482 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXIX. 



productive of great loss to the breeder, as well as a subject of national re- 

 gret ; but tlie vast increase of wealth and population in this country, and 

 the consequent augmented demand for all the necessaries of life, has of 

 late years caused the weight of mutton to be more attended to than the 

 fineness of the woo!, and experience has shown that the melioration of both 

 is incompatible ; for, if the animal be fed with such an abundance of succu- 

 lent food as to unusually increase its growth, the nourishment thus given 

 also increases the length and coarseness of the pile. Bakewell was the 

 first breeder of any notoriety who introduced improvement in the sheep ; 

 but, in attempting to bring it nearer to perfection, his objects were directed 

 exclusively to symmetry of frame, and so far as that might be impeded by 

 attention to the quality of the fleece, it was by him neglected. In this, no 

 doubt, however, the farmer has found his account, as he has been amply 

 repaid for the deterioration of the wool, by the increased weight of both 

 fleece and carcass. 



He it was who raised the trade of ram-letting to the extraordinary 

 eminence which it reached a few years ago. Marshall states, in his 

 " Rural Economy of the Midland Counties," the hire of tups, prior to 1780, 

 to have been from one guinea to ten for the season ; at which latter price 

 Bakewell, in that year, let several. His stock, from that period, rose 

 rapidly in value, from 10 to 100 guineas, and in the year 1786 he let two- 

 thirds of one ram to two breeders at 100 guineas each: thus valuing the 

 entire service of the animal at 300 guineas. From thence to 1789 

 the j)rices still kept rising so fast, that 400 guineas were repeatedly given : 

 he received in that year 1200 guineas for three, and for his whole stock of 

 rams, 3000 guineas; and several other breeders made from 500 to 1000 

 guineas each. From that time, indeed, the spirit of enterprise kept increas- 

 ing so fast that 500 guineas were repeatedly paid for the use of a single 

 tup; and in three seasons one ram produced to its owner the enormous 

 sum of 1300 guineas. 



The ivp-masters formed themselves into a club, in Leicestershire, bind- 

 ing themselves by regulations tending to keep up the value of the stock by 

 which they profited so largely, and other breeders in different parts of the 

 kingdom followed the same occupation. The prices have now, however, 

 fallen to a more moderate rate, and it appears extraordinary how the large 

 sums formerly given were realized. They could, indeed, only answer to a 

 speculator in rams for the purpose of afterwards letting their progeny out, 

 and the calculation upon which they were rendered profitable has been thus 

 explained : '' If five persons have each twenty ewes good enough for ram- 

 breeding, and pay 500 guineas for the hire of a tup, they have a good 

 chance — reckoning twin lambs — of each rearing ten rams and ten ewes ; 

 or more, of a still higher blood. Now, supposing these ten ram-lambs, 

 when shear-hogs, to be let out at 20 guineas each, upon the average, this 

 would yield, upon the whole, 1000 guineas — or cent, per cent. — within two 

 years, besides the future use of the rams, and the further improvement of 

 the stock bred from the ewes *." 



Prior to this, the finest wool manufactured in this country was obtained 

 exclusively from Spain, and next to that the British short-woolled sheep of 

 that })eriod furnished the best quality in Europe. The most esteemed were 

 the Ryeland, Dean-Forest, Mendip, Wiltshire, Southdown, Shropshire- 

 Morf, and Shetland fleeces ; but by the judicious crossing of Merino rams 

 with choice ewes of these breeds, and more particularly the Ryelands, wool, 



* Lflicester Report, p. 261. 



