Page:The Negro a menace to American civilization.djvu/83

Rh one, of nearly or quite dull black color, all I had to do was to expose him to the conditions, and feed him, as I have just described, and I was certain to get the result. But the result responding to the treatment was always the same, and the variety produced was uniform, that is, under the same conditions and treatment, the amblystomas never became more slender in form and yellow or pink in color. As is now so widely known, and has been known for a long, long time, the same thing can be accomplished with flowers and plants of all kinds, as what I have just exemplified in the case of animals. In both instances we here do quickly what nature takes a long time to do, and breeders all over the world have been doing this sort of a thing for many, many generations. A great variety of flowers have thus been dealt with, with the view of producing odd and extravagant forms, with brilliant and attractive colors; fruits have been crossed, grafted and bred to improve their size and flavor and other desirable qualities. In the domestic animals, all sorts of crossing and selection have been resorted to, to accomplish a great variety of ends. Horses have thus been treated to improve their speed and form; cows in order bred for their milk; sheep for their mutton and wool; dogs for hunting, running and guarding; pigs for pork; and so on for many, many other animals, they having been bred to meet our ends. Darwin says, "Man, therefore, may be said to have been trying an experiment on a gigantic scale; and it is an experiment which nature during the long lapse of time has incessantly tried. Hence it follows that the principles of domestication are important for us. The main result is that organic beings thus treated have