88 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



been obtained, and many of them set a plain 

 and intentional example of close, even highly 

 incestuous breeding. The problem which they 

 left to posterity is, Was this course an extra- 

 ordinary one demanded by exceptional circum- 

 stances, or was it a general course commended 

 and approved by the wise men of olden time 

 for ordinary conditions, and consequently a 

 valid precedent ? 



Thus we find Robert Bakewell, the celebrated 

 improver of Leicestershire sheep and Longhorn 

 cattle, breeding very closely. Bakewell is the 

 typical eighteenth century improver. Before 

 his time many experiments were made; but the 

 great idea which prevailed in the earlier time 

 was that crossing of different breeds was the 

 road to improvement. Bakewell struck out 

 along the then novel line of careful selection 

 from a single variety or breed. He began his 

 work by selecting the most completely distinct 

 lines of blood to be found among Longhorns, and 

 the best obtainable animals of those strains. 

 Mr. Webster of Canley, in Leicestershire, prob- 

 ably had the best herd of Longhorns in England, 

 and from this herd Bakewell obtained two heif- 

 ers, and then he brought a " promising" young 

 bull out of Westmoreland. From this small 

 beginning he built up his famous herd. The 

 produce of these three animals were crossed 

 and intercrossed; but, to quote Youatt, "as his 



