ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. 241 



not even tried again), and again witli my 

 second, that I thouglit it was all quite easy, 

 and that failure must necessarily imply bad 

 management somewhere. It was, therefore, 

 a surprise to learn, as I did by some sub- 

 sequent disappointments, how precarious a 

 matter it really is. It has been calculated, 

 indeed, that a stallion has on the average 

 to perform at least three services for every 

 mare he gets in foal ; while statistics com- 

 piled on behalf of the Prench Government 

 (Prance being a great breeding country 

 both of horses and mules), comprising the 

 entire number of mares covered by the 

 stallions in the National haras and its 

 various depots, and extending over a period 

 of several years, show that these horses, 

 though kept and handled in the most ap- 

 proved way, only succeeded in getting about 

 half their mares in foal ; the percentage 

 being, one year with another, from forty- 

 eight to fifty-two. Again, we are assured, 



16 



