AGRICULTURE. 



Leicestershire, and about the year 1755 com- 1 

 menced those experiments which finally effect- 

 ed a greater improvement in our sheep than ! 

 was ever effected in any species of agricultu- j 

 ral produce by the exertions of one individual. 

 He travelled over England, Ireland, Holland, 

 and other places, for the purpose of examining 

 the various breeds of cattle, and by careful se- 

 lections, and judicious crosses, succeeded in 

 procuring a stock that obtained for the Ditch- 

 ley sheep a previously unheard of excellence. 

 Fortunately the English agriculturists appre- 

 ciated the importance of his success ; and it is 

 a fact that, in 1789, three of his rams, the pro- 

 duce of one birth, were let for the breeding 

 season, for 1200 guineas, and the whole pro- 

 duce of his letting was at least 3000 guineas. 

 One of his rams obtained for Mr. Bakewell, in 

 one season, 800 guineas ; and when it is taken 

 into the calculation, that the same animal 

 served for his own flock, it produced for its 

 owner in that year 1200 guineas. Mr. Bake- 

 well died in 1795. 



Messrs. Culley introduced these improve- 

 ments into Northumberland, and the other 

 northern counties of this island. When they 

 first settled in that district, the sheep kept there 

 were large, slow-feeding, long-woolled animals ; 

 and a breed between those and the Cheviot 

 sheep. These breeds rarely became fat before 

 they ^vere three years old ; but the Leicesters 

 introduced by the Messrs. Culley were sold fat 

 at little more than a year old. They at first 

 met with much opposition ; but as it was soon 

 seen they were improvers, and not mere inno- 

 vators, the flocks have generally been made to 

 improve by their example. They became the 

 general patrons of improvement, and their 

 great attention to minutiae, unremitting indus- 

 try, and superior cultivation, gave birth to a 

 spirit of emulation, and their own merits were 

 rewarded with a liberal success. For several 

 years they occupied farms to the amount of 

 about 8000/. per annum. They had pupils 

 with liberal premiums from all parts; and 

 these again were the means of making known, 

 not only their enlightened husbandry, but the 

 encouraging illustration they afforded of in- 

 dustry, economy, and intelligence duly re- 

 warded. 



Merino sheep were imported by George III. 

 in the years 1788 and 1791. This breed at- 

 tracted much attention in 1804, when his 

 majesty commenced his annual sales. Dr. 

 Parry, Lord Somerville, and others have 

 paid considerable attention to them; but the 

 climate of England has a considerable effect 

 in deteriorating their fleeces, and the flesh is 

 too -indifferent to permit them to be much en- 

 couraged in a country where mutton is so 

 considerable an article of food. (Hunt's Agri- 

 cultural Memoirs,- Gent's Magazine,- Enc.Brit.} 



Mr. Ellman, of Sussex, during an enlight- 

 ened practice of more than fifty years has 

 brought the South Down variety of sheep to a 

 s4ate of the highest improvement. Perhaps 

 t^ best description of the varieties of the 

 sheep reared in England has been written by 

 this gentleman for " Baxter's Agricultural Li- 

 brary." 



Cattle, as we have already noticed, have al- 

 46 



AGRICULTURE. 



ways been a prominent production of Great 

 Britain. They were menlioried by Caesar, 

 Strabo, and other ancient writers. They have 

 ever since continued, more or less, particularly 

 to engage the attention of the husbandman, not 

 only for the dairy and the plough, but also as 

 a source of food. The breeding of cattle, how- 

 ever, had been so much neglected for the more 

 profitable pasturage of sheep, that in 1555, 

 an act of parliament was passed to remedy 

 the evil. The preamble states that, "For- 

 asmuch as of late years a great number of 

 persons in this realm have laid their lands, 

 farms, and pastures, to feeding of sheep, oxen, 

 runts, scrubs, steers, and heifers, &c., having no 

 regard or care to breed up youngbeasts or cattle, 

 whereby is grown great scarcity of cattle and 

 victual ;" and, therefore it is enacted that a 

 cow shall be kept wherever are sixty sheep, 

 and a calf reared where there are one hundred 

 and twenty, &c. (2 & 3 Phil. <$ Mary, c. 3.) 

 Many other legislative enactments occur in the 

 records of that and contiguous periods ; but 

 reason and interest are better promoters of im- 

 provement than acts of parliament. A due at- 

 tention to the breedingof cattle was first aroused 

 by Mr. Bakewell, who has just been mentioned 

 as an improver of sheep. He let bulls for 150 

 guineas during four months, and 5 guineas per 

 cow was no unoommon charge. Pedigrees 

 have been preserved of different animals with 

 as much care as those of race-horses. The 

 attention and care that have thus been paid to 

 their breeding have met with an appropriate 

 recompense. In no other country is there to 

 be found such breeds of cattle ; and that none 

 are so highly estimated, is proved by the prices 

 that have been given for individuals. (Mar- 

 shall's Midland Counties, i. 334 ; Parkinson on 

 Live Stock, ii. 469.) 



Horses. That the ancient Britons had 

 horses with which they impelled their war 

 chariots, we know upon the authority of those 

 who had seen them Caesar, Strabo, and others. 

 In the epitome of Dion Cassius, by Xiphelin, 

 those horses are described as small and swift. 

 They appear not to have been usually employed 

 in the operations of agriculture ; and their em- 

 ployment was not considered desirable ; for in 

 tbe old Cambrian laws, oxen are exclusively 

 directed to be employed. (Leges Wallicas, 288.) 

 Under the Saxons, and still more under the 

 Normans, who flourished here in an age that, 

 from its excelling in noble horsemanship, has 

 been distinguished as the chivulric, the breed 

 of horses was undoubtedly improved. " Richard 

 De Rulos, Lord of Brunne and Deeping, was 

 much addicted to agriculture, and delighted in 

 breeding horses and cattle." (Ingulphus's 

 Cliron. lib. i.) 



In the year 1494, the exportation of horses 

 was so extensive, arid the price of them so 

 much enhanced, that an act of parliament or- 

 dained that none should go out of the realm 

 j without the king's license (2 H. 8, c. 6 ; 32, c. 

 I 13 ; 33, c. 5) ; but these being evidently intend- 

 ! ed for the improvement of war horses, " for the 

 I defence of the realm," would only collaterally 

 j benefit those employed by the husbandman. It 

 j was provided by the second of the acts just 

 1 quoted, tnat no stallion should be kept that did 



