THE LEICESTER LONG-HORNS. 



»1 



** As dairy -stocTc, it does not admit of doubt that their milking quali- 

 ties have been very much impaired. 



*' As beasts of draught, their general form renders them unfit; yet 

 many of them are suflBciently powerful, and they are more active 

 than some other breeds used for the plough, or on the road ; but 

 the horns generally form an insuperable objection to this use of 

 them." 



THE LONG-HORX FEEDING OX. 



But what is become of Bakewell's improved long-horn breed ? A 

 veil of myster}^ was thrown over most of his proceedings, which not 

 even his friend Mr. Marshall was disposed to raise. The principle 

 on which he seemed to act, breeding so completely " in and in" was 

 a novel, a bold, and a successful one. Some of the cattle to which 

 we have referred were very extraordinary illustrations, not only of 

 the harmle isness, but the manifest advantage of such a system ; but 

 he had a large stock on which to work ; and no one knew his occa- 

 sional deviations from this rule, nor his skillful interpositions of remoter 

 aflBnities, when he saw or apprehended danger. 



The truth of the matter is, that the master spirits of that day had 

 no sooner disappeared, than the character of this breed began imper- 

 ceptibly to change. It had acquired a delicacy of constitution, in- 

 consistent with common management and keep ; and it beo-an slowly, 

 but undeniably, to deteriorate. Many of them had been bred to that 



