140 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



game, so that the chase affords but Httle save amusement. 

 Therefore a provision in the way of meat has to be obtained 

 from domesticated animals. The fiocks and herds supply this 

 need, though in a costly way. Sheep have a value for their 

 wool ; horned cattle develop slowly, and are, moreover valu- 

 able, the oxen for their strength and the cows for their milk. 

 Horses are too valuable to be used for food, save in times of 

 exceeding stress ; and none but the lowest savages are willing 

 to send their faithful dogs to the pot. From the beginning 

 of his experience with man the pig has been found the cheap- 

 est and most serviceable domesticated animal as a source of 

 food-supply. 



We can trace the origin of our dom.esticated pigs more 

 clearly than in the case of the most of the other subjugated 

 animals. The creature is evidently descended from the wild 

 boar of Europe and Asia ; and though long under domestica- 

 tion and greatly varied from its primitive stock, it readily 

 reverts to something like its original form when allowed to 

 betake itself once more to the wilds. The domestication of 

 the species appears to have been accomplished at several 

 different points in Asia and Europe. The forms which are 

 found in eastern Asia differ from those which are kept in the 

 western portion of the great continent, and may have their 

 blood commingled with that of another species which is native 

 in that part of the world. 



Among our domesticated animals the pig is exceptional in 

 the fact that it has been bred for its flesh alone : for although 

 the hide is valuable and the hair serves certain purposes, as in 

 the manufacture of brushes, these uses are only incidental and 

 modern. They have not affected the plan of the breeder, 

 whose aim has been to produce the largest weight of flesh in 



