Great Britain has been noted as a great cattle-producing 

 country, and the breeds, as we know them, were the result 

 of isolation, selection and in— and line-breeding. Devon- 

 shire produced the Devon breed, Norfolk and Suffolk the 

 Red Polled, Hertfordshire the Longhorns and Hertfords, 

 Durham the Shorthorns, Scotland the Ayrshire, Galloway 

 and Aberdeenshire-Angus, and the Channel Islands the 

 Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney. 



Famous Breeders.— Robert Bakewell (1726-1795) of 

 Dishley Hall Leicestershire, may be considered the fore- 

 most stock breeder in a land of great breeders. His genius 

 and skill were shown in the establishment of the improved 

 Leicester breed of sheep as it is now known, and in the im- 

 provement of the Longhorn cattle and the Shire horse. 

 His methods were adopted by later breeders, first by Charles 

 and Robert Colling and afterwards by the Booths, Thomas 

 Bates and the Cruickshanks, in the development of the 

 Shorthorn breed to a high degree of excellence. 



The names of Benjamin Tomkins and John Price are 

 inseparably connected with the development of the Here- 

 ford; and Hugh Watson and William McCombie with that 

 of the Aberdeen-Angus breeds. 



Sheep. — Domestication occurred so long ago that the 

 wild form is not definitely known. A large number of wild 

 forms still inhabit the mountain districts of Asia and to a 

 less extent in Africa and America. Possibly the two classes 

 of domestic sheep — the horned and the hornless — are de- 

 scended from separate wild forms. 



Goat. — Unlike the horse, ox and dog the domesticated 

 goat has had its origin in a single form. Its remains are 

 abundant in the early period of the Swiss lake dwellings. 

 The Pasang or Grecian Ibex (Capra hircus 3egagrus), still 

 found in Western Asia, is probably the ancestor of the 

 domesticated form which has been bred for several thou- 

 sand years in the Mediterranean Basin. 



Swine. — Wild species of pig are to be found in many 

 countries, but the common pig is descended from two wild 

 species, the European wild boar and the Indian wild boar. 

 Domestication took place in China centuries before it 

 occurred in Europe, and it is known that some of the Chin- 

 ese pigs were brought to Europe and crossed with the native 

 species. 



Poultry. — The ancestor of the common hen is very 

 likely the Jungle fowl of India or the Indian Game Fowl 



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