THE FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



PAET I THE PEINCIPLES OF FEEDING 

 CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTION: MAN'S RELATION TO ANIMAL LIFE 



THERE was a time somewhere in the dim past when 

 the beast of the field knew no master. The only obe- 

 dience which he rendered to a superior power was an 

 unconscious submission to Nature's stern forces. He 

 wandered forth at will to find in the untilled pastures 

 such food as the wild herbage afforded, and, unre- 

 strained, he sought a place of rest in the tangled 

 thicket. He knew no refuge from the winter's cold 

 and storm but some sheltered nook or forest recess to 

 which his brute intelligence guided him, and he was 

 his own defense against the dangers which beset him. 



Man had not come to be a controlling factor in the 

 development of the various forms of animal life. If 

 the brute knew him at all, it was as the huntsman, as 

 an enemy, but not as a superior to whom must be paid 

 a tribute of service or of food and clothing. The wild 

 ox and horse possessed those characteristics which best 

 fitted them to cope with the untoward conditions of 

 their environment; but there had not yet appeared 



A (1) 



