QO MODERN SHEEP : BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



was produced by selecting from all the best kinds of long or comb- 

 ing wooled sheep wherever to be met with. Mr. Bakewell began by 

 selecting from flocks in his neighborhood and especially in Lincoln- 

 shire, in which he was much assisted by Mr. Stow, of Long Brough- 

 ton, who procured many tups for him, and at that period (about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century) they had better sheep in Lincoln- 

 shire than perhaps in any part of England. This, however, was 

 before the Lincolnshire breeders had begun to pursue the longest 

 wool, large bones and great size ; and it was no small advantage to 

 Mr. BakewelFs pursuit that in much the greater part of the king- 

 dom a guinea or even half a guinea would give him the choice of 

 any sheep in any flock. Culley said that before Mr. Bakewell's 



Canadian Leicester Ram Smith Type. 



time we had no criterion in sheep but size. "Nothing but elephants 

 and giants would please him." In his description of the form of 

 sheep before BakewelPs improvements, he said : "They had a large 

 hollow behind the shoulders, upon the top as well as the side, now 

 known by the technical term of the fore flank, which in a fat sheep, 

 now, not only fills up the former defect, but even projects beyond 

 the shoulder and gives a great roundness to the form of the car- 

 cass." 



At an auction of ewes belonging to Mr. Paget, a Leicestershire 

 sheep-breeder, in 1793, five ewes were sold at 62 guineas, five at 

 52 guineas, five at 45 guineas, ten at 30 guineas and several others 

 at from 20 guineas to 19 guineas apiece. 'One of these sheep, 

 killed at Walgrave, in North Hants, weighed 36 Ib. per quarter, 

 rough fat, 16i/ 2 Ib.; the whole, including offal, 177^ Ib. 



