INFORMATION WANTED. 197 



phoric acid, and other things, can be bought in certain standard 

 articles in the market. 



I merely rose to make this explanation, that Mr. Harris's 

 experiment may not be left to go out as showing that you 

 may feed a ton of bran and get more value in your manure- 

 heap than your bran cost you. And the same may be said of 

 cotton-seed meal. 



Mr. Root. Perhaps there is no subject to -which the atten- 

 tion of the farmers and stock-raisers of Massachusetts could 

 be directed with more advantage than the subject considered 

 in the paper which has been presented by Dr. Sturtevant this 

 mornino;. We have listened with the utmost interest to the 

 subjects brought before us by Prof. Stockbridge and President 

 Clark, in connection with their investigations into nature. 

 Dr. Sturtevant is commencing investigations in the same 

 direction, in reference to the mooted question, how we shall 

 breed ; and perhaps there is no question which we farmers 

 feel . o perplexed about as how to breed our domestic animals, 

 what breeds we shall use, and how we shall perpetuate their 

 good qualities. We all know the mistakes we make, and how 

 disappointed we feel when we do not produce the results 

 which we are so anxious to obtain. The problem is one full 

 of difficulties, all of which we do not understand; and when- 

 ever these investigations have been carried so far that some 

 definite rules can be laid down for our guidance, we shall have 

 arrived at a state which we have not as yet reached. I 

 sincerely thank the Doctor for his investigations in this direc- 

 tion. AVhether breeding in-and-in is to be avoided ; whether 

 the vital forces generated by successive reproductions in the 

 same family by in-and-in breeding are such forces as it is 

 desirable to perpetuate ; whether we are to make violent 

 crosses for certain purposes, — when these questions shall 

 have been so fully investigated and determined that we, as 

 practical, every day farmers, can have certain rules for our 

 guidance, we shall have arrived at a state of things which does 

 not exist yet. I hope, sir, that Dr. Sturtevant will continue 

 these careful investigations until we shall be able to profit by 

 the results of his work. 



I only rose to express the ho^e that some of the intelligent 

 farmers in this portion of the Connecticut Valley, who have 



