The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-03-08
WHY FARM ANIMALS A

No one questions the fact of variation in our
domestic animals. Numerous breeds and varieties
have been produced. Animals in being domesti-
Gated have been placed under different conditions
of life, with numerous varieties of uses to which
they have been put, with food differing from the
usual wild state; a different climate and special
uses have produced the variation in our domestic
animals.
Very much of this divergence is due to climate
influences, which alone are sufficiently powerful,
in the changes of food and climate which neces-
sarily follow, to account for nearly all of the va
rieties of domestic animals. "a warm climate and
a b~ountiful supply of nutritious food from birth
to maturity produces growth and development,
while a scanty supply of nutriment and a rigorous
climate have a positive tendency in the opposite
Erection"
The horse has been dwarfted in the bleak, bar
rem, tempestuous islands north of Scotland, with
but a scanty subsistence during the long, cold win
tiers, while the horse has developed powerfully III
the rich heritage, nutritious grains and mild climtae
in Flanders and Normandy. With due considera-
ton for all this, man, by selection, has been very
potent in causing changes and variability in the
domestic animal. Provisions of shelter, feeding
and breeding have added greatly in changing and
modifying the original type.
Changed conditions of life, greatly modify ami
mails in the state of domestication. If two branch
es of the same species were to be placed under en-
tirely different conditions of life, and left to them
selves and to the operation of natural laws, in
course of time very marked difference would oc-
cur IN their structure and habits.
There is a tendency in all animal life to adapt
itself to conditions under which it must exist; so
with domesticated animals this tendency is po-
tent. Offspring would have the peculiarities of
the race, modified to some extent by the new con-
ditiOns which environed them, and these in time
would produce animals better adapted to the new
order, until we should have a new race widely diff
ferent from the original, evolved by those best
fitted under the new order of things, and remolded
and refashioned by the changed condition of life.
Thus we see that under changed conditions of
life all animals tend to vary; that these variations
may be permanent by selection and that variation
is propOrtionate over normal characteristics, be-
ing more complex, and affecting more than one or
gan. Any modification of one is accompanied by
the modification of the other. Briefly, then, eli
mate, food and habit are the chief causes of va
ration in domestic animals.
Realizing these factors then, we see the condi-
tions of the Middle South are strongly in favor of
live stock production. We have good feeding
stutts-cow peas, corn, Bermuda and other nour-
ishing crops. We have a mild climate that is con-
ducive to growth and early maturity. We have
good markets and with the development of our
manufacturing industries, we will have d greater
demand for beef and butter and milk.
Nature is standing ready to help us improve our
livestock; are we ready to help ourselves?
There are those who acquire the habit of help