114 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



miglit be explained on the supposition that our farmers were 

 turning their attention more to the raising of mutton to supply 

 an active and ever increasing demand in our market, but sta- 

 tistics show an absolute and large decrease of all kinds of sheep. 

 In the eastern section of the State far less attention is now, and 

 has been, paid to this important branch of husbandry, tlian in 

 the western and midland counties ; the chief object of the few 

 who keep sheep being to profit from the carcase and tlie sale of 

 lambs in the eastern, and by the fleece in the western. 



The breeds among us are exceedingly limited in number, 

 though the crosses and grades are innumerable. We liave the 

 Leicesters, the Cotswolds, the South Downs and the Oxford- 

 shire Downs among the long and middle-woolled, and the 

 Merinos and their various grades, as the French, Silesian and 

 Saxon Merinos among the fine-woolled. Occasionally a few of 

 some other description may be met with, introduced, or kept 

 from curiosity, but the above includes all the varieties that are 

 kept to any extent except the large number of " natives'' made 

 up of unknown crosses. 



The new Leicesters may be said to have had their origin with 

 the experiments of Robert Bake well, undertaken in 1755, and 

 continued successfully through a long course of years. From 

 him they are sometimes called Bakewells, and sometimes the 

 Dishley breed, from tlie name of his place. Tiie manner 

 in whicli ho improved and remodelled the old Leicesters 

 was kept a profound secret, and no one knows to this day how 

 far he used other breeds to obtain crosses, nor how far lie 

 carried his crosses, but he seems to have " perfectly understood 

 the relation which exists between the external form of an animal 

 and its aptitude to become fat in a short time. He saw that 

 this relation did not depend on size, nor, in the case of the 

 sheep, on the power of the individual to yield a large quantity 

 of wool." With him size of body and quantity of wool were 

 but secondary objects, while his eye was constantly directed to 

 the form best adapted to yield the largest quantity of fat 

 and muscle, laid on the best parts, with the least offal. He 

 bred with the most careful selection, often from very close 

 relations, and regarded delicacy of constitution incident to 

 such a system, as of little importance compared with a tendency 

 to fatten and mature early, and thcr-e last objects he attained in 



