78 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



and "Lincolns," noted " long-wooled " varieties of the present 

 day,) they are now Icnown. His practice and experience were 

 long, as he died at about seventy years of age. 



About the year 1720 the first known improvement of the 

 lonjc-horns was attempted. A blacksmith and farrier, of Linton, 

 in Derbyshire, on the borders of Leicestershire, -who had rented 

 a little farm, had the honor of being first on the list of improvers. 

 His name was Welby. But a fatal disease broke out and took 

 off his cows, of which he had several, and put a stop to his fur- 

 tlier progress. Soon after this, Mr. Webster, of Uanley, near 

 Coventry, distinguished himself as a breeder. His herd had 

 come from Sir Thomas Gresley's stock, from whom also the 

 unfortunate blacksmith, Welby, had obtained his animals. 

 Webster had also obtained buUs from Lancashire, and West- 

 moreland. He bred them to a high degree of perfection, so 

 that they were called the "Canley" breed, and from his herd 

 were afterwards drawn the chief and most valuable progenitors 

 of the "improved" race. 



Then came Bakewell on the stage, as a further improver of 

 the long-horns, and it must be confessed, with a race of cattle 

 already prepared to his hands on which to exercise liis ingenuity 

 and skill. His plan was to improve the stock from their own 

 blood alone, and without intermixture of any other. He pur- 

 chased two heifers from Mr. Webster, and a choice bull from 

 Westmoreland. He bred closely "in and in," but was careful to 

 have his crosses, although of the same family, sufiSciently sepa- 

 rate to avoid any defects which might be perpetuated in the 

 direct descent, where they might exist, from parent to offspring 

 by the intensity of their interbreeding with each other. 



"Many years did not pass before his stock was unrivalled for 

 the roundness of its form, and the smallness of its bone, and its 

 aptitude to acquire external fat, while they were small consumers 

 of food in proportion to their size; but at the same time their 



