BREEDING METHODS. 243 



reclaim a virgin forest from the native cane, 

 and an untilled prairie from the wild and 

 luxuriant growth of noxious weeds? We can 

 afford to treat with an amused indifference the 

 strictures of England's self-appointed prophet 

 of " sweetness and light," the late Mr. Mathew 

 Arnold, upon the crudity of our civilization, 

 when we remember how nearly we have ap- 

 proximated in a few decades the work of a 

 thousand years in England. 



It is not for an ideal country, then, that I 

 shall seek to offer some ideas on the subject 

 of the practical management of farm stock, nor 

 for some ideal state of cultivation and refine- 

 ment in practice. I have been a hard-working, 

 practical man all my days. I have had my 

 ups and downs, my successes and my failures. 

 From all, my failures, not less, nay more, than 

 my successes, I have learned, and out of all 

 these lessons I have drawn what I would fain 

 call my experience. I say this dreading, lest 

 others fear," as I often do, what men call their 

 experience. How often do we confuse excep- 

 tional cases which take hold on our minds with 

 the general tenor of our observation. It is so 

 easy to remember striking instances; so hard 

 to remember that the more striking an in- 

 stance is the more extraordinary it is likely to 

 be. And what we really want is the series of 

 ordinary occurrences, not the extraordinary. 



