VIII 

 ALADDIN'S LAMP 



Let us call first of all upon ROBERT BAKEWELL, 

 patriarch of all the generations of animal breeders 

 since his time; the man who first found a short cut 

 to live-stock improvement. He flourished about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. We do not know 

 as much of his life as would be the case had his 

 contemporaries realized at the time the magnitude 

 of his discoveries, or appreciated the far-reaching 

 influence of his work. We know this, however, that 

 flying squarely in the face of all preconceived notions 

 governing the production of farm animals, he was 

 the first of the world's great animal breeders, of 

 which there is record, to demonstrate the power 

 of the principle of the concentration of blood ele- 

 ments as the readiest and most effective method 

 of establishing and fixing desired characteristics. 



The scene of his labors was at Dishley, Leices- 

 tershire, and his great success was made with the 

 long-wooled Leicester sheep and Longhorn cattle, 

 the' latter then a widely distributed type in all the 

 midland counties. His work is said to have been 

 conducted at first with more or less secrecy so far 

 as the public was concerned. Aware of the general 

 prejudice existing at the time against close breeding, 



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