How, in other words, do I contain my multitudes? Containing our multitudes is not unlike a bit of agriculture. We use fences and barriers to mark the boundaries of our gardens. We use fertiliser to feed the plants. We uproot and poison incipient weeds. And we set the garden in a place with the right temperature, soil, and levels of sunlight to nourish whatever we want to grow. Animals use equivalents of all of these measures to set the terms and conditions for their microbial partnerships.17 We will meet each one in turn.
