The Portland daily press., 1880-03-23
AGRICULTURAL.
Domestic Animals.

VI Odlcill., MASS, utlole tue Otdtc Dodiu dt
Greenfield, Mass, is of more than passing
interest. The subject was that of the FOOL
ogy of Domestic Animals. 1t is something
remarkable that, while the farmer is the
most din ectly interested, not only In the do
mestic animals, but in wild animals, and
particularly insects, yet there are very few
indeed that make them a scientific study.
Prof Morse said it is interesting to look
through history, and find out when our ami
mails left the wild state and became domes-
ticated, but to trace all the domestic animals
back to wild state is an impossibility, for
the domestication of some is older than the
history of man; in fact, the history of man
is contained in the remains CT animals which
savages have left behind them. The savage
fed birds to his dogs, and the bones of these
birds, on account of their hardness, have
survived their destroyers. The domestic
dog is older than history, and SO is the horse
the OK and the ass, as well as the sheep.
While many of our domestic animals have
been developing in certain relations, by be-
ing made dependent on man, they have lost
the ability to provide for themselves which
their wild progenitors still retain. Tie dog
has been trained for different uses, so that
each breed develops in direction peculiar to
itself, and yet few OF them would be as ca
pable of providing for themselves as the wild
animal. This is more particularly true of
the COW, the sheep and the hog; while man
has been developing these in a direction
best adapted to his wants, he certainly has
rendered them unfit to cope with their natu-
raj enemies in a wild state; while he has
made them entirely subservient to his pur-
poses, he has also made them dependent up
on him for food and protection.
Animals develop those parts most needed,
while those organs which, on account of the
protection of man are little required, become
weak and almost useless. The tame duck
uses its legs more than its wings; hence its
legs are better developed than its wings,
while the wing of the wild duck is much
better developed than that Of the tame. The
brain of the wild duck manifests a higher
degree of intelligence than that which de-
ponds upon civilization for its existence. We
are frequently mixing some of the tame
birds with the wild ones; the mongrel goose
is cross between the tame and wild goose.
The wild turkey crosses with the domestic,
and sometimes the wild peacock and the
pheasants of England cross with the fowl of
the barnyard. If we want varieties we can
obtain them to an unlimited extent, and in
no field of animated nature has this been
carried to such an extent as among domestic
fowls. These birds have become so entirely
dependent upon man that they cannot exist
when mans protection is withdrawn. We
have also developed higher type of worms
and insects and a larger number, by the Gull
tivation of the soil. We have cut down the
forests where they formerly used to feed, but
we have cultivated the soil and raised a more
succulent heritage for them to feed upon;
this is the reason why we have them come
in such swarms into our gardens and upon
our cultivated fields. We have removed their
natural food, but we have cultivated better,
and those countries which have been longest
cultivated are the most troubled with these
pests.
In this section of country there are thirty
five insects to one plant, while in newer por-
tions there are but nine. But then these in
sects have brought us the birds of song. As
their food has become diminished by cutting
down the forest, they have followed the in
sects to the more cultivated fields, and in
this way man has wrought changes even up
on the birds that have not yet come under
his control. Where man has destroyed the
natural enemies of the birds which follow in
the wake of cultivation, they become more
Indifferent about the building of their nests.
The robin and the Baltimore oriole are good
examples of this kind. They build their
nests lower down in the trees, and with less
care, than when in regions more remote from
human habitations. In the North the birds
have smaller and stronger bills and claws
tudu Ill Lut QUILL. w ucTG Illc CllIudtc Is
damp we have darker plumage in the same
species, and brighter one in a drier eli
mate.
Even the crustaca show what change
circumstances work in their construction.
The shrimp, with its hard crust when in salt
water, becomes softer when in fresh water,
where is less lime. Climate, soil and cir
cumstances all have to do with working
changes in animals, birds and insects; all
have their peculiarities in form, habit and
instinct; no two are alike. Birds are type
of themselves. Few are aware what re-
semblence exists between the arm of man
and the wing of fowl. There is certain
stage of the fetus in the egg of the bird and
the egg of the turtle, when that of the turtle
cannot be told from that of the bird, nor
that of the bird from that of the turtle; but
in this nature never makes mistake-the
turtle always develops towards the turtle,
and the bird to the bird. In man there is
the same law of hereditary descent; peculi-
arities even of handwriting seem to be trans
mitted from father to son. In the develop
ment, as they progress in years they grow
different, and in those of the same family
peculiarities develop themselves according
to age. The man at sixty resembles his par
ents more than the youth at twenty. Natu-
raj selection of life and death suggests the
theory that those that survive are the ones
best adapted to the circumstances of life.
Perhaps there is no branch of natural histo-
ry that affords so much that is interesting to
the student as that which relates to the de-
yelOpment of species