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. Hebecameawill- 
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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