Chapter LVI. 



LEICESTERS. 



The improved Leicester is peculiarly the result of Mr. Bakewell's 

 wonderful skill as a breeder, and its origin and improvement may be 

 best studied by a short review of Bakewell's methods as employed in 

 improving and fixing the type of the Leicester breed. Mr. Bakewell 

 lived at Dishley, in Leicestershire, England, and about 1750 began to 

 apply himself to the improvement of sheep in his locality. His plan 

 was to select from different flocks, without regard to size, the sheep 

 which showed greatest aptitude to fatten with least appearance of excess 

 of bone and offal, and he regarded the fleece as of secondary importance. 



From Youatt "On Sheep " we quote : 



" The sort of sheep, therefore, which Mr. Bakewell selected were those possessed of 

 the most perfect symmetry with the greatest aptitude to fatten, and rather smaller in 

 size than the sheep then generally bred. Having formed his stock from sheep so selected, 

 he carefully attended to the peculiarities of the individuals from which he bred ; and, it 

 appears, did not object to breeding from near relatives, when, by so doing, he put 

 together animals likely to produce a progeny possessing the characteristics that he wished 

 to obtain. Mr. Bakewell has been supposed by some persons to have formed the New 

 Leicester variety by crossing different sorts of sheep ; but there does not appear to be 

 any reason for believing this ; and the circumstance of the New Leicesters varying in 

 their appearance and qualities so much as they do from the other varieties of long-wooled 

 sheep can by no means be considered as proving that such was the system which he 

 adopted." 



It has been stated, however, that Mr. Bakewell used sheep of six or 

 seven different breeds, and that at one time, a magnificent black ram 

 was found hidden away in a pen at his place. We are inclined to 

 believe that the general reticence as to his methods amounting almost 

 to apparent selfishness which he observed, led to a great deal of unwar- 

 ranted suspicion and surmising. The account given by Youatt seems 

 more reasonable, and especially so, since it is a now well-known prin- 

 ciple of breeding, that judicious selection, combined with proper care of 

 breeding animals, may without admixture of other blood entirely 

 change the appearance and character of a breed. 



Having thus far established his flock, Mr. Bakewell pursued the 

 plan of hiring out rams to the neighboring breeders a plan, by the way, 

 which was beneficial to himself in permitting a wider range for selection 

 of his breeding stock, and to the farmers, by permitting a change of 

 rams at minimum expense and in this way continued until the Lei- 



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