174 
DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
American Merinos, and other imported and native breeds, as to render 
it difficult to find one of pure breed ; yet careful breeders have generally 
such good stocks, that it is questioned by good authority, whether the 
admixture, after all, has deteriorated the Saxons among us, — that 
crossing with Merinos has a tendency to increased hardiness in the 
animal, without in any important degree affecting the fineness of the 
wool staple. 
The wool of the American Saxons is much finer than that of Ameri- 
can Merinos, their fleeces average from two or two and a quarter to three 
pounds. They are relatively tender, requiring more protection and care 
than any other imported sheep. They are not as long-lived as the 
Merinos, do not fatten as well, nor consume as much food. Their lambs 
are less vigorous and require more care to rear them. 
The New Leicester, or Bakewell. — It was about the middle of the last 
century that Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley in Leicestershire, first applied him- 
self to the improvement of the old Leicesters. This old breed had many 
good points, yet it had its defects, and these of no trifling character ; it 
was large, heavy, and coarse-grained, the mutton having little flavor, and 
no delicacy ; it was long in the carcass, flat-sided, large-boned, and clumsy; 
the ewes weighed eighteen or twenty pounds the quarter, the wethers 
from twenty to thirty pounds. The wool measured from ten to fifteen 
inches in the length of the staple, and was variable as to quality, but 
generally coarse. These sheep were slow feeders, and returned little 
profit. 
Such was the stock common to Leicestershire and the adjacent coun- 
ties, on which Mr. Bakewell began his course of experiments ; in the 
prosecution of which he violated all the old axioms of his day, and pro- 
ceeded upon principles totally at variance with those by which the 
breeders had previously regulated their practice. They aimed at size, 
irrespective of symmetry and aptitude to fatten ; and at heavy fleeces, 
considering weight of wool as of primary importance. Mr. Bakewell 
on the contrary regarded symmetry and aptitude to fatten as first-rate 
qualities ; he found these to be inherent in small, not in large heavy- 
boned sheep, which latter consumed an extravagant abundance of food 
without returning an adequate profit; whereas the smaller sheep he found 
to increase more rapidly in weight, proportionately, even upon a less 
consumption of diet. Ilis experience had also taught him another point, 
viz., that sheep carrying a heavy fleece had always less aptitude to fatten, 
and were far slower in ripening, than those whose fleece was moderate; 
and he considered symmetry and early ripening to be of more import- 
ance than the loss of a few pounds in the fleece. In short, he considered 
that the value of the carcass was the first object to be attended to in 
breeding of sheep ; and he looked upon the fleece as of secondary im- 
portance — not that the loss of two or three pounds in the fleece was 
not an object, but still he thought that if to preserve this the farmer 
not only lost ten or twelve pounds of mutton by it, but had to feed his 
sheep for twelve or eighteen months longer than he ought, he would 
pay dearly for his three pounds of wool extra. Mr. Bakewell was right; 
and on these principles he addressed himself to his task. 
The improved Leicesters are not adapted for scanty pasturage, over 
