No. 9. 



Major. 



273 



MAJOR. 

 Bred and fed by Major Philip Reybold, Delaware. 



The above is a portrait, drawn from the life, of one of the splendid wethers exhibited in 

 Philadelphia, and slauofhtered by Sclmeck &- Brothers, on the 3d of March, 1842. He wa3 

 a perfect specimen of the pure Bakewell; the stock, imported from Ireland, boastinof of an 

 alliance with the first flocks in that country, and showinsf most plainly the nobility of his 

 lineage. He was two years old, his live weig-ht being 251 lbs. ; weight of carcass, the four 

 quarters, 147 lbs., cutting 4| inches thick of fat on the ribs, and furnishing a splendid saddle 

 of mutton, weighing 78 lbs., which was purchased by B. Tevis, Esq., and presented to the 

 postmaster-general, Chas. A. Wickliffe, Esq., at Washington, from whence it found its way 

 to the table of the president, where it demanded and received due honour, and the "applause 

 of the senate." Of this superlative breed of sheep, it is said, in Professor Low's work on 

 Domestic Animals: 



" The formation of the Bakewell or Leicester breed of sheep may be said to form an era in the economical 

 history of the domestic animals, and may well confer distinction on the individual who had penius to conceive 

 and fortitude to perfect the design. The result was not only the creation of a breed by art, but the establish- 

 ment of principles which are of universal application in the production of animals for human food; it has 

 shown that there are other properties than size, and the kind and abundance of the wool, which render a r.ace 

 of sheep profitable to the breeder; that a disposition to assimilate nourishment readily, and arrive at early 

 maturity, are properties to be essentially regarded ; and that these properties have a constant relation to a 

 ^iven form, which can be communicated from the parents to thf ir young, and rendered permanent by a mixture 

 of the blood of the animals to which this form has been transmitted ; and it was Bakkwki.i. who carrii^d these 

 principles to their limits. Every breeder of sheep is taucht by the result, that an animal of a size to fatten to 

 10 lb per quarter is more profitable than one that is cripahle of reaching only 30 lb. in the same time. While 

 Bakewell was compelled to confine himself to his own st;)ck atui to the blood of one family — to breed " in and 

 in" — in order to preserve that standard of form which he had produced, modern breeders are relieved from all 

 necessity of this kind; they can obtain individuals of the form required from different fauiiliesof the same breed, 

 and u(;ed never, by a continued adherence to the blood of one family, produce animals too delicate in form, defi- 

 cient in weight of wool, or in that hardiness of ronstitution, which are even mori' necessary than the perfectnesa 

 »{ inilividual form, for the profit of the breeder — an incalculable advantage. Hence, the present breeds of tlie 

 improved liakewelis are much larger than those which were the result of that great improver's exertions; and 

 in every way lias the diffusion of the race added to the value of live-stock in every country : it has even improved 

 its an-riculture in an eminent degree, by calling forth the necessity for a larger proportion of forage and lierb.Tge 

 For the supply of a race of animals whose superiority over all thg older races of the long-wooled districts, is 

 attested by the degree in which it has supplanted them, and the eagerness with which it has been everywhere 

 received, having, in little more than twenty years, supplanted other flocks of differont breeds throughout entire 

 districts, and given to the long-wooled sheep an uniformity of character, eminently favourable for further 

 improvement, by multiplying animals of a given breed which can be selected for crossing, without the danger 

 of a too close affinity." 



