THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 57 



provement still further, till, unfortunately, some disease broke 

 out, which, baffling all remedies, carried off the greater part 

 of his cattle, and put a stop to his enterprise. 



The Gresley stock was the origin also of the Canley breed 

 of Mr. Webster, who crossed it with a pure Lancashire strain ; 

 and a bull termed Bloxedge, of this intermixture, was of 

 noted celebrity. 



The Canley breed spread, and maintained its reputation, 

 and became incorporated with the stocks possessed by other 

 breeders, who saw the importance of improvement in those 

 points which concern the grazier, viz., utility of form, and a 

 propensity to fattening at an early age, and in a reasonably 

 short space of time. It was on the Canley stock, viz., two 

 heifers and a long-horn bull, of superior qualities, that Mr. 

 Bake well, of Dishley, began his important experiments ; and 

 from them arose the new Leicester, or Dishley long-horns. 

 His aim was not so much improvement for the dairy, or the 

 small farmer, to whom milk was the primary object, as for 

 the grazier; consequently, smallness of bone, rotundity of 

 contour, and a disposition to the laying on of fat, where its 

 accumulation was most advantageous, were his great aim; 

 and he fully succeeded. It is remarkable that one of the 

 results of this high breeding manifested itself in the contour 

 and size of the horns, which, first sweeping outwards and 

 downwards, shot forward at the points. In the bulls, their 

 length seldom exceeded two feet; but in oxen and cows, they 

 measured from two and a half to three and a half feet in 

 length. 



With respect to the general principles of breeding pursued 

 by Mr. Bakewell, and applicable to every description of cattle, 

 we shall not here repeat what we have already stated. Certain 

 it is that the practice of his theory is found to be ever suc- 

 cessful when judiciously carried out ; for, "like produces like." 

 A bull, the produce of the Canley heifer, Comely, and the 

 Westmoreland bull, was called Twopenny, and was in high 

 repute ; but a bull termed D, still more valuable, was the 

 grandson of Twopenny, and born of an immediate relative. 

 And here, if we may venture to judge, Mr. Bakewell was in 

 fault ; he bred too much in and in, and thereby prepared the 

 first steps of a future degeneracy, which, we have every reason 

 to believe, soon manifested itself. For, although much may 

 be attributed to the subsequent triumph of the improved 

 short-horns, and its intermixture with offsets from the Dishley 



