritance and use largely determine where and how 

 the surplus material shall be used or stored. Liberal 

 but judicious feeding and improved foods have been 

 prime factors in the development of the horse, as well 

 as in that of the great meat -producing animals. The 

 progeny of the fleet trotter may be varied towards a 

 draft -type in a few generations by feeding for increased 

 weight and size and by changing habit from fast to 

 slow, laborious work. Food and use not infrequently 

 overpower inheritance. Uncongenial climate and inju- 

 dicious feeding may prevent food from accomplishing 

 its legitimate and desired end. 



CLIMATE 



Climate does not play so important a part in the 

 United States in modifying animals and in producing 

 variations as formerly, when stables were inferior and 

 when it was sometimes the practice to allow horses and 

 other domestic animals to find shelter around the straw- 

 stack. As the forests were cleared, it was not uncom- 

 mon to provide an open shed, usually facing the south 

 or east, in which horses, cattle and sheep were allowed 

 to battle for the place least exposed to drafts of air. 

 Even if enclosed stables were built, the floor and sides 

 were so open that the heat generated by the animals 

 kept in them made no perceptible change in the 

 temperature. Many of these stables were more un- 

 comfortable for the animals than open sheds, or the 



