INTRODUCTION 3 



tries which rest upon the adoption of any one of these 

 animals — as, for instance, the horse — we see in a way what the 

 possession of domesticated animals and plants really means, 

 and are in a position to conceive, though at best but dimly, 

 what the scores of these captive species have done for us. 

 We recognize the fact that while, under almost any condi- 

 tions, a certain manner of advance above the most primitive 

 savagery is possible to a naturally able people, this on-going 

 cannot lead any distance unless the folk have other help 

 than their own weak bodies can give them. It is hardly too 

 much to say that civilization has intimately depended on the 

 subjugation of a great range of useful species. 



It would be interesting to trace, if we could, what share 

 the several domesticated animals have had in the develop- 

 ment of the human races ; but this task is not to be done. 

 We can, however, discern that the Arab without the camel 

 and the horse would not have found the place in history 

 which he has filled, and that our own race could not have 

 attained its place save for the aid which the horned cattle, 

 sheep, and a host of other helpers which we have pressed 

 into service, have afforded. These economic gains have to 

 be judged in mass, they cannot be reckoned in detail. When 

 we have made the best account of them we can, there 

 remains another class of influences, the value of which, 

 though evidently great, is yet harder to reckon ; these arise 

 from the education which has been attained through the care 

 of these adopted creatures. Among savages the great need 

 is a training in forethoughtfulness ; all primitive peoples are 

 like children, they live in the interests of the day ; the cares 

 of the seasons to come, or even of the morrow, are not for 

 them. The possession of domesticated animals certainly did 



