VARIATION UNDER DOMESTICATION. 121 



domestication on account of their variability ; 

 and secondly, that variability is a quality be- 

 stowed upon domesticated species expressly to 

 render them useful to man. Both these theories 

 are unsatisfactory, for although the second may 

 be true to a certain extent, yet it only expresses 

 part of the truth. It is almost certain that 

 savages would pay no attention whatever to 

 anything but the immediate use of the plants 

 and animals they first attempted to domesticate. 

 All the most important of our domesticated 

 animals and cultivated plants have been handed 

 down from a very remote period ; for in modern 

 times, man has preferred rather to improve 

 those which he finds ready to his hand, than 

 to attempt to turn wild species to account. At 

 a very early date, various animals were domes- 

 ticated in Switzerland, and both the wild and 

 tame species differed somewhat from existing 

 species and varieties. At that time, too, the 

 domesticated animals varied much less than at 

 present. The cereals and fruits grown by the 

 ancient inhabitants of Switzerland, were also 

 of different and inferior varieties to ours. 



As soon as savages began their first rude at- 

 tempts at farming, artificial selection (at first 



