224 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



little leisure and a little means to devote to their own science, 

 that they coiild not, even had they the material, carry on a se- 

 ries of investigations such as is demanded. We can, however, 

 make a beginning in applying the science of embryology in 

 its present condition to the improvement of our breeds. This 

 has become a matter of importance, not only to the farmers, 

 but to scientific men. The information demanded on the 

 farm must first be worked out, and institutions must be 

 founded and organized in which this work can be done. This 

 is the plain fact, and it is a want which can only be met by 

 gradual and slow degrees. You will see the importance of 

 this investigation if you consider what is at stake, and the 

 advantage j^ou farmers would derive, if you could bring up 

 heifers, or bulls, for instance, at your will, or if you could 

 adapt your farming to the kind of soil you have about you. 

 It would change your fortunes, and would not only make a 

 material difierence to you, but would entirely re-model the 

 conditions of stock-raising. It is therefore unquestionably 

 worth your while to remember that the means of making the 

 necessary experiments by which any modifications in the prod- 

 ucts of our breeding may be brought about are not at hand. 



What is there then to be done ? In the first place you must 

 educate the observer, so that he shall be able to avail himself 

 of every opportunity afforded ; and that education is in itself 

 almost a life-long study. The embryologists of our time can 

 be counted on the fingers of one hand. There are a few in 

 Germany, hardly one of eminence in England, there is hardly 

 one in France, and here we have none. Do not think that 

 this work can be done lightly. As well might you study as- 

 tronomy with an opera-glass, substituting an instrument worth 

 a few dollars for an observatory with its outfit, as study em- 

 bryology in a common stable. Such researches require for 

 successful results, the apparatus of a physiological institution, 

 and the combination of varied talents. 



Notwithstanding what I have said, we have upon the cheap 

 kind of animal life surrounding us, a good deal of information, 

 and that information is not only very interesting in itself, but 

 may be partially applied, and must indeed be applied, in de- 

 fault of anything better, to those animals in which we have a 

 greater interest. 



