62 Improvements in Farming 



the cowkeepers, or by the cowkeepers themselves. Their motives 

 for choosing this breed of cows in preference to every other are 

 two. They preserve a fulness of flesh even when in full milk, 

 and may when their milk fails them, or accidents overtake them, 

 be disposed of the next market day in Smithfield, with advantages 

 that a leaner kind would not afford. And another reason for 

 their choice is that they give a larger quantity of milk than cows 

 of the longhorned breed.' This is exactly the argument used 



A Cheviot Ram, 1794. 



by the Shorthorn breeder to-day, when he commends it as the 

 best dual-purpose animal. 



Bakewell applied himself to the improvement of sheep as he 

 had done with cattle. He took the old Leicester sheep, and 

 improved it to the much finer animal, which has only been slightly 

 modified and bears the same name to-day. The good qualities of 

 this sheep became known after a few years, and farmers paid him 

 very high prices for the hire of his rams. In 1789 he made 

 6,200 guineas in this way. 



Other farmers were quick to apply BakewelPs principles to 



