CHAPTER XXVI 



BREEDS OF LOWLAND LONG-WOOL SHEEP 



English Leicester Dishley Sheep Society Border Leicester Wensley- 

 dale Lincoln Lincoln-Merino, or Corridale Kent, or Romney 

 Marsh South Devon Long-wool, or " South Dum " Devon Long- 

 wool Cotswold Roscommon. 



BREED HISTORIES AND CHARACTERISTICS 



THE English Leicester is the leading type of the Leicester 

 breeds. It possesses the property of weighing more 

 than the appearance would indicate, and it has a small amount 

 of bone in proportion to carcase weight. It has been longer 

 an improved breed than any other Long-wool, with the 

 possible exception of the Cotswold. Bakewell accomplished 

 the formation of the improved breed at Dishley, near Lough- 

 borough, in Leicestershire, and hence the name of Dishley 

 at first associated with the breed. He began operations on 

 a definite plan about 1755, and, in his usual jealous and 

 secretive way, gave no one his confidence. He took advantage 

 of the extension of the cultivation of the turnip as a field- 

 crop supplying abundance of winter food, to transform the 

 old ungainly slow-maturity Leicester, which had been bred 

 merely for size and a heavy fleece, into a compact, sym- 

 metrical, moderate-sized animal, possessing great aptitude 

 to fatten, and, above all, a marvellous power of communicat- 

 ing its tendency to early maturity and its refining influence 

 to those breeds with which it was crossed. He began by 

 selecting animals nearest to the type he aimed at "those 

 possessed of the most perfect symmetry, with the greatest 

 aptitude to fatten, and rather smaller in size than the sheep then 

 generally bred." The value of the carcase was the chief aim, 

 and the fleece was a secondary consideration. He fixed and 

 improved what came to his hand by in-and-in breeding. There 

 is no evidence in support of the assertion that he "crossed 

 his Leicesters with different sorts of sheep." Marvellous 



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