4% 
206 
bread and fiefh plentiful and cheap in 
France, at the time when a certain dig- 
nified and popular writer addrefied the 
people of England, on the black bread, 
and. Spartan broth, and ftarvation of the 
French; could he have given a better 
proof of the excefy of his patriotic zeal 
than by fuch a facrifice of truth? 
Cattle breeding coming fo highly into 
vogue, and among# a clafs of men fome- 
what fuperior to thofe whofe only rule in 
“the fcience was, that the animals to 
be conjoined were male and female, no 
wonder that a folicitude arofe refpeéting 
form, that the belt reputed models were 
fought even in diftant counties, and that 
2@ ftrone emulation \commenced between 
the breeding competitors. 
In the early ftage of this bufinefs, the 
famous BakEWELL of Leicefterfhire, 
arofe, a man who for the mild virtues of 
humanity, and for the important fervices 
he rendered his country in every branch of 
practical agriculture, has well merited the 
¢ivic honours, and the attentive notice of 
the Biographer *. The unwearied dili- 
gence of this famous improver, who ran- 
tacked the whole ifland, and even repeat- 
edly vifited the continent, in fearch of the 
beft fhaped animals ; and his celebrate 
pofition, that in cattle breeding, ¢ like 
produces like,” are well known. His fa- 
vourite ideas, on the leading points of form 
in cattle, were, “* the {mali bone and tight 
carcafe:*? thence he pretended to derive 
every other defirable qualification. As 
there had been previoufly no fettled prin- 
ciple of improvement, and as that of 
Bakewell was at leaft fpecious, from the 
obvious and great iuperiority of his cat- 
tle, the Dithley fytem was univerfally 
adopted by the fafhionable breeders. 
‘This, like other fyftems founded in mere 
opinion, has had its day. 
The difum of Bakewell was for a lone 
time held facred ; he however lived leag 
enough, to fee it dilregarded, and to be 
convinced of the fallibility and approach- 
ing decline of his fyfiem. Et wil* be ea- 
fby fuppoeled, that amongft a number: of 
competiters, a variety of opinions would 
arife ; and that men of independent or of 
capricious minds, would naturally be de- 
firows of making appeals from the judge- 
ment of their direStor, to their own. ‘Fhis 
really happened, and either fortuitoulty, ar 

* A number of the moft refpe€able culti- 
vators have exprefied their expectation, that 
the name of Bakewell will appear in the e- 
alao 
LI OL9S Yo 
On the modern Improvements in Live Stock. 
. 
[April 
otherwife, “the Bakewellian models were 
not only highly improved in fome parts, 
but the form of the ftock both radically 
and advantageou##€ changed. In general 
however, the ideas of the true fhape of 
cattle were extremely vague, arbitrary and - 
indeterminate. ‘Every diftri& had its 
Jeading judges, to whofe decifions the 
breeders in general paid <n implicit defer- 
ence ; and if the judces ot different coun-” 
ties differed ever fo widely, as to the or— 
thodoxy of fhape and make, they were all, 
as well as their difciples, invariably una- 
niimous in one point—the neceffity of be- 
ing well paid tor their improved ftock. Ia 
truth, the chief af this cattle-mending 
buiinefs, in procefs of time, degenerated 
into a mere job. Certain perfons pur- 
chafing cattle for breeding at a very high 
plice, had caft into the bargain, the fame 
ef great imprevers. The family played 
into each others hands, and became vouch- 
ers foreach other, as to the fuperiority of 
the new. ftock. .The public, and thofe 
not in the fecret, paid extraordinary prices 
for the purchafe, or hire, of famous buils 
and rams, without finding any thing very 
extraordinary in their produce, when 
brought to fair market. It now became 
= 
ferioufly doubted, whether, after all the . 
high flown pretenfions of fyfematic 
breeders, any improvement at all had 
really taken place, in the form of the ori- 
ginal breeds ef the country: and Mr, 
Parions, of Somerfetfhire, paft all doubt, . 
one of the moft complete judges of cattle 
in England, goes fo tar as toaflert, even at 
this time, that the original breeds cf the 
ifland, inftead-of being improved, have ab= 
folutely been deteriorated both in form and 
quality; the neat cattle particularly, by in- 
judicious erofling, aid by the introduétion 
of coarfe northern ftock. He complains 
of the Hefh of the new cattle, as coarfe, 
u]-flavoured and fpongy ; and with too 
great appearance of truth, ridicules the 
modern fhews of bullocks at Smithfield - 
market, as confifting of huge animals 
made up of fcarce any thing but legs, 
hides and horns! . 
But to make due allowance for the 
warmth of declamation, and to {peak im- 
partially, real improvegients have. been 
made, and the quantity of animal feod 
much increafed in the country. A mot 
ftriking proof of this is to be found in 
Heretordthire, where breeding has been 
much extended from the commencement 
of the era of improvement, and where the 
cattle, taken in every point of view, are 
faid to be fuperior to any_in Britain, dt 
~*~ 
a 

