92 Live Slock. 



and the short-horned, and it gives these breeds a great pre- 

 eminence over other stock *. 



It may be proper to conclude this branch of the subject 

 with observing, that the great perfection of the shape of an 

 animal is, when the dead weight of all the eatable parts ap- 

 proaches the nearest to the weight of the animal when alive. 

 The proportion of dead weight, after being fed for two years 

 in succession, sometimes amounts to three-fourths of the live 

 weight, or as 15 is to 20, but it rarely exceeds that ratef. 



II. On the origin of improved Breeding, and the Principles on 

 which it depends. 



It is not to be wondered at, that the management of our 

 stock should have been defective, when cattle in general were 

 bred by one set of men, fattened or prepared for the market 

 by a second, and killed by a third. Whilst these three oc- 

 cupations continued distinct, with only occasional communi- 

 cations or intercourse with each other, no great improvement 

 could be effected. That division of labour, or separation of 

 professions, so useful in manufactures, was pernicious to this 

 important branch of agriculture, by preventing the princi- 

 ples on which the improvement of our domestic animals de- 

 pend, from being ascertained ( I05 ). 



A person, however, of strong natural sagacity, (Robert 

 Bakewell of Dishley, in the county of Leicester), though he 

 did not unite, to the extent that his disciple Culley did, the two 

 distinct occupations of breeder and grazier, yet, having ac- 

 quired great skill in grazing, by which he was enabled to pre- 

 serve his breeding-stock in the highest possible condition, and 

 having called in to his aid, all the skill and experience which 

 the butcher had acquired, was thus enabled to ascertain the 

 principles, not only of breeding domestic animals, so as to 

 answer the common expectations of the farmer, but also of 

 bringing them to a degree of perfection, of which, before his 

 time, they were scarcely supposed capable ; and by direct- 

 ing the public attention in general, and that of the farmer in 

 particular, to the art of breeding, he has in various respects 

 most essentially benefited his country. By his example, 

 that most important system was very generally established, 



* This subject shall be fully discussed in a separate paper on the Dairy. See 

 Addenda, No. 1. 



f See the comparative statement of the living and dead weight of a Devon 

 ox, Note 104, 



