BREEDING METHODS. 245 



thoughts, good thoughts, thoughts fit to treas- 

 ure up"; and more than this, they want the 

 simple key which makes each thought able to 

 unlock some hard fact of life. So I shall seek 

 only to give out of the long experience which 

 has been granted me such of the practical every- 

 day facts and thoughts as I know or feel sure 

 will be of active service to some may they be 

 many of those who like myself are trying to 

 fulfill in an earnest spirit the duties of our mu- 

 tual calling. I am sure the indulgent reader 

 will pardon the somewhat autobiographical 

 tone of this chapter and those which follow; 

 for I cannot speak in them with that decision 

 which we may justly use where we are only 

 expressing a concurrence in the conclusions of 

 great thinkers and scholars; here I can only 

 give my own views; they are only valuable as 

 the observations of one worker in a great field. 

 I do not state them as facts, but as what I have 

 from my own limited observation concluded 

 to be facts. I, indeed, am prepared to defend 

 them and to maintain their truth and accuracy 

 until I am convinced that I am wrong, but I 

 cannot press them on others by the weight of 

 any sanction such as we find in some other 

 departments. I only offer the following pages 

 as so many leaves out of my own life. They 

 are the daily pencilings of nearly a half century 

 of life in and about a stock farm. 



