xii GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 



the knees ; large hoofs ; very long and bushy tails ; the body covered with thick short 

 hair, of a red or tawny colour ; and they should be very soft handlers." Oxen answering 

 to this description would meet with favour even at the present day. As the subject of 

 cattle, however, has been fully treated in the following pages, we will dismiss it here 

 with the remark, that the live-stock of Great Britain are distinguished by the early 

 period at which they become ready for the butcher ; the enormous amount of food they 

 yield in return for the provender they consume ; and the great proportion of meat, of 

 the finest quality, to be obtained from them. 



With the general development and improvement of everything belonging to 

 agricultural science, the Sheep has come in for a large share of attention ; accordingly, it 

 is amply treated of in the division assigned to it. The various breeds are detailed ; and 

 the manner in which Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, proceeded to found his celebrated 

 Leicesters, has been, singularly enough, chosen by Archbishop Whately to illustrate a 

 position in his treatise on Logic. To the scholastic mind, sheep and logic, brought 

 into association by a reasoning archbishop, may sound somewhat strange ; nevertheless, 

 one portion of Bakewell's mode of proceeding is so clearly set forth by the archbishop, 

 that we will make no apology for placing it before the reader. " He (Bakewell) observed, 

 in a great number of individual beasts, a tendency to fatten readily ; and in a great 

 number of others, the absence of this constitution. In every individual of the former he 

 observed a certain peculiar make, though they differed widely in size, colour, &c. Those 

 of the latter description differed no less in various points, but agreed in being of a different 

 make from the others. These facts were his data. * * * * jjis principal merit 

 consisted in making the observations-, and in so combining them as to abstract from each 

 of a multitude of cases differing widely in many respects, the circumstances in which 

 they all agreed." This, as the archbishop has stated it, was the secret of Bakewell's 

 success. He chose the animals of the form and temperament which indicated the surest 

 signs of producing fat and muscle ; at the same time declaring, that all that was not 

 beef in an ox was useless. Thus there was nothing like beef and mutton in the eyes of 

 Robert Bakewell ; and he himself seems to have been a pretty fair specimen of Ms oivn 

 rearing, for he was tall, stout, broad-shouldered, and of a brown complexion ; clothed in 

 a brown loose coat, and scarlet waistcoat, leather breeches, and top-boots. In sheep, 

 however, he regarded size as a vulgar test of merit ; endeavouring to secure a circular 

 body, with as short legs as possible ; a small head ; small neck and bones. It is well 

 known that fat people are not generally large in bone. John Hunter, the great physiolo- 

 gist, confirmed, at least in one essential particular, the observations of Bakewell ; for he 

 affirmed that, in the human subjects he had examined, he found that small bones were 

 the usual concomitant of corpulence. 



The Hog has also received its full share of attention. Both the habits and 

 appearance of this animal are calculated to excite, in a remarkable degree, feelings of 

 disgust ; yet it is an animal of immense value to mankind. It has emphatically been 

 designated the poor man's friend ; and there is no other which comes within the 

 boundaries of the farm-yard more deserving of the distinction. Its flesh is, by tens of 

 thousands, highly relished, in all the forms in which it can be put upon the table ; and 

 however unintelligent, stupid, stubborn, contrary, or perverse it may seem in its 

 disposition, its docility has been frequently proved to be such as to excite ^general 

 wonder. To its management in health, and its treatment in disease ; to the various 

 breeds which have extended its reputation ; and to the care which is necessary to bring 



