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yet his writings would indicate that the stock of that time must have 1 ** -i - 1 1 quite 
inferior to that of to-day. 
In these early days, however, a man appeared in the live-stock field who reached 
the zenith of fame in his time, and who has since frequently been referred to as "the 
father of modern live-stock husbandry." This was Robert Bakewell, a man of remark- 
able character, and, as I have often thought, the greatest student of breeding farm 
animals that this world has ever seen. Bakewell was horn in 1726, in the county 
of Leicester, England, and his work asa great breeder became especially notable sub- 
sequent to 1750. Undoubtedly he was a wonderful investigator of animal breeding. 
AVhile he left little in the form of records for the use of those who were to follow 
him, and by some authors was regarded as secretive, the fact is that he was visited 
by Arthur Young and others interested in improved live stock and did not hesitate 
to discuss his methods with them. Not only did Young make two memorable visits 
at his home, but Bakewell wrote several articles for the Annals of Agriculture, then 
being published by Young. 
Bakewell realized that the farm animals in the vicinity of his home were unprofit- 
able as feeders and of inferior quality, and he began a systematic and extended 
effort to improve them. Young states that, "the leading idea, then, which has gov- 
erned all his exertions, is to procure that breed which, with a given food, will give 
the most profitable meat, that in which the proportion of useful meat to the quantity 
of offal is the greatest; also, in which the proportion of the best to the inferior joints 
is likewise the greatest." 
Bakewell for years carried on experiments such as perhaps have not been attempted 
by any other breeder in history. He secured specimens of different breeds of sheep, 
studied their qualities, and experimented with them. He undertook the systematic 
improvement of the native sheep of Leicestershire and perhaps Lincolnshire, until 
from them he developed what was long known as Bakewell' s or the Dish ley sheep, 
and later the improved Leicester. So intensely did he study the quality of the indi- 
viduals, that he slaughtered and preserved in pickle specimens of the parts of 
different animals for study. He kept specimens of bones, flesh, etc., of some of his 
most famous animals, to use for comparison. One of his most celebrated Longhorn 
cows was known as "Old Cornely." Some parts of her, says Houseman," were seen 
in pickle at Dishley, years after her death, among Mr. Bakewell's relics of his most 
remarkable animals, and it is recorded that the fat on her sirloin was 4 inches thick. 
Young also writes in the Annals in 1786, "He has also a piece of rump of beef that 
has been in pickle a year and three-quarters, 4 inches thick of fat." In comparing 
the Southdown with the coarser Norfolk breed, Mr. Bakewell shows, says Young, 
that the latter is much inferior, "the former having flatter backs, more spreading, 
rounded carcasses, a much greater disposition to fatten, points infallibly attending 
(in a well-made animal) the deficiency of tallow within and less offal. By which 
term is to be understood, not only the skin, tallow, head, and pluck, but the horns, 
hoofs, and bones of every joint. It is remarkable that the last are very small in 
those breeds that have a true disposition to fatten. They are much less in the South- 
downs than in the Xorfolks. Mr. Bakewell, when last in that county, ate a neck of 
mutton at an inn, which afforded him a bone which he considered as a curiosity 
and kept it. It was full twice the size of that of one of his own sheep, which had 4 
inches of fat on it. This bone, he found on inquiry, to have come from a true Nor- 
folk sheep." Going still further, Young says, "Good as the Southdowns are, on 
comparison with the Xorfolks, Mr. Bakewell's own breed far exceeds them; their 
form is truer, their backs much flatter, their carcasses heavier in proportion; and 
they have so much a greater disposition to fatten beyond all other sheep as to make 
a parallel absurd. He has the part of a neck of mutton in pickle, which at present 
is 4^ inches thick with fat on the bone." Says Houseman, "Skeleton and pickled 
joints of specimens of the best of the Dishley sheep and cattle formed a little museum 
at the Grange, for the comparison of one generation with another, ancestor with 
their descendants. The fineness of bone, size and shape of frame, thickness of layers 
of muscle, and amount and character of inner and outer fat could be studied. Such 
examination must have served a valuable purpose." 
Undoubtedly Bakewell early comprehended the significance of the great law that 
"like produces like." He practiced a wise selection in his breeding work and 
mated his animals to secure: (a) Utility of form; (b) quality of flesh, and (c) pro- 
pensity to fatten. 
His "method of selection resulted in introducing in-and-in breeding, which he 
practiced in his herd for twenty consecutive years. He did not, however, arrive at 
this practice without what to him were the necessary preliminaries, and many years 
"Jour. Roy. Agr. Soc. England, 1894, pt. 1, p. 25. 
