A COMMERCIAL POINT OF VIEW, 39 



for instance, one thousand breeding fowls ; tliey will lay- 

 about one hundred and fifty thousand eggs per annum 

 under ordinary circumstances. Now, supposing a fowl 

 to sit twice in the course of the year, she could, there- 

 fore, not rear, allowing for casualties, more than twenty 

 chickens : this would give only twenty thousand chickens 

 per annum ; whereas, with the assistance of artificial 

 means, the remaining one hundred and thirty thousand 

 eggs could also be hatched, and in lieu of twenty thou- 

 sand there could be produced at least one hundred and 

 thirty thousand chickens, allowing also for casualties. 

 What a result from science applied to practical pur- 

 poses ! 



Sceptics will of course say it looks very well on paper, 

 but it will never do — it has been tried before and failed. 

 Now, for such reasoning there are endless facts that have 

 forced themselves upon public consideration under similar 

 circumstances ; to my own recollection I have heard man- 

 ufacturers say that they should never give up hand-looms 

 for power-looms, that the goods turned out did not come 

 up to hand-woven : I have seen those who refused to fol- 

 low the current of improvements swept away from the 

 list of once notabilities. 



Up to this very day many object to gas, and will not 

 allow it to be a great improvement on our old oil-lamps ; 

 yet were gas ceased to -be manufactured to-morrow, what 

 would be the general feeling? For railways and steam- 

 boats to cease running, and to have to revert to our old 

 stage-coaches and sailing-ships, would be not only intoler- 

 able, but perfectly impossible. 



I might adduce hundreds more parallels, with a view 



