CHAPTER LVI 



THE LEICESTER! 



The native home of the Leicester sheep is in the county of that 

 name in central England. This is one of the small English shires, 

 comprising 813 square miles. The land is gently rolling, the soil 

 fertile to a more or less extent, and wheat, barley, oats, roots, and 

 grass do unusually well. It is a noted farming section, where live 

 stock is an important feature of agriculture. The climate is moist 

 and fairly temperate much of the year. 



The origin of the Leicester as a breed is obscure, further than 

 that a long-wooled, large, coarse, narrow-backed, slow-feeding, 

 leggy type had been bred in the county of Leicester from time 

 immemorial. This was the old Leicester sort. 



The first improvement of the Leicester began with Robert 

 Bakewell, who lived at Dishley Hall, near Loughborough, in 

 Leicestershire. Bakewell was born in 1726 and began to experi- 

 ment with and improve the sheep of his county just prior to 1760. 

 He purchased the best specimens of the breed to be obtained in 

 the community, practiced rigorous selection, did much in-and-in 

 breeding, and finally produced a remarkable improvement, so that 

 sheep of his breeding became known as Dishley or Bakewell 

 sheep. He converted the Leicester into a broad-backed, thick- 

 fleshed, easy-feeding, early-maturing breed, with small bones and 

 much less offal than in the old sort. Bakewell had a collection of 

 bones and meat in pickle, which represented selections from time 

 to time from animals of his own breeding, by which he studied 

 the improvement made. Marshall, who lived in Bakewell's time, 

 stated that he kept four points in view: (i) breed, (2) utility of 

 form, (3) quality of flesh, and (4) propensity to fatten — the three 

 latter depending on the first. Bakewell attained such fame in 

 improving these sheep, as well as Longhorn cattle and other 



^ The English pronunciation of this word is as though spelled " Lester.'' 



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