THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Vol. XVII- No. 9. 



DECEMBER, 1910. 



SOME PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE SCIENCE 

 OF BREEDING. 

 K. J. j. Mackenzie, 



Lecturer in Agriculture, Cambridge University. 



There are some hopes that methods purely scientific may 

 be brought to bear on the problem of the improvement of 

 British breeds of farm live-stock, but if the performances of 

 the past are to be bettered, a very great deal has to be done, 

 for since Bakewell started, Collings, Booth, Bates, and a 

 hundred other great men have followed in his footsteps, and 

 the improvement in our pedigree stock has been phenomenal. 

 It will, of course, be remembered, that coincident with the 

 work of the great breeders of the eighteenth century, the 

 husbandry of the country changed in such a way that it is 

 quite possible that "feed" as well as "breed " played its part 

 in the great advance which has led to this country being called 

 the stud-farm of the world. If this is so, however, it only 

 adds to the difficulties of the future work, for at this moment 

 no such improvement in husbandry as that which was brought 

 about by the genius of Jethro Tull and the large-mindedness 

 of "Turnip Town send " can reasonably be anticipated. This 

 being the state of the case, it seems eminently desirable that 

 the agriculturist should thoroughly investigate every detail of 

 the results of past work so that he may be in a position to 

 tell the pure scientist what are and what are not the "points" 

 of an animal on which he can profitably work. The object 

 of this article is to bring out the necessity and to show the 

 difficulties of such investigation even at a very early stage. 



In trying to secure information dealing with the factors 



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