n8 EVOLUTION OF BRITISH CATTLE 



animal must be bred from. Before his time 

 calves that showed a tendency to fatness were 

 turned into veal, while those not showing this 

 tendency were retained. Bakewell reversed the 

 process, and secured animals likely to breed 

 him stock for the butcher rather than for the 

 plough. 



After long observation, with close inspection 

 not only of the living but also of the animal post- 

 mortetn, and with many experiments in the use 

 of such feeding stuffs as were then in use at 

 Dishley, Bakewell set up a type for himself and 

 to that type bred persistently. With the light 

 cast upon Bakewell's work by Mendel's discovery 

 we can now see that some of the stock from 

 which Bakewell bred may have been mere mas- 

 queraders and must have produced him not only 

 masqueraders again but also some others that 

 were frankly undesirables. Bakewell's original 

 stock were certainly not pure, for they were 

 drawn from the north and from the south, from 

 parts of the country in which the recently im- 

 ported Dutch cattle, themselves possibly of 

 several breeds, had mingled with several others. 

 To eliminate from these those that did not breed 

 true to the type he desired, Bakewell took the 

 quickest and surest method, namely that of 

 mating close relations ; for in those days of 

 almost haphazard breeding, two closely related 

 animals were much more likely to be pure for the 



