for their wool; horned cattle develop slowly, and
are, moreover valuable, the oxen for their strength and the cows for
their milk. Horses are too valuable to be used for food, save in times
of exceeding stress; and none but the lowest savages are willing to send
their faithful dogs to the pot. From the beginning of his experience
with man the pig has been found the cheapest and most serviceable
domesticated animal as a source of food-supply.

We can trace the origin of our domesticated pigs more clearly than in
the case of the most of the other subjugated animals. The creature is
evidently descended from the wild boar of Europe and Asia; and though
long under domestication and greatly varied from its primitive stock,
it readily reverts to something like its original form when allowed to
betake itself once more to the wilds. The domestication of the species
appears to have been accomplished at several different points in Asia
and Europe. The forms which are found in eastern Asia differ from those
which are kept in the western portion of the great continent, and may
have their blood commingled with that of another species which is
native in that part of the world.

Among our domesticated animals the pig is exceptional in the fact that
it has been bred for its flesh alone; for although the hide is
valuable and the hair serves certain purposes, as in the manufacture
of brushes, these uses are only incidental and modern. They have not
affected the plan of the breeder, whose aim has been to produce the
largest weight of flesh in the shortest time, and with the least
expenditure of food. In this peculiar task the success has been
remarkable, the creature having been made to vary from its primitive
condition in an extraordinary manner. In its wild state the species
develops slowly, requiring, perhaps, three or four years to attain its
maximum size. It never becomes very fat, but remains an agile,
swift-footed, and fierce tenant of the wilds. Under the conditions of
subjugation the pig has been brought to a state in which its qualities
of mind and body have undergone a very great change. In the more
developed breeds, even the males, when kept about the barnyard, are
quiet-natured and not at all dangerous. The creatures have become
slow-moving; they attain their full development in about half the time
required for the growth of their wild kindred, and when adult they may
outweigh them in the ratio of four to one.

The effect