CHAPTER V 

 THE WAY OF THE WILD 



The astonishing abundance of life • The struggle for existence • Selective 

 effect of the natural conditions • Competition for food • Competition for room • 

 Competition most severe between individuals of the same species • Natural 

 selection • Survival of the fittest • The individual and the race • Significance of 

 numbers • Significance of vigor and length of life • Significance of offensive 

 and defensive weapons • Significance of protective coloring and markings ■ 

 Mimicry • Design in nature • Causes of color in animals and plants 



Before we can discuss to best advantage the means of further 

 improving our animals and plants it is necessary that we under- 

 stand as well as possible the conditions and habits of life to 

 which they were accustomed in the natural state before they 

 came to us, because out of this we shall evolve a method of 

 procedure for further improvement. 



The astonishing abundance of life. The most conspicuous 

 fact in nature is the astonishing abundance of life and the ex- 

 ceeding rapidity with which all living beings multiply. Whether 

 animal or plant, large or small, powerful or puny, every species 

 multiplies according to the laws of geometrical progression, 

 each with a ratio of its own. 



The effect of this fact upon mere numbers is a point not 

 easily comprehended. The fastest-multiplying forms are the 

 bacteria, some species of which are able, under good conditions, 

 to double every twenty minutes. At this rate a single individual 

 with its descendants would, if uninterrupted, fill all the oceans 

 of the earth in an incredibly short space of time. 



A single ear of corn of good size has one thousand kernels, 

 and an average ear has, say, six hundred, each capable of repro- 

 ducing a similar ear. How long would it take at this rate for 

 the product of one ear to cover the cultivated earth ? 



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