INTRODUCTION % 3 



Why should not our educational system provide for the 

 training of our labouring classes in both its branches, manual 

 and mental, when this would conduce so much to their future 

 happiness and the public good? In saying this, it is fully 

 realised that the only possible places where a sound practical 

 training such as schoolboys should have are ordinary farms 

 managed on commercial principles. Every facility ought to 

 be given by school authorities to boys to avail themselves 

 of the opportunity of taking part in the regular work of 

 busy seasons, under conditions which provide work of a 

 natural and useful kind, of which they are able to recognise 

 the practical value. 



Darwin's work on Animals and Plants under Domestica- 

 tion treats of most of the trustworthy principles of breeding 

 that have been propounded. His lines have been departed 

 from only in those instances where investigations have 

 extended the knowledge of the subject. Warfield's excellent 

 book on the Theory and Practice of Cattle-breeding forms a 

 useful supplement to the work of the older authority. 



Those who wish to investigate the subject of heredity as 

 applied to the whole field of animal and plant life will find two 

 recent publications (1905), by acknowledged experts on the 

 subject, that will repay perusal, viz. (a) G. Archdall Reid on 

 The Principles of Heredity \ with some Applications ; and ($) 

 Hugo De Vries on Species and Varieties, their Origin by 

 Mutation, being lectures edited by Daniel Trembly MacDougal. 



