ENVIRONMENT. 69 



ADAPTABILITY. 



WHEN the dairyman is invited to examine a breed 

 of cattle new to him, and is asked to substitute such 

 in the place of those with which he has been long 

 familiar, his inquiries will be directed to two aspects 

 of the proposition : first, as to the excellence of the 

 new breed ; and second, as to its adaptability to meet 

 the requirements of his situation. 



The fact should not escape us that all breeds 

 will not show to equal advantage when brought 

 into the same locality. In nature we observe a 

 nice fitness of the animal for its place. In domes- 

 tication we also observe this predominance of nature, 

 the yielding of the animal to more closely fill her 

 environment. Water not more certainly seeks its 

 level than do our animals, domesticated and wild, 

 seek to correspond with the conditions within which 

 they are placed. 



Bring the life of the tropics into our wintry clime, 

 and how soon is death around ! Bring that of the 

 more temperate zone, there is less of death ; but 

 with the survival of life in the species, there is not a 

 continuance of the shades of character and resem- 

 blance to its own. For a while divergence obtains, 

 until in length of time equilibrium is restored, and 

 the breed, remoulded, is uniform as before. 



