92 MODERN SHEEP I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Not more than thirty rams might be let by one member in one 

 year; and it was further enacted that there were to be no dealings 

 with flockmasters who showed rams in the market, and that the 

 much-dreaded members of the Lincolnshire Society should not 

 have a ram unless four joined and paid 200 guineas for him." 



Youatt, in his famous work, says : "The sort of sheep, there- 

 fore, which Mr. Bakewell selected were those possessed of the most 

 perfect symmetry, with the greatest aptitude to fatten, and rather 

 smaller in size than the sheep then generally bred. Having formed 

 his stock from sheep so selected, he carefully attended to the 

 peculiarities of the individuals from which he bred, and, it appears, 

 did not object to breeding from near relatives, when, by so doing, 

 he put together animals likely to produce a progeny possessing the 

 characteristics that he wished to obtain. Mr. Bakewell has been 

 supposed by some persons to have formed the New Leicester variety, 

 by crossing different sorts of sheep ; but there does not appear to be 

 any reason for believing this, and the circumstance of the New 

 Leicesters varying in their appearance and qualities so much as they 

 do from the other varieties of Iqng-wooled sheep, can by no means 

 be considered as proving that such was the system which he 

 adopted." 



Markham, in his "Cheap and Good Husbandry," published in 

 1668, writing of the sheep of the Midlands, says: "The sheep of 

 Worcestershire, which joineth on Warwickshire, and many parts of 

 Warwickshire, all Leicestershire, Buckinghamshire and part of 

 Northamptonshire, and that part of Nottinghamshire, which is 

 exempt from the forest of Sherwood, beareth a large-boned sheep 

 of the best shape and deepest staple ; chiefly they be pasture sheep, 

 yet is their wool coarser than that of the Costal" (Cotswold). 



Professor Low also says: "There is no reason, therefore, to 

 assume from any of the characters presented by the wool of the new 

 Leicester breed that the parent stock was any other than the Long- 

 wool sheep of the Midland counties." 



Mr. Joseph Crust writes of the breed in the English flock book 

 as follows: "The Leicester has, during the last few years, made 

 rapid strides toward perfection, and come most prominently to the 

 front. As their name implies, they are descended from the original 

 Leicester, which is regarded as the most important of our long- 

 wooled breeds, arriving early at maturity and possessing great 

 aptitude to fatten, points which have caused them to be more 

 largely used than any other in crossing and improving other breeds 

 of sheep. By continuous and judicious crossing with other sires 

 of large size and heavy fleeces, a class of sheep has been produced 

 of corresponding proportions, with a fullness of wool, yet retaining 

 the original propensity to fatten. They are very hardy and well 

 adapted for any climate or soil, during the severe winter months 

 being folded on turnips in the open fields on the bleak wolds of 



