20 Farming of Bedfordshire. 



proved. It must be generally known, however, tliat we have 

 here a few eminent short-horn breeders, whose herds are well 

 known within the circulation of the Agricultural Journal. Take, 

 for instance, those of Charles Barnett Esq., John Crawley Esq., 

 of Stockwood, Earl de Grey, and Mr. Fowler of Henlow, &c. &c. 



Young bulls have been, of late, selected from these herds to 

 the great benefit of the neat cattle of the county. Indeed^ 

 animals so bred will occasionally, when fatted, put to the blush 

 some of our first-class breeders ; whence the question legiti- 

 mately arises, whether these gentlemen, in their great regard for 

 symmetry, do not sometimes sacrifice qualities of still higher 

 value. 



The Sheep of no county within the last sixty years have been 

 more extensively improved than those of Bedfordshire. In 

 Mr. Stone's Report of 1794, to which I have previously re- 

 ferred, they are thus described : — " The sheep of this county 

 are of no distinct breed ; the horned and polled species are 

 often kept in the same flock ; are coarse in their head, large 

 in their bones, high in the leg, with picked rumps ; narrow- 

 in the bosom and chines, and with an indifferent quality of 

 wool, weighing from three to four pounds only per fleece." 

 Some exceptions are then alluded to. " Francis Duke of 

 Bedford was trying some useful experiments as to the compa- 

 rative value of the different kinds of sheep ; and Mr. Bennett, a 

 farmer of Tempsford, on the Great North Road, had possessed 

 himself of a breed called the ' New Leicesters,' which are doing 

 infinite credit to his judicious choice and perseverance to obtain, 

 requiring no mean judge to distinguish them from those of the 

 first breeders in Leicestershire." 



From this flock it is well known the excellent sheep of the 

 late Messrs. Sandon and Inskip, with many others in the sur- 

 rounding counties, were descended. Rams selected from such a 

 flock, with wide frames, of great symmetry, and with aptitude 

 to fatten, would be likely to produce, as they did, when put to 

 the ordinary bred ewes of the county, the most astonishing im- 

 provements. 



From these facts it is not difficult to account for the eminence 

 to which many sheep-breeders have here for many years attained. 

 They are often second to none in the kingdom for Leicester 

 sheep. It will be admitted, however, that it is now no easy task 

 to maintain that superiority. Of late there has been a great rage 

 for crossing the breed of sheep. This arises from a deep and 

 prevailing impression, that the neat and delicately iormed 

 Leicester rams, which half a century ago so completely revolu- 

 tionised the barbarous flocks of this part of the kingdom, when 

 bred in and in, are not now the most profitable to the farmer. 



