THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AMERICAN HERD-BOOK, 



DEVOTED TO 



AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, AND RURAL AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



" The Productions of the Eartli will always he in proportion to the culture bestowed upon it." 



Vol. VII — No. 0.] 



1st mo. (January) 15th, 1843. 



[Whole No. 96. 



JOSIAH TATUM, 



PROPRIETOR AND PUBLISHER, 



No. 50 North Fourth Street, 



PHILADELPHIA. 



Edited by the Proprietor and James Pedder. 

 Price one dollar per year. — For conditions see last page. 



Sketch of Robert Bakewell Esq. 



The man who is the benefactor of the hu 

 man race, has a right to expect to live in the 

 memory of posterity. Mr. Bakewell will do 

 bo, and although this tribute to his worth 

 comes somewhat late, it will, at least, be 

 appreciated as an offering at the shrine of 

 honest merit. 



Robert Bakewell was born at Dishley 

 Grange, in Leicestershire, in 1726. The 

 farm of Dishley Grange had long been in 

 the possession of his ancestors, and those 

 from whom he more immediately descended, 

 held the property on a lease of ninety-nine 

 years, from the family of Phillipps, of Gar 

 rendon ; it having been purchased in 1693 

 by a Sir Ambrose Phillipps, by whom it was 

 leased to the forefathers of Mr. Bakewell. 

 The term of the lease expired very shortly 

 before Mr. Bakewell's decease; and the 

 arm, which consists of about 457 acres, then 

 came into the occupation of his nephew, Mr. 

 Honeybourne, who resided upon it until he 

 died, which was about twenty years after the 

 demise of his uncle. But with Mr. Bake- 

 well, Dishley lost all its importance, and his 

 successor failed in becoming even a shadow 

 of the great practical man who had been its 

 previous proprietor. 



Perhaps, during the last century, no man 

 did so much towards increasing the agricul- 

 tural interests of the country as Mr. Bake- 

 well. He was unwearied in his exertions, 

 and enthusiastic in bringing to perfection his 

 favourite pursuits. In every branch of the 

 science he was persevering to the end, and 

 by strenuous exertions made himself master 

 of the different modes of cultivation pursued 

 not only by the English farmers, but also 

 those of foreign cultivators. He did not con- 

 tent himself with the mere knowledge which 

 he had thus laboriously and industriously ob- 



Gab.— Vol. VII.— No. 6. 



tained, but he introduced that system into 

 his own farming practice which is now 

 generally pursued in Leicestershire. But 

 the great glory which is attached to the 

 name of Robert Bakewell, is in the vast im- 

 provements which he made in the breed of 

 cattle. The different nations of Europe sup- 

 plied him with the material, and nature her- 

 self might have wondered at the skill which 

 he displayed in bringing her works to a 

 greater degree of perfection. It was from 

 Flanders that he principally procured his fa- 

 mous breed of black cart horses, now nearly 

 if not quite extinct, which have been thus 

 described. They were lighter-legged and 

 flatter-boned than those now in use, but of 

 great strength, more especially in their fore- 

 quarters, with erect heads and high crested. 

 One of this breed was of such excessive 

 beauty of proportions, that he was likened to 

 the fancied war-horse of the German paint- 

 ers. He must indeed have been a splendid 

 and picturesque animal, for a man of mode- 

 rate height seemed to shrink under his fore- 

 end, which rose so perfectly upright, that 

 his ears stood, (a qualification that Mr. Bake- 

 well deemed indispensable to the beauty of 

 the horse,) perpendicularly over his fore feet. 

 This animal was the entire horse which Mr. 

 Bakewell christened K., and which was per- 

 haps one of the most elegant creatures of 

 his class that was ever bred within the Brit- 

 ish dominions. 



Mr. Bakewell had too much good sense to 

 keep useless stock; he made even his mares 

 work in the team, but they were treated as 

 gently as a man would treat his wife, and 

 the use of the whip was entirely prohibited 

 at Dishley. It is somewhat unfortunate that 

 this fine breed should have been superseded 

 by a heavy-legged race, whose movements 

 are snail-paced, and decidedly inferior for ag- 

 ricultural purposes. Is there no one among 

 our friends who would devote his attention 

 to this important subject 1 



The pride of Mr. Bakewell was to im- 

 prove the class of domestic animals, and his 

 celebrity as a breeder of long-horned cattle 

 will ever shed a halo over his name. It ap- 

 pears he selected the finest individuals of the 

 Warwickshire species, principally from the 



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