SHEEP 261 



thin, reduced in weight and size. When the leg of 

 mutton is served at table, the knife must be able to 

 penetrate it like a ball of butter and find in the cen- 

 ter only a small, hard drum-stick. I will reduce in 

 like manner all that is not meat and leave the sheep 

 only what is strictly necessary for the functions of 

 life." 



"And that came to pass as the breeder wished?" 

 asked Jules. 



1 ' That came to pass just as Bakewell foresaw. In 

 his sheepfolds the animal was transformed into an 

 opulent source of meat, such as had never been seen 

 before ; it became a pair of enormous legs of mutton 

 and a pair of enormous shoulders, led to pasture 

 by a small head on four thin legs." 



"With large mutton chops mixed in?" Emile in- 

 quired. 



"To be sure. A few figures will show you the im- 

 portance of the result obtained. The gross weight 

 of our ordinary sheep averages thirty kilograms, 

 representing about twenty kilograms net of meat. 

 The Leicester sheep, as the perfected breed devel- 

 oped by BakewelPs exertions is called, weighs from 

 sixty to one hundred and sometimes one hundred 

 and fifty kilograms ; and its net yield in meat varies 

 from fifty to one hundred kilograms ; that is, at the 

 very lowest, two and a half times as much meat as 

 our common sheep produces, and at the highest, 

 which is exceptional, I admit, five times as much." 



' < Then man can do what he likes with his domestic 

 animals to change them as he pleases?" asked Louis. 



