206 LEICESTER SHEEP. 



properties he desired to perpetuate. His aim was to produce 

 a breed of sheep with the aptitude to lay on a large amount 

 of t'at in the desirable places in the shortest time, at a min- 

 imum of cost. His genius displayed itself in accomplishing 

 this in that he was able to discern the correlation between 

 the symmetry of form he desired and aptitude to fatten in 

 other words, utility of form. 



The sheep with which he worked were those of his own 

 country, Leicestershire. History says in describing the sheep 

 of these midland counties that in 1G88 there existed in Wor- 

 cestershire, in many parts of Warwickshire, all Leicester- 

 shire, Buckinghamshire, part of Northamptonshire, and part 

 of Nottinghamshire, a breed of sheep large boned, of the best 

 shape, and deepest staple, chiefly pasture sheep with wool 

 coarser than the Cotswold. As stated above, the chief points 

 which Bakewell wished to emphasize were beauty of form, 

 utility of form, aptitude to fatten, and early maturity. He 

 overlooked the fleece almost entirely, his reason being that 

 a large fleece and aptitude to fatten were properties not often 

 found in the same animals. Besides, from his observation 

 he associated a heavy fleece with coarse bone and large 

 amount of offal. Quality he sought, rather than size. It is 

 thought that Bakewell resorted to no other breed in his work 

 of improvement, but did his work solely by selection, ever 

 keeping in mind the type which he sought to fix in his im- 

 proved breed. This, of necessity, would lead to inbreeding, 

 and this of itself would result in a reduction of size, finer 

 bone, with less offal, and, as he was entirely careless as re- 

 gards wool covering, a lighter fleece. His methods were 

 practically a secret, but it was discovered by a neighbor 

 breeder when visiting him on different occasions that he had 

 in his stables a black ram of unusually good character after 

 the type which Bakewell wished to develop and establish. 

 It is thought that even yet the blood of this black ram shows 

 itself even in the purest bred flocks in the form of small 

 black spots about the head and on other parts of the body. 

 "An ideal type." "Like begets like." "Breed the best to the 

 best." "Selection." These were Bakewell's laws so far as 

 we can interpret them, and these are the laws which prevail 

 today among the most advanced students of the Science and 

 Art of Animal Breeding. 



In 1760 he began the practice of ram letting. This was 



