CHAPTER V 
THE WAY OF THE WILD 
The astonishing abundance of life. The struggle for existence - Selective 
effect of the natural conditions . Competition for food - Competition for room. 
Competition most severe between individuals of the same species - Natural 
selection - Survival of the fittest - The individual and the race - Significance of 
numbers - Significance of vigor and length of life - Significance of offensive 
and defensive weapons - Significance of protective coloring and markings - 
Mimicry - Design in nature - Causes of color in animals and plants 
Before we can discuss to best advantage the means of further 
improving our animals and plants it is necessary that we under- 
stand as well as possible the conditions and habits of life to 
which they were accustomed in the natural state before they 
came to us, because out of this we shall evolve a method of 
procedure for further improvement. 
The astonishing abundance of life. The most conspicuous 
fact in nature is the astonishing abundance of life and the ex- 
ceeding rapidity with which all living beings multiply. Whether 
animal or plant, large or small, powerful or puny, every species 
multiplies according to the laws of geometrical progression, 
each with a ratio of its own. 
The effect of this fact upon mere numbers is a point not 
easily comprehended. The fastest-multiplying forms are the 
bacteria, some species of which are able, under good conditions, 
to double every twenty minutes. At this rate a single individual 
with its descendants would, if uninterrupted, fill all the oceans 
of the earth in an incredibly short space of time. 
A single ear of corn of good size has one thousand kernels, 
and an average ear has, say, six hundred, each capable of repro- 
ducing a similar ear. How long would it take at this rate for 
the product of one ear to cover the cultivated earth ? 
Axe) 
