478 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. 



BOOK IV. 



migrated from the Tees to the Tweed, and took with them a flock of 

 the improved Leicesters. There is a dispute as to whether the breed 

 was or was not kept pure, some contending that there was a certain 

 admixture of Cheviot blood. Whether this were so at first or not, it 

 is certain that the Border Leicesters have for a century or more held a 

 foremost position in the Scotch Lowlands. The rams are every year in 

 great demand, and at the auction sales the highest prices are almost 

 invariably given for them (see page 470). 



We subjoin some supplementary notes on the Leicesters and Border 

 Leicesters. The Leicester breed may be said to have been founded 

 by Bakewell, who began to improve the stocks of his native county 



Fig. 110. Border Leicester Shearling Ram., 

 The property of the Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, M.P., Whittinghame, Prestonkirk, N.B. 



in 1755. The means that he employed were never accurately known. 

 Some say he crossed the native Leicesters with Romney Marsh and 

 Lincoln sheep. It seems more probable, however, that he adhered 

 solely to the native sheep, and effected his great improvement through 

 a long course of selection, combined with in-breeding as a means of 

 fixing the type. Bakewell in fact was the author of that system of 

 in-and-in-breeding which has been rather extensive!}" practised since 

 his time. His great object was to produce an animal with a marked 

 aptitude to fatten, and with the least possible amount of offal, and he 

 regarded wool as of secondary importance. His work of improving 

 and developing the feeding qualities of the Leicester sheep was 

 going on at the time when turnips first came to be cultivated as a 

 field crop, and the introduction of the turnip crop gave a great 

 impetus to the demand for early maturity. Bakewell died in 1795, 



