Agriculture and Its Needs 51 



and responsible to the farming interests. 

 What may be profitably grown, having in 

 view the factors in the soil, and the facil- 

 ities for changing those factors, and the new 

 facilities for transportation, and the new 

 demands of the markets, ought to be assert- 

 ed by undoubted authority. For example, 

 again, if four-fifths of all of the farm 

 animals in New York State were to be 

 destroyed by some noxious disease, it 

 would seem a great hardship, but if the 

 pest would discriminate in favor of the 

 one-fifth which it spared the fact would 

 in the end be a real gain. We are 

 continuing the propagation of great 

 herds of mongrel animals which are com- 

 monly less serviceable than those which we 

 might breed, and which often are not 

 worth their keep. We fall far short of pro- 

 ducing the best horses sufficient for our needs, 

 either for all-around or particular service. 



