A SCIENCE AND AN ART. 17 



cal breeder has assailed on the side of practical 

 every-day utility. The studies of the one have 

 borne their due fruit in the application of their 

 results to the labor of the other, and the end is 

 seen in the steady improvement of so many 

 breeds of cattle. 



It does not prove that there is no such thing 

 as a science of breeding to show that the ordi- 

 nary course of breeding cattle is controlled by 

 no law or system of laws, that it is the result of 

 no special knowledge, but is simply an unregu- 

 lated and unordered progression. It is perhaps 

 too true that the practice of a great many 

 breeders , is reducible to no system, and that 

 Hap-hazard is the presiding tutelary God of 

 their farms. But this does not prove anything 

 against the existence of a science of breeding. 

 It merely shows that if there is such a science 

 it needs to be more widely taught. 



It would perhaps be claiming too much to 

 assert that this science is an exact science or a 

 thoroughly systematized one. But there are 

 few of which this can be said, and they are not 

 those from which man derives the highest 

 truth. In this life we must be content "to 

 know in part." Perfect and absolute knowl- 

 edge is not the prerogative of mortal beings. 

 This science of breeding, then, is the systema- 

 tized facts and the laws deduced from them 

 whereby we are to be regulated in our practical 



