E. I. IVANOFP 255 



create in Russia great liorse and cattle-ranches. In spite of the losses 

 during the war and revolution, there are still in Russia millions of 

 domestic animals. The females are preserved in greater numbers and the 

 main shortage is in males. The latter could partly be brought from abroad 

 and partly increased in number through artificial insemination. In any 

 case Russia, with her enormous open spaces, her extraordinary variety 

 of climate, soil, geographical surface, her wealth of still untouched 

 zootechuical material and the millions of her population — chiefly peasant 

 population — provides endless opportunities for the development of all 

 kinds of animal-breeding on a large scale, from horse-breeding to, and 

 including, the breeding of deer and silver foxes, in the case of which 

 artificial insemination acquires particular importance, as foxes are 

 monogamous. 



It must also be remembered that with the use of artificial insemination 

 on domestic animals we not only gain material advantage, but also save 

 time. Formerly, in order to create a local breed or even a considerable 

 uniform herd, from one or another valuable progenitor, it required a 

 period of several decades. Now, with artificial insemination, this can 

 be. achieved in a much shorter period of time, and a surplus of progeny 

 makes possible a more careful selection. 



Artificial insemination is bound in the near future to assume additional 

 import.ance in the zootechuical practice in connection with the solution 

 of two fundamental problems now being investigated, namely (1) in- 

 creasing the number of females fertilized during the pairing season 

 through artificial insemination by one male, and (2) preserving for some 

 time and forwarding to distant places the seminal solution. 



The first 2>roblem has already been to some extent solved by my 

 experiments and the observations of my pupils, veterinary surgeons, and 

 for practical application it needs only to be verified on a number of 

 animals. 



The second problem, theoretically quite reasonable, needs for its 

 solution the investigation of a number of questions. 



The possibility of preserving alive the seminal ceils of Mammals 

 outside the organism for many days and even weeks has been demon- 

 strated by the work in our laboratory, as well as by other investigators ; 

 this, however, is true only of seminal cells taken, with precautions of 

 sterihzation, directly from the epididymes of the seminal gland. In this 

 case it is sufficient to prevent them from drying up and to place them in a 

 temperature of 1 or 2° C. But for practical purposes, it is most important 

 to preserve the seminal cells not in the above state, but in the medium 



Journ. of Agric. Sci. xu 18 



