IGNORANCE OF NATURAL LAWS. 113 



replete as it has been with theories and facts. But I trust the 

 time is coming wlien men will be educated among us, at our 

 Agricultural College, who can stand up and explain to their 

 brother farmers the principles of science, and inoculate us with 

 the necessary learning of our profession. 



And not only are farmers ignorant of the principles of breed- 

 ing in connection with the brute creation, but this ignorance 

 extends through the community, in reference to the whole ques- 

 tion of reproduction, and every woman in the country is just as 

 ignorant of the laws which govern the breeding of the nobler 

 animal as we are of the laws which govern the breeding of our 

 inferior animals ; and this ignorance arises mainly from the false 

 delicacy or mock modesty which pervades the men and women 

 of the country. It was this feeling which prompted the clergy- 

 man, who announced last evening that a meeting of the Board 

 would be held here to-day, to refrain from mentioning the sub- 

 ject for discussion. 



Not long ago I went down to Connecticut to see some cattle. 

 There had been an auction sale, and when I got to the place I 

 saw a good-looking young lady and asked her, " Are the cattle 

 all sold ? " " Yes, sir ; all sold but the gentleman." Said I, " I 

 suppose you mean the bull ? "• " Yes," said she. It is time that 

 our women should know that a bull is a bull, and a cow is a 

 cow, and that all intermixture of them produces calves. In the 

 course of a public address recently, I had occasion to explain 

 the various stomachs of a cow, and a very intelligent lady, the 

 wife of one of the best farmers in the place, expressed her thanks 

 to me for the information I had conveyed in regard to the cow's 

 stomachs, as she had always thought, she said, that the cow had 

 but one stomach, like herself. 



There is an old superstition, which has come down to us, that 

 because woman partook of the apple, there was a curse put upon 

 her sex, and that women would do wrong if they attempted to 

 remove that curse. I do not understand that to be the true 

 reading. 



" In sorrow shalt thou bring forth," says the test, alluding to 

 woman and her offspring. This sentence has resulted in a 

 general belief that the pains of childbirth in their present aggra- 

 vated intensity are unavoidable, and many good people suffer 

 under the delusion that to attempt to alleviate such " sorrow " 

 15 



