378 THE ox. 



themselves in the rearing of bulls, chiefly for exportation to 

 Ireland ; but the numbers of the breed reared in England 

 are continually diminishing, and the time will probably arrive 

 when all that remains of the breed of Dishley will be the 

 record of a bold, curious, and interesting experiment. On the 

 very farm on which Mr Bakewell's original experiments were 

 instituted and completed, and within many miles around, 

 there does not exist a single bull, cow, or steer, of the breed 

 which he had cultivated with so much labour. Its history 

 forms a singular contrast with that of another race of animals 

 which he had formed by similar means, namely, his breed of 

 Sheep, which has extended over all the kingdom, and which 

 remains established as one of the most important additions 

 to the domestic animals of these Islands. 



The history of the breed of Bakewell has shewn, beyond 

 anything before attempted, the power of cultivation over the 

 form arid properties of animals, and has shewn us, too, the 

 limits within which the efforts of art must often be confined. 

 Bakewell looked to the property of acquiring fatness as the 

 essential one to be aimed at in breeding. He acquired for 

 his beautiful stock this property in an eminent degree, but 

 he acquired it in excess. The fat mingled less with the lean 

 than even in the older race, spreading itself in a thick layer 

 under the skin, and even accumulating in a cushion upon one 

 part of the body. " Having painfully, and at much cost," 

 observes an amusing writer, " raised a variety of cattle, the 

 chief merit of which is to make fat, he has apparently laid 

 his disciples and successors under the necessity of substi- 

 tuting another which will make lean. 3 ' Looking to this pro- 

 perty of making fat as the sole end to be aimed at, this emi- 

 nent breeder disregarded other properties which, though they 

 may be said to be secondary, are yet a necessary element in 

 the economical value of a breed of cattle. 



