90 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PLANTS 



of staple needs further attention. It was good enough for them, 

 but nothing attainable is too good for us, in our opinion 

 at least. 



In nature, if a plant seeds freely it will probably survive, and 

 it makes little difference whether all or only a few individuals 

 seed abundantly, but when we raise a crop we desire an abun- 

 dant yield, and to secure this every individual plant should do 

 its share. In domestication we want no laggards. 



Fruits and flowers may easily be sufficiently sweet and juicy, 

 or showy and fragrant to be attractive to animals and insects, 

 and thus secure the essential points of fertilization and distri- 

 bution ; but with our refined sensibilities and educated tastes we 

 require and exact the finest flowers, the most delicate colors, and 

 the most delicious fragrance that can be produced by the most 

 discriminating selection. ' 



Not all the results of natural selection are useful to us. Some 

 of the achievements of natural selection do not commend them- 

 selves to our favor, as, for example, when the seeds of the stipa 

 grass, with their sharp and barbed points adapted to boring and 

 their twisted, crooked tails adapted to pushing and twisting, get 

 upon our animals and enter the flesh. Then our admiration for 

 the fine adaptations of nature is turned to alarm, as it is when 

 the botfly torments our horse to hatch her young in his stomach, 

 or the yellow-fever germ enters our blood by way of the bite ^ 

 of the mosquito. 



Even some of our most useful species bring with them certain 

 traits highly developed by natural selection, which are worse than 

 useless for our purposes. For example, the extreme timidity 

 of the horse, akin to that of the deer and the antelope, is useful 

 to him in nature, no doubt, but for our purpose we should like 

 to exchange it for the quiet confidence of the dog, which is born 

 of boldness rather than of timidity and is toned down by associa- 

 tion with his master. As it is, we must develop the confidence 

 of the horse against his natural instincts. 



1 It is needless to remark that the mosquito does not truly bite. 



