No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 217 



as were found necessar} m effecting the improvement. As a conse- 

 quence of the lack of this information a large proportion of the io- 

 vestors have become dissatisfied and convinced that the so-called im- 

 proved breeds and registered stock are but little better, if any, than 

 ranch of the more common stock of the country. As a burned child 

 has learned to avoid the fire, so those who have tried and failed have 

 lost confidence in the better things that are available if they but 

 knew how to make the most of the advantages before them. One of 

 the great hindrances in the advancement of agriculture is the lack of 

 knowledge on the part of the practical men to make good use of the 

 material at their command. 



Those who try new methods and fail are oftentimes sufficiently dis- 

 couraged to prevent them from departing from the practices which 

 have come down to them unchanged through many generations. 

 Instead of permitting improvements to be lost the practical agri- 

 culturist should be able to still further improve for the particular 

 purposes for which they are maintaining plants or animals as the 

 case may be. Nearly every breed and variety is susceptible of 

 further improvement even uoder the conditions under which the im- 

 provement was effected. Much more readily may they be improved 

 for the use of the individual who finds it necessary to maintain them 

 under quite new and changed conditiojis. 



Stock owners do not always realize that the improved breeds may 

 be further improved for their use. As most of the improvements 

 have been made under somewhat unusual couditions it becomes nec- 

 essary for each breeder to still further change and adopt the breed 

 in question to the best condition of life that he is able to provide. 



Whenever the stock breeders, the fruit growers, and grain farmers 

 realize that improvement cannot be maintained under ordinary con- 

 ditioiis a united effort will undoubtedly follow which will give to 

 agricultural advancement a greater impulse that has ever been re- 

 corded in the past. When we are able to look honestly at the ques- 

 tions which confront us and see the difficulties and obstacles as 

 they really exist, then, and only then, will the fundamentals be under- 

 stood sufficiently well to enable the highest possibilities to be realiz- 

 ed. Let us make the mistakes and retrogressions of the past step- 

 ping stones to more certain and continual advancement of the agri- 

 cultural interests which lie at the foundation of the future prosperity 

 of this great country. 



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