The Regional Problem 87 



treatment. Meantime, on these poor areas chil- 

 dren have to be brought up, probably three or 

 four times as many as on equal areas of Ireland's 

 best land, where the economic process has silently 

 removed more families than all the landlords 

 together ; where the bullock, on unbroken grass, 

 has been able to produce more per acre than could 

 be got from people as the occupants, and where 

 this human disadvantage, as compared with the 

 cow, can never- be cancelled until we raise the 

 human efficiency to assure the bovine subserviency. 

 Meantime, I think I can safely claim that I have 

 produced the cow that can profitably accommo- 

 date herself to the largest area and to the widest 

 variety of conditions in Ireland. The Depart- 

 ment's dairy herd idea is a similar intention, but I 

 was at work on it years in advance, with the 

 additional advantage of a very specific plan 

 instead of depending for the female foundation 

 alone on the wretchedly nondescript native stock, 

 whose unapproachable extremes from the pure 

 shorthorn, and the consequent liability to bad 

 reversions are too often more likely to produce a 

 violent vagary than a normal embodiment of 

 permanently progressive factors. It seems to me 

 in the nature of a national loss that my invented 

 cow cannot be at once multiplied by a million. 



What of Mendel ? My respect for " Law " 

 made me watch the progression with the greater 

 interest, but it seems that Mendel must retire as 

 my experiment advances. Mendel is interpreted 

 to this effect : " Horns and no-horns will produce 



