106 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



fowls he came with education to be the protector and shep- 

 herd of them. He could be taught to work also, tho too 

 small to be of value where large beasts of burden are available; 

 yet that stocky dog, the turnspit, was developed to operate 

 the treadmill. He is a draft animal in arctic lands ; there his 

 flesh also serves to tide over many a famine, and his furry 

 coat is used for clothing. It is only in our cities, where 

 removed from the ways of nature, and subject to too much 

 coddling, and developed in freak varieties, that he has become 

 a stupid and useless nuisance. 



Dogs are subservient to their masters in both sexes; while 

 the males of the larger domesticated beasts, after centuries of 

 care and training, remain dangerous beasts still. 



One of the greatest advances in agri- 

 culture came with the domestication of 

 the cattle-kind, and their use as draft 

 Pig. 50. Ox yoke: our animals. Turning the soil with a 



chief symbol of servitude. . 



sharpened stick was, to the early 

 planter, a sore task, and a slow one. When the stick was 

 exchanged for a plow, and the great strength of the ox 

 was set to draw it, then tillage began on a larger scale. 

 Then settled homes, and property in land, began to be 

 developed. Nature equipped the cattle land to serve us in 

 many ways. She made them excellent producers of flesh and 

 of milk, of hides and of horn. She made them hardy, and 

 adaptable to a great variety of climate and of artificial condi- 

 tions of life. She made them to live on such herbage as any 

 meadow, wild or tame, offers. In no other beasts has she so 

 combined usefulness in labor, docility, and productiveness. 

 The horse has been one of man's chief helpers along the 

 road of progress. Next to the dog he has been man's most 

 intimate associate. He was admirably adapted by nature to 

 supplement man's physical powers. He was of the right size : 

 not too small to carry a rider and not too large nor too 



