124 



The coumijttee, annoiinceil lifter, consists of II. Snyder, < r Minnesota; C. G_ 

 Hopliins, of Illinois, and T. L. Lyon, of Nebraslcu. 



Animal Breeding. 



C. F. Curtiss, of Iowa, read tbe following paper on this subject: 



"An exact determination of the laws of heredity will probably work more 

 change in man's outlook on the world and his power over nature than any 

 other advance in natural knowledge that can be clearly foreseen." 



These are the words of a distinguished scientist who believes that these laws, 

 can and will be determined by careful investigation and the tabulation of sta- 

 tistical results indicating the course of heredity under different conditions. 

 That there has been a great awakening of interest in the principles of breed- 

 ing i)Iants and animals and in biological problems is plainly apparent. This 

 search for the truth concerning the laws of life is tersely put by Pearson in 

 the following paragraph : 



"There is an insatiable desire in the human breast to resume in some short 

 formula, some brief statentent, the facts of human experience. It leads the 

 savage to ' accoimt ' for all natural phenomena by deifying the wind, and the 

 stream, and the tree. It leads civilized man, on the other hand, to express his 

 emotional experience in works cf art, and his physical and mental e.xperience 

 in the formulie or so-called laws of science." 



The recent investigations in this field have related chiefly to plant breed- 

 ing. The plant breeders have given us the first mathematical formulas for 

 measuring the forces of heredity. While it is not certain that these fornuilas 

 are of general applicati(in and many investigators are not willing to accept 

 them at all, they have attracted wide attention and stimulated inquiry. 



This activit.v on the part of plant breeders has invaded the field of animal 

 breeders. Some valuable work has been done in recent years, and the future 

 gives promise of the inauguration of extensive investigations that will un- 

 doubtedly throw much light on our knowledge of the laws of animal breeding. 



The creative and deductive work of such men as Burbank, Ewart, De Vries, 

 Vilmorin, Galton, and Mendel have been a great incentive to scientific and prac- 

 tical investigation. 



The lack of means, equipment, and time required for study and incpiiry in 

 this field has thus far prevented the experiment stations in the various States 

 from undertaking much of this work. Many of the stations are now preparing 

 to establish work in animal breeding, however, and some few already have 

 work in progress. The American Breeders' Association was organized in St. 

 Louis in December, 1903. and now has about -0 life members and 800 annual 

 members, some of whom are enrolled from foreign coiuitries. It is the purpose 

 of this organization to afford oi)portunity for discussion and comi)arison of 

 methods, principles, and re.sults from the work of the leading authorities on 

 plant and animal breeding of all countries. 



The last Congress made an appropriation of $25,000 for cooperative breeding 

 and feeding work under the direction of the Secretar.v of Agriculture, and 

 cooperative work has already been inaugurated by the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry in several of the stations, the most notable being that in Colorado 

 for the purpose of producing a heavy harness or coach horse type by the use of 

 the American trotting horse as foundation stock. The excellence of some of 

 the best specimens of trotting-bred horses for this purpose and the importance 

 of and demand for superior horses of this type renders this a work of great 

 interest and far-reaching consequences. 



I have recently addressed inquiries to about twent.v of the experiment stations 

 giving most attention to animal husbandry, asking the nature of the animal 

 breeding work tbe.v have in progress or plans muler contemplation for inaugura- 

 tion of this work in the future. From the stations having work in pi-ogress I 

 have the following replies: 



By Prof. E. K. Lloyd, of Mississippi : " We have done no really scientific 

 work in animal breeding, but our efforts have been directed mainly along the 

 line of improving the native 'scrub' cattle of the State, as regards their beef 

 form and feeding qualities. I will briefly outline what we have attempted and 

 give some of the results accomplished. 



" Our foundation herd was composed of iT) native cows of no fixed t.vpe or 

 breeding, with perhni)s Jersey blood predominating. An Angus i)ull of g(K)d beef 

 form was used on this herd. We now have 50 animals in the herd, ranging from 



