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The committee, announced htter, consisls of II. Snyder, of Minnesota; C. G- 
Hopkins, of Illinois, and T. L. Lyon, of Nebraska. 
Animal BREEDING. 
C. F. Curtiss, of Iowa, read the following paper on this subject: 
" An exact determination of the laws of heredity will probably work more 
change in man's outlook on the world and his power over nature than any 
other advance in natural knowledge that can be clearly foreseen." 
These are the words of a distinguished scientist who believes that these laws 
can and will he determined by careful investigation and the tabulation of sta- 
tistical results indicating the course of heredity under different conditions. 
That there has been a great awakening of interest in the principles of breed- 
ing plants and animals and in biological problems is plainly apparent. This 
search for the truth concerning the laws of life is tersely put by Pearson in 
the following paragraph: 
" There .is an insatiable desire in the human breast to resume in some short 
formula, some brief statement, the facts of human experience. It leads the 
savage to 'account' for all natural phenomena by deifying the wind, and the 
stream, and the tree. It leads civilized man, on the other hand, to express his 
emotional experience in works of art, and his physical and mental experience 
in the formula? or so-called laws of science." 
The recent investigations in this field have related chiefly to plant breed- 
ing. The plant breeders have given us the first mathematical formulas for 
measuring the forces of heredity. While it is not certain that these formulas 
are of general application and many investigators are not willing to accept 
them at all, they have attracted wide attention and stimulated inquiry. 
This activity on the part of plant breeders has invaded the field of animal 
breeders. Some valuable work has been done in recent years, and the future 
gives promise of the inauguration of extensive investigations that will un- 
doubtedly throw much light on our knowledge of the laws of animal breeding. 
The creative and deductive work of such men as Burbank, Ewart, De Vries, 
Vilmorin, Galton, and Mendel have been a great incentive to scientific and prac- 
tical investigation. 
The lack of means, equipment, and time required for study and inquiry in 
this field has thus far prevented the experiment stations in the various States 
from undertaking much of this work. Many of the stations are now preparing 
to establish work in animal breeding, however, and some few already have 
work in progress. The American Breeders' Association was organized in St. 
Louis in December, 1903, and now has about 20 life members and 300 annual 
members, some of whom are enrolled from foreign countries. It is the purpose 
of this organization to afford opportunity for discussion and comparison of 
methods, principles, and results from the work of the leading authorities on 
plant and animal breeding of all countries. 
The last Congress made an appropriation of $25,000 for cooperative breeding 
and feeding work under the direction of the Secretary of Agriculture, and 
cooperative work has already been inaugurated by the Bureau of Animal 
Industry in several of the stations, the most notable being that in Colorado 
for the purpose of producing a heavy harness or coach horse type by the use of 
the American trotting horse as foundation stock. The excellence of some of 
the best specimens of trotting-bred horses for this purpose and the importance 
of and demand for superior horses of this type renders this a work of great 
interest and far-reaching consequences. 
I have recently addressed inquiries to about twenty of the experiment stations 
giving most attention to animal husbandry, asking the nature of the animal 
breeding work they have in progress or plans under contemplation for inaugura- 
tion of this work in the future. From the stations having work in progress I 
have the following replies : 
By Prof. E. R. Lloyd, of Mississippi : " We have done no really scientific 
work in animal breeding, but our efforts have been directed mainly along the 
line of improving the native 'scrub' cattle of the State, as regards their beef" 
form and feeding qualities. I will briefly outline what we have attempted and 
give some of the results accomplished. 
" Our foundation herd was composed of 25 native cows of no fixed type or 
breeding, with perhaps Jersey blood predominating. An Angus bull of good beef 
form was used on this herd. We uow have 50 animals in the herd, ranging from 
