XIV. THE DOMESTICATED MAMMALS OF 

 THE FARM 



"One of the best features of agricultural life consists in the great amount 

 of care-taking which it imposes upon its followers. The ordinary farmer 

 has to enter into more or less sympathetic relations with half a score of 

 animal species and many kinds of plants. His life, indeed, is devoted to 

 ceaseless friendly relations with these creatures, which live or die at his will. 

 In this task ancient savage impulses are slowly worn away and in their 

 place comes the enduring kindliness of cultivated men. . . To this 

 perhaps more than to any other one cause, we must attribute the civilizable 

 and the civilized state of mind." 



— Shaler {Domesticated Animals, p. 222). 



Our chief needs in life are things to eat, things to wear, and 

 things to have fun with. Our mammalian allies provide all 

 these things to a remarkable degree. Agriculture tends to 

 increase the things that minister to our bodily comforts; but 

 it is probable that animals were first domesticated to serve 

 the needs of our minds; for the first animal to be domesti- 

 cated appears to have been the dog, and he, to furnish, not 

 food, nor raiment, but companionship. The dog was docile 

 and friendly and cheerful and in every way responsive to his 

 master's moods. His mind was of a singularly human-like 

 quality. He could interpret his master's commands, and was 

 eager to obey them. He could appreciate praise or blame. 

 He could profit by instruction; and he lent to primitive man 

 the inestimable aid of his sharp teeth, his swift feet, his keen 

 ears and nose, and, above all, his courage and his fealty. He 

 shared his master's hovel and ate of the leavings from his 

 table until he came to prefer his master's society to that of his 

 own kind, staying with him through poverty and want, often 

 indeed, in the face of penury and abuse. He became a will- 

 ing slave, and the "completest conquest man has made in 

 all the animal kingdom. " In all this he was a companion and 

 a helper. Rarely among the tribes of men has the dog 



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