most in this connection, is the
question:

CAN THE SEXES BE PRODUCED AT WILL?

This question was asked many centuries ago. It was a hard one, and
remained without a satisfactory answer until quite recently. Science has
at last replied to it with authority. M. Thury, Professor in the Academy
of Geneva, has shown how males and females may be produced in accordance
with our wishes.

Some families are most anxious for male offspring, others ardently
desire daughters. And would it not often be a matter of national concern
to control the percentage of sexes in the population? Is it not a
'consummation most devoutly to be wished,' to bring about that Utopian
condition when there would be no sighing maids at home, nor want of
warriors in the field? The discussion of this subject is therefore
important and allowable.

It has been observed that queen-bees lay female eggs first, and male
eggs afterwards. So with hens: the first-laid eggs give female, the
last male products. Mares shown the stallion late in their periods, drop
horse-colts rather than fillies.

Professor Thury, from the consideration of these and other like facts,
formed this law for stock-raisers: 'If you wish to produce females, give
the male at the first signs of heat; if you wish males, give him at the
end of the heat.' But it is easy to form a theory. How was this law
sustained in practice? We have now in our possession the certificate of
a Swiss stock-grower, son of the President of the Swiss Agricultural
Society, Canton de Vaud, under date of February 1867, which says:

'In the first place, on twenty-two successive occasions I desired to
have heifers. My cows were of Schurtz breed, and my bull a pure Durham.
I succeeded in these cases. Having bought a pure Durham cow, it was very
important for me to have a new bull, to supersede the one I had bought
at great expense, without leaving to chance the production of a male. So
I followed accordingly the prescription of Professor Thury, and the
success has proved once more the truth of the law. I have obtained from
my Durham bull six more bulls (Schurtz-Durham cross) for fieldwork; and
having chosen cows of the same color and height, I obtained perfect
matches of oxen. My herd amounted to forty cows of every age.

'In short, I have made in all twenty-nine experiments after the new
method, and in every one I succeeded in the production of what I was
looking for--male and female. I had not one single failure