Domestication

“One of the most singular aspects of our domestic races is that they show adaptation, not for the sake of the animal or plant, but rather for man’s benefit and amusement.”

— Charles Darwin
On The Origin of Species, 1859

Darwin’s theory is based on the study of domesticated breeds. According to the concept, the current species of plants and animals are the oldest and strongest varieties that emerged from a natural selection of those species that could better adapt to the circumstances and conditions of place and time, in a way that can be compared with the development of our animals and plants under artificial selection and care.

“We cannot suppose that all the breeds were suddenly produced as perfect and as useful as we now see them; indeed, in several cases, we know that this has not been their history. The key is man’s power of accumulative selection: nature gives successive variations; man adds them up in certain directions useful to himself.”

— Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species, 1859

“We have seen that man by selection can certainly produce great results, and can adapt organic beings to his own uses, through the accumulation of slight but useful variations, given to him by the hand of Nature.”

— Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species, 1859.

“The pear, though cultivated in classical times, appears, from Pliny’s description, to have been a fruit of very inferior quality. I have seen great surprise expressed in horticultural works at the wonderful skill of gardeners, in having produced such splendid results from such poor materials; but the art, I cannot doubt, has been simple, and, as far as the final result is concerned, has been followed almost unconsciously. It has consisted in always cultivating the best known variety, sowing its seeds, and, when a slightly better variety has chanced to appear, selecting it, and so onwards.”

— Charles Darwin 
On the Origin of Species, 1859

“If selection consisted merely in separating some very distinct variety, and breeding from it, the principle would be so obvious as hardly to be worth notice; but its importance consists in the great effect produced by the accumulation in one direction, during successive generations, of differences absolutely inappreciable by an uneducated eye (…) Not one man in a thousand has accuracy of eye and judgement sufficient to become an eminent breeder”

—Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species, 1859.

Experiments with Pigeons

When analyzing his correspondence on the subject, we learn that Darwin himself bred pigeons in an effort to understand the process and the scope of variation under domestication. He relied on the support of experts such as William Tegetmeier, as well as on the cooperation of naturalists from other countries, many of whom shared their observations and even their specimens with Darwin. 

“The details given in the first volume will probably be too numerous and minute for most readers; but they appeared to me worth publishing, as different persons might be interested in different classes of animals and plants; and the facts taken together show in the clearest manner how largely organic beings vary when subjected to domestication.”

— Charles Darwin 
The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, 1868