No. 7. DEOPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 609 



great work of art, a triumph of human skill and ingenuity. But 

 bow much greater is the achievement of a breeder of an improved 

 animal type! The sculptor must be faithful to nature and 

 copy a figure that already exists. The breeder forms in his mind 

 the picture of an ideal animal, as yet unrealized; his plastic material 

 is living tissue; his materials, if combined with genius, and sur- 

 passing patience, produce an animal of a new form and having new 

 attributes. He has created something, not merely a picture, that 

 is good 'to look upon, but a living, breathing, moving animal, that 

 is better for a certain purpose than any animal that was ever pro- 

 duced before, and that, most important of all, has the power to re- 

 produce its kind. Improvements in animal types, and much of the 

 improvement in the efficiency .of animals have been wrought by these 

 rare, skillful breeders. 



The breeder does not work rapidly; the element of time is needful 

 in all of his operations. His material can be changed and modeled 

 but slowl}'. It was largely on this account that the work of the 

 breeders wais relatively so fruitless until a little more than one 

 hundred years ago. The breeder was denied the use of the indis- 

 pensible element of time. After making a certain amount of pro- 

 gress, his material was damaged, or it was snatched from him by 

 infectious disease. Nearly all of the great improvements in the 

 breeds of animals have developed since the establishment of veterin- 

 ary schools, and since animal plagues have been brought under 

 some kind of control. 



There v/as less difficulty on account of its isolated location in pro- 

 tecting the cattle of Great Britain from animal plagues than was 

 experienced in Continental Europe. This is one of the important 

 reasons why distinct, improved breeds of animals were established 

 in Britain before they were established in other parts of the civil- 

 ized world. Of course, the freedom of England from invasion by 

 armed foes was an advantage to the breeder that also came from 

 this isolated location; but in all times animal plagues have destroyed 

 more animals and have damaged breeders, more than wars and 

 famines, because they have spread faster, and wider, and oftener, 

 and because no opposition could be made to their progress and 

 ravages. The losses that come from the prevalence ^f such diseases 

 are well illustrated by the effects of contagious pleuropneumonia, 

 foot-and-mouth disease, and cattle plague, when through neglect of 

 veterinary advice they did reach England and prevailed during the 

 second third of the last century. It is estimated by Fleming and 

 others that the actual value of the cattle destroyed by these diseases 

 exceeds |600,000,000. (Fleming's estimate made in 1871 of |450,- 

 000,000 was for only a part of the period of the prevalence of lung 

 plague and foot-and-mouth disease.) And Fleming adds, "But 

 these examples and estimates after all give but a slender idea of 

 the devastation, misery, embarassment and loss that have been due 

 to our ignorance, apathy and neglect of the teachings of veterinary 

 and sanitary science, Avhich must nevertheless claim the merit of 

 having conclusively demonstrated that the most formidable diseases 

 can be readily repressed or altogether abolished." 



It has been possible to develop the Jersey and Guernsey breeds 

 because the cattle of these islands have been protected from infec- 



39—7—1906, 



