156 Breeding Plants and Animals. 



studied and imported and possibly hybridized with 

 some of our improved breeds. 



There is not nearly enough work done on improv- 

 ing the breeds which originally came to us from Eu- 

 rope, and the total expenditure and effort in this line 

 should be greatly increased. But while making im- 

 provements in the European sheep blood, should we 

 not spend enough labor and money on the Asiatic blood 

 to at least see if it has elements of efficiency which 

 could be woven into our sheep industry? Likewise 

 the Asiatic races of cattle may have in them elements 

 which might correct some of the palpable weaknesses 

 of our West European cattle. We might possibly find 

 infusions of blood which would enable us to breed 

 types resistant to tuberculosis, blackleg, to Texas fever 

 and to milk-fever. What a blessing to the great hog 

 regions would be an infusion of hog blood which would 

 resist or better resist cholera and plague. The many 

 millions of loss would justify a search for such blood. 

 Mr. D. G. Fairchild, the regular agricultural ex- 

 plorer of the Department of Agriculture, took up in a 

 systematic way the study of climatic and plant relation- 

 ships of the world. Owing to a remarkable friendship 

 forming between Mr. Fairchild and Mr. Lothrop, Chi- 

 cago, the latter paid their combined traveling expenses 

 for some years in making trips about the world and 

 through nearly all of the important countries. The 

 Department of Agriculture paid only Mr. Fairchild's 

 salary and the freight on the seeds and plants forward- 

 ed to be distributed through the Office of Seed and 

 Want Introduction at Washington. In making these 

 tours Mr. Fairchild not only learned of climates, plants 

 and peoples but also has made a preliminary survey of 

 the animals which might be of interest in improving 

 our domestic races. At the recent meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Breeders' Association in St. Louis he called atten- 

 tion to the adaptability of Sind cattle to dairy pur- 

 poses in very warm regions, while the monstrous Matas 

 breed on the River Plata might be of value in parts of 



