MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 91 



Although we have great breeders among us today, it is doubt- 

 ful if we ever had so serious a student of scientific breeding as Mr. 

 Bakewell was. It is considered that he was the first to experiment 

 with the rate of gain in proportion to food consumed and also to 

 consider the quality of flesh in proportion to offal in dressing. 

 Moreover, he had a miniature museum where skeletons and pickled 

 joints of specimens of the Dishley sheep were kept for reference 

 or comparison from one generation to another. It is also stated 

 that he kept a full pedigree of the ancestors of his stock and their 

 descendants. He also paid great attention to the degree of fineness 

 of bone, shape and size of form, thickness of the muscle and depth 

 or thickness of inside and outside fat. He always made post- 

 mortem examinations of stock that died. Mr. Bakewell was wont 

 to lay his principles down in a dogmatic way, such as, "like will 

 breed like." He also maintained that by exercising intelligent care 

 in selecting, it is quite possible to increase the weight of the 

 primer joints of cattle and sheep, and that the sheep should give 

 the greatest' value in the smallest compass., Mr. Bakewell's methods 

 of breeding were, always more or less, shrouded in mystery, and 

 some things which he did would scarcely be considered square and 

 above board today. The black ram which he is said to have kept 

 out of sight for a long time, and used in bringing to perfection 

 the now famous Leicester is a case in point. Sir John Sebright 

 said of Bakewell in the British Farmers' Magazine in 1827: "The 

 mystery with which he is well known to have carried on every part 

 of business and the various ways which he employed to mislead the 

 public induce me not to give that weight to his assertions which 

 I should do to his real opinion could it have been ascertained." 



The following anent this historical breed is from a member of 

 the "Royal Agricultural Society's Journal": "Mr. John Breedon, 

 of Rotherby, was the last survivor of the Bakewell Ram Club, whose 

 rules bear date January 5, 1790, and pledged the twelve members 

 (who paid 10 guineas each) to keep the transactions secret upon 

 their honor. Mr. Paget was the president of the club, which held 

 its earlier meetings at the Bull's Head and the Anchor at Lough- 

 borough, alternately, and fined each member a guinea for non- 

 attendance. There were twelve members, and the rules were made 

 and kept with Draconic strictness. No member might sell ewes 

 and lambs to breed from, unless he sold his whole flock or dealt with 

 members only ; only forty ewes could be taken in to keep, and those 

 must be property of one person; not more than two dozen rams 

 could be shown to any person or company at one time; and even 

 members could only show their rams to each other between the 

 1st and 8th of June, when the general show commenced. On July 

 8th they were bounfl to rigidly seal their pens for the space of two 

 rronths. Certain flockmasters were not to pay less than 100 guineas 

 in their first contract, and after that 30 guineas for wether-getters. 



