248 ON ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION. 



liable evidence to the effect that a foal 

 dropped after a year of idleness is in any 

 Avay better than another which was foaled 

 in the regular annual discharge of maternal 

 duty. Breeders, therefore, are naturally in- 

 clined to set aside the biennial theory and 

 breed a foal, if they can, from each mare 

 yearly. 



It is claimed by the advocates of artificial 

 insemination that such desirable result is 

 largely facilitated by this process. The 

 operation is said to have been known in 

 Europe for a hundred years, and used by 

 the Arabs for an unknoAvn period ; but it is 

 only of late years that practical experiments 

 have to any extent been made, and these 

 chiefly in the United States of America. 

 A farmer in Illinois undertook to thus 

 artificially impregnate twenty-two mares 

 which were alleged to be barren, and which, 

 at any rate, had been previously covered 

 for several seasons without result, and ac- 



