120 BBITISH BREEDS. 



disposition to form fat outwardly, and is uniformly accoin 

 panied by a tendency to quickness of improvement. 



" Tffe New Leicesters, however, are not without their 

 faults. They are not, even at the present day, so prolific as 

 most other t)reeds. This was too much overlooked in the 

 time of Bakewell and his immediate followers. Their ob- 

 ject was to produce a lamb that could be forced on so as to 

 be ready, at the earliest possible period, for the purposes of 

 breeding or of slaughter, and therefore the production of 

 twins was not only unsought after, but was regarded as an 



rtTTT I tp V TT w , ff ^^ 



" It was likewise, and not without reason, objected to 

 them that their lambs were tender and weakly, and unable 

 to bear the occasional inclemency of the weather at the 

 lambing season. This also was a necessary consequence of 

 that delicacy of form, and delicacy of constitution too, which 

 were so sedulously cultivated in -the Leicester sheep. 



" The last objection to the New Leicester sheep was the 

 neglect and deficiency of the fleece. There is little cause, 

 however, for complaint at the present period. The wool has 

 considerably increased in length, and has improved both in 

 fineness and strength of fibre ; it averages from 6 to 7 lbs. the 

 fleece, and the fibre varies from five to more than twelve 

 inches in length. It is mostly used in the manufacture of 

 serges and carpets. 



" The principal value of this breed consists in the improve- 

 ment which it has effected in almost every variety of sheep 

 that it has crossed ; but it has met with, especially in Wales, 

 a powerful antagonist in the Cotswold." 



The introduction of additional evidence showing the ne- 

 cessity of providing luxuriant pasturage for the Leicester 

 breed, will be proper. 



" I occupied a farm," says a Lammermine shepherd, " that 

 had been rented by our family for nearly half a century. On 

 entering it, the Cheviot stock was the object of our choice, 

 and so long as we continued in possession of this breed, 

 everything proceeded with considerable success ; but the 

 New Leicesters came into fashion, and we, influenced by 

 the general mania, cleared our farm of the Cheviots and pro- 

 cured the favorite stock. Our coarse bean pastures, however, 

 were unequal to the task of supporting such heavy-bodied 

 sheep ; and they gradually dwindled away into less and less 

 bulk ; each generation was inferior to the preceding one ; 



