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194 
the proper sense of the term, but tended to pro- 
duce that delicacy of form, which experience 
. shows to be connected with the power of secret- 
ing fat, and arriving at early maturity, or what 
may be termed premature age. The system, 
acted upon for successive generations, tended 
likewise to render the animals more the crea- 
tures of an artificial condition, more delicate in 
temperament as well as in form, less prolific of 
lambs, and less capable of supplying milk to their 
offspring. It cannot be supposed that Bakewell 
was unobservant of these effects; but he appears 
to have regarded them as being of a considera- 
tion secondary to the property of producing, in 
the shortest time, the largest quantity of fat, 
with the least consumption of herbage and other 
food. That this was the main result at which 
he aimed, all his practice shows; and his success 
corresponded with the skill and perseverance 
with which he applied his principles to practice. 
His stock became gradually known and appre- 
ciated in the country around him; but it was 
not until after the lapse of nearly a quarter of a 
century, that it arrived at that general estimation 
in which it was afterwards held. He early con- 
ceived the idea of letting his rams for the season, 
in place of selling them. The plan was ridiculed 
and opposed in every way; and it was not until 
after the labour of many years, that he succeeded 
in establishing it as a regular system. It is said 
that his rams were first let, in 1760, at 17s. 6d.each ; 
but this was certainly before his breed had ar- 
rived at its ultimate perfection. His usual price 
afterwards became a guinea, and, in rarer cases, 
two or three; but the price rapidly advanced 
with the increasing reputation of his stock. In 
1784-5, the price had risen to about 100 guineas 
for his best rams; in 1786, he made about 1,000 
guineas by the letting of his stock; and in 1789, 
he made 1,200 guineas by three rams, and 2,000 
guineas by seven; and in the same year, he made 
3,000 guineas more by letting the remainder of 
his rams to the Dishley Society, then instituted.” 
The best form of a Leicester ram—according 
to the description of Mr. Culley, who was one of 
the earliest and most successful of Mr. Bake- 
well’s followers in the breeding of the new race 
—is as follows:—His head should be fine and 
small; his nostrils wide and expanded ; his eyes 
prominent, and rather bold and daring ; his ears 
thin ; his collar full from his breast and shoulders, 
but tapering gradually all the way to where the 
head and neck join, which should be very fine 
and graceful, being perfectly free from any coarse 
leather hanging down; the shoulders broad and 
full, and at the same time joining so easy to the 
collar forward and chine backward, as to leave 
not the least hollow in either place; the mutton 
upon his arm or fore-thigh must come quite to 
the knee; his legs upright, with a clear fine 
bone, being equally clear from superfluous skin 
and coarse hairy wool, from the knees and 
hock downwards; the breast broad and well 
SHEEP. 
forward, which will keep his fore-legs at a pro- 
per wideness; his girth or chest full and deep; 
and, instead of a hollow behind the shoulders, 
that part, by some called the fore-flank, should |. 
be quite full; the back and loins broad, flat, and 
straight, from which the ribs must rise with a 
fine circular arch; his belly straight; the quar- 
ters long and full, with the mutton quite down 
to the hock, which should neither\stand in nor 
out; his twist deep, wide, and full, which, with 
the broad breast, will keep his fore-legs open 
and upright ; the whole body covered with thin 
pelt, and that with fine, bright, soft wool. We 
shall add the characters of Mr. Bakewell’s ewes 
and wedders, which are supposed to have sur-- 
passed all others in beauty of form. ‘The head 
is long, small, and hornless, with ears somewhat 
long, and standing backwards, and with the nose 
shooting forward; the neck thin and clean to- 
wards the head, but taking a conical form, stand- 
ing low, and enlarging every way at the base; 
the fore-bend altogether short, the bosom broad, 
with the shoulders, ribs, and chine extraordinarily 
full; the loin broad, and the back bare; the 
haunches comparatively full towards the hips, 
but light downwards, being altogether small in 
proportion to the fore-parts; the legs of mo- 
derate length, with the bone extremely fine; the 
bone throughout remarkably light. The carcase, 
when fully fat, takes a remarkable form, much 
wider than it is deep, and almost as broad as it 
is long, full on the shoulder, widest on the ribs, 
narrowing with a regular curve towards the tail, 
and approaching somewhat the form of a turtle; 
the pelt is thin, and the tail small; the wool is 
shorter than long wools in general, but much 
longer than the middle wools, the ordinary length 
of staple from 5 to 7 inches, varying much in 
fineness and weight. 
The new Leicester breed is, in an aggregate 
view, better or more perfect than any of the 
other races of long-woolled sheep; and it has 
abundantly proved itself capable of imparting 
some improvement to every one of them by 
crossing, and at the same time has derived no 
advantage from any in return, but can be main- 
tained in vigour only by being kept pure, and per- 
petuated from the best of its own stock. New 
Leicester sheep, as regards their feeding quali- 
ties, are more profitable on rich low pastures 
than any other sheep whatever; they come 
earlier to maturity than even the Southdowns,— 
a new Leicester wether being fat at 22 months, 
while a Southdown one is seldom as far forward 
till he becomes a twelvemonth older; and they 
contain in their carcase a greater amount of 
dead weight in proportion to the amount of live 
weight than any other breed,—the flesh and fat 
being accumulated more externally, and in the 
greatest degree in the most profitable parts, and 
in the least degree in the coarse points. Some of 
the chief disadvantages of the breed, as compared 
with the characters and properties of other good 
