264 History of the English Landed Interest. 



gave place to the longhorned Lancashire, on which Bakewell's 

 improved breed was engrafted, Arthur Young, however, for 

 yield of milk, preferred the polled Suffolk,^ and for richness 

 of cream the Alderney. Then particular herds belonging to 

 private gentlemen became famous for their various good 

 qualities. Thomas Gresley, of Burton, was, for example, noted 

 for his longhoms. "Webster, of Cauley, had started another 

 strain of the same breed. The Ketton herd of Durham short- 

 horns and the Herefords of Tomkins began to replace in public 

 estimation all others for combined milking and fattening pur- 

 poses, though some of the south-country varieties were still 

 holding their own for draught uses. 



It was not, however, till the beginning of the present century 

 that the results of the show-yard settled once and for all the 

 vexed questions relating to the qualities of wool and mutton, 

 milking and beef, in favour respectively of the Leicester, 

 Shropshire, and Southdown sheep, and of the shorthorn, Jersey 

 and Hereford cattle. Successful cattle-feeding depends chiefly 

 on the amount of building accommodation, which was very 

 insufficient at this period, and the reason of which we shall 

 understand more clearly later on. Suffice it here to say that 

 there was no country where so few cattle were housed as in 

 England. In France, on the contrary, during the cold season 

 not a quadruped, except the oxen on the small holdings, lay 

 abroad ; and in Holland the livestock were not only housed in 

 winter, but clothed whilst feeding in the fields during autumn. 

 Moreover, their stalls were washed daily, and their tails tied 

 up to the ceiling. In England, however, some of the finest 

 dairy herds in the country were never housed, it being asserted 

 that the want of air rendered the animals unhealthy. On the 

 other hand, Bakewell kept all his cattle under cover during 

 winter ; and Arthur Young was so far in favour of doing so 

 that he had given the practice a trial for two winters, and 

 found no harm come of it? Even Bakewell, for the greater 

 part of his life, used no litter among his cattle, and only took 

 to it in his old age for the sake of the manure, and not because 



' Annals of Agriculture^ vol. ii. p. IBl. ^ Id., vol. iii. p. 60. 



