THE BORDER LEICESTER BREED OF SHEEP. 265 



as a servant, to learn how turnips were grown under the new 

 system, returning after he had acquired this knowledge to Scot- 

 land, where, on his farm of Frogden, he sowed his first drill 

 crop in 1763. By means of this root crop an abundant supply 

 of food was obtained on which to keep the sheep thriving 

 "from their birth to their death;" and with one of his great 

 practical difhculties thus provided for, Bakewell seems to have 

 got rid of the other difficulty in his way — the ever recurring 

 tendency of the stock to revert to former and less desirable 

 types — by the only way in which indeed it could have been 

 met, the constant and consistent striving after a model, the 

 general form of which he developed in accordance with the 

 experience that he was continually gaining. That in-and-in 

 breeding was much relied on to produce the desired result 

 has already been said, and this opinion is confirmed by several 

 reliable writers. Sir John Sebright, for example, says, in 

 his work on improving the breeds of domestic animals, that 

 ■" Mr Bakewell effected his improvements by breeding from the 

 same family." Youatt makes a similar statement. " Bakewell 

 did not object," he says, " to breeding from near relations, when 

 by so doing he put together animals likely to produce progeny 

 possessing the characteristics that he wished to obtain"; and 

 by way of showing the great changes that can be effected by 

 selection, he adds, referring to the liocks of Mr Buckley of 

 Normanton Hill and Mr Burgess of Holmepierpoint, that these 

 sheep had been purely bred from the original Dishley stock for 

 upwards of fifty years, but that the difference between the two 

 Hocks was so great tliat they had the appearance of being quite 

 distinct varieties. Culley too, who, as will afterwards be seen, 

 was intimately associated with Bakewell, says that the latter 

 liad not crossed with any other blood than his own for upwards 

 of twenty years ; that the best stock had been produced by the 

 nearest affinities, and that the sheep had nevertheless not 

 decreased in size, neither had they become less hardy or more 

 liable to disease — a statement whicli is perhaps in the latter 

 part a little extravagant, but whicli in any case it is important 

 to have from one who is so much heard of among Leicester 

 breeders. 



All the light that it is possible to get has now been thrown 

 on the origin of the breed, and it may next be inquired how 

 Jiakewell brought his sheep before the fanners of his time, and 

 what success he met in doing this. A proof of his remarkable 

 shriiwdncss is found in the system upon which, from the very 

 outset, he ap])ears to have conducted his commercial dealings. 

 Instead of selling the rams which he bred, he introduced the 

 practice of letting them out only for the season. The advantages 

 he gained by this practice are obvious: it enabled him to keep a 



