THE SHEEP 



177 



Leicester breed carried the day. Comparing 

 a loin of it with that of a coarse Norfolk sheep, 

 we found the latter nearly twice as fat and 



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A Suffolk Ram 



heavy, while the former was covered with three 

 times the amount of meat, — a matter to which 

 the lover of mutton chops is not indifferent. 

 Marshall, who wrote upon this subject at the 

 close of the eighteenth century, 

 speaks of sheep which were so fat, 

 when two years and a half old, 

 that they could scarcely walk. At 

 Litchfield he saw a fore quarter 

 with four inches of fat on the loins, 

 and later he saw some with five and 

 six inches of fat. 



This excessive fattening acts upon 

 the flesh, which becomes impreg- 

 nated with it, while the sinewy tis- 

 sue diminishes. Thus a piece of the 

 loin with the kidney, weighing, 

 Marshall says, twenty-si.\ pounds, 

 had only two and a half pounds of 

 meat. One must have the English 

 taste, or else acquire it, to think such 

 meat good ; but it is certain that 

 mutton cannot be too fat for an 

 Englishman. To a man of small 

 means mutton fat, which can take the place of 

 lard, has its advantages. 



Bakewell's success soon became generally 

 known in England, and he cleverly made the 



most of his fame. He had numerous applica- 

 tions for information and assistance ; and in 

 October of every year a general sale was held 

 at Leicester, to which breeders came from 

 far and near to buy rams or to hire them. 

 The chief breeders raised annually from 

 twenty to forty young rams, which they 

 leased to the small breeders at a price de- 

 termined by the genealogy and pure blood 

 of the animals. Nothing was spared for the 

 proper bringing up and well-being of these 

 sheep. In winter they were well housed 

 and plentifully supplied with oats, cabbage, 

 and turnips, and in the spring the first 

 clover was theirs. 



After a time the too great refining away 

 of the Leicester race injured its reputation, 

 and breeders began to cross it with the 

 coarser and stronger Lincolnshire breed. 

 Thence has come the present Lincoln 

 breed, which resembles the Leicester in all its 

 good qualities, but has a stronger bone struc- 

 ture, is more robust, and is better able to resist 

 the influences of weather. The race has many 



A Lincoln Ram 

 Photo J. T. Newman, Berkhampstead 



subvarieties, which are all, in general, strong 

 and well formed, bearing long fleeces of good 

 quality. Sometimes a band of the fleece is left 

 on the animal's shoulder when sheared, to show 



