The Conditions of Domestication; Effects on Society; Share of the Races of Men in the Work.--Evils of Non-Intercourse with Domesticated Animals as in Cities; Remedies.--Scientific Position of Domestication; Future of the Art.--List of Species which may Advantageously be Domesticated.--Peculiar Value of the Birds and Mammals.--Importance of Groups which tenant High Latitudes.--Plan for Wilderness Reservations; Relation to National Parks.--Project for International System of Reservations.--Nature of Organic Provinces; Harm done to them by Civilized Men.--Way in which Reservations would Serve to Maintain Types of the Life of the Earth; how they may be Founded.--Summary and Conclusions. The advance of mankind from the primitive savagery has been accomplished in many ways. Among the various paths of onward and upward going, however, we trace three which have served greatly to secure the elevation of our estate. First of all, culture came through the use of the hands in the development of the simpler arts. Next, these arts led men to search the stores of the wilderness and of the under earth for materials which could serve them in their advancing crafts. The third important stage in their ongoing was attained when they began to subjugate the animals and plants of the wilds, bringing the creatures to abide in and about the households. Although in general this was the last great step to be taken in the beginnings of civilization, it was on many accounts the most important. Until men began to domesticate the forms of the wilderness, it was impossible for them to rise above the grade of savages. Their supply of food was necessarily in such a measure limited that their societies had to remain small and they were given to much wandering to and fro over the earth. Moreover, they had only the strength of their own hands for all the work of life. It was not until our kind began to form a society of other species about their homes that the foundations of civilizations were firmly established. The home, indeed, may fairly be said to be the product of the conditions which the process of domestication brought about. As distinguished from the temporary hut of primitive men, it represented the stability which was induced by the care of the plants and animals which man had domiciled about him. With every step upward in the organization of society we find that the number and efficiency of these subjugated creatures increases. Our American aborigines in their primitive state commanded only the dog and three or four plants, yet with this scant help they had already won beyond the lowest savagery and were at the threshold of barbarism. In our more civilized societies of to-day we find the products of near a hundred animals and about a thousand plants as elements of commerce, and each year sees some gain in the number of creatures which we make tributary to our desires.