CHAPTER X DOMESTIC ANIMALS The progress that a nation is making can with reasonable accuracy be measured by the kind of live stock it raises. The general rule is, poor stock, poor people. All the prosperous nations of the globe, especially the grain-growing nations, get a large share of their wealth from raising improved stock. | CHAPTER X 105 CHAPTER X DOMESTIC ANIMALS The progress that a nation is making can with reasonable accuracy be measured by the kind of live stock it raises. The general rule is poor stock poor people. All the prosperous nations of the globe especially the grain-growing nations get a large share of their wealth from raising improved stock. The stock bred by these nations is now however very different from the stock raised by the same nations years ago. As soon as man began to progress in the art of agriculture he became dissatisfied with inferior stock. He therefore bent his energies to raise the standard of excellence in domestic animals. By slow stages of animal improvement the ugly thin-flanked wild boar of early times has been transformed into the sleek Berkshire or the well-rounded Poland-China. In the same manner the wild sheep of the Old World have been developed into wool and mutton breeds of the finest excellence. By constant care attention and selection the thin long-legged wild ox has been bred into the bounteous milk-producing Jerseys and Holsteins or into the Shorthorn mountains of flesh. From the small bony coarse and shaggy horse of ancient times have descended the heavy Norman or Percheron draft horse and the fleet Arab courser. The matter of meat-production is one of vital importance to the human race for animal food must always supply a large part of man s ration. Live stock of various kinds consume the coarser foods like the grasses hays and grains which man cannot use. As a result of this consumption they store in their bodies the exact substances required for building up the tissues of man s body. When the animal is used by man for food one class of foods stored away in the animal s body produces muscle another produces fat heat and energy. The food furnished by the slaughter of animals seems necessary to the full development of man. It is true that the flesh of an animal will not support human life so long as would the grain that the animal ate
