NUTRITION AND FERTILITY 377 



reaching a grand total value of a million and three-quarter 

 pounds. 



And yet, despite its comparative prosperity, it is very evident 

 that the breeding industry suffers annually from no inappreciable 

 loss. The prevalent sterility among the better class of Shire 

 mares has already been alluded to, while incapacity to breed is 

 perhaps still commoner among Thoroughbreds, for the Royal 

 Commission on Horse-Breeding showed that no less than 40 

 per cent, of the country's thoroughbred mares fail to have foals 

 each year. Among cattle the annual loss from sterility has been 

 estimated at 15 per cent., while it is shown in the report 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society on fertility in English sheep 

 for the year 1899 that the proportion of ewes which failed to 

 breed was over 6| per cent. In view of the facts of 

 which these are only examples, it is sufficiently obvious, as 

 Mr. Heape has pointed out, that any means by which sterility 

 can be reduced and the capacity to bear young increased must 

 be possessed of great commercial value. And this result can 

 only be attaiend by continuous scientific investigation and the 

 introduction of scientific method into all the problems of 

 practical breeding. 



Mr. Heape, in his work on The Breeding Industry : Its 

 Value to the Country and its Needs, has shown from statistical 

 evidence that the amount of money invested in livestock in this 

 country must be computed at scarcely less than ^450,000,000. 

 Adding to this the capital spent on buildings, land, vehicles, and 

 various accessories, the total becomes still more gigantic. And 

 yet what Mr. Bateson said at the Cambridge meeting of the 

 British Association three years ago is still almost true : 

 " Breeding is the greatest industry to which science has never 

 yet been applied." It cannot be doubted that the introduction 

 of rigorous scientific method into the breeder's industry will be 

 attended by immense advantage, just as it has proved invaluable 

 to other industries. 



