Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/36

 30 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

bred'' should apply in a strict sense to characters rather than to in- dividuals.

The statistical data given in the foregoing discussion are by no means complete, but they serve sufiSciently well the present purpose, which is simply to give some conception of the magnitude of the live stock breeding industry and its importance as a source of wealth to the nation. No account has been taken of other than farm live stock, and such obviously represents only a part of the animals which somebody has to breed to supply the needs of the people. Further nothing has been said about poultry, which represents an important industry in it- self. Altogether, however, the following statement by Heape,^ in con- cluding a review of the value of the breeding industry in England, is as well justified by conditions in this country, as in the country for which it was written. He says :

All I have attempted is, to give such a broad idea of the nnmber and value of live stock in the kingdom, as the careful consideration of evidence I have been able to obtain, permits. I have taken the utmost care to avoid exaggeration, and in this, at any rate, I have reason to think I have succeeded.

When it is recoUected that the Board of Agriculture returns are below, may be 10 per cent, or even more below the correct figures; when it is recoUected what a large proportion of the people in the country, farmers, dealers, shop- keepers, farm-labourers, working men of various kinds, and gentlemen 's servants, make their living in one way or another by means of stock; when it is recol- lected what a very large number of valuable animals there are in this country, as shown by a sale of yearlings at Newmarket, the prices obtained at the dis- persal of a herd of Shorthorns or a flock of Southdowns, the value of a success^ ful horse on the turf, of a good hunter, polo pony, pair of carriage-horses or cart-horses, of a couple of pointers, a spaniel, a bull-dog or lap-dogt etc., when such facts are borne in mind I do not think there can be found justification for objection to the final figures I have arrived at on the score of excess; and yet they show a total sum of nearly £450^000^000 invested in live stock in this country.

When to this is added the capital necessary to provide both buUdings to house the stock, land on which to grow their food, barns, machinery, vehicles, harness and attendance, the total becomes so gigantic that I am surely justified in asserting: We have here an industry of enormous importance to the country, and one which merits far more attention than has ever yet been accorded to it; an industry to which, it must be remembered, ''Science has never yet been applied. ' '

THeape, W., "The Breeding Industry," Cambridge, 1906.

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