Such is the Leicester sheep as Bakewell made him. He found him as different an animal as it was possible to conceive—flat-sided, large boned, coarse.woolled. slow to fatten. and his flesh of little value. Were there room for its insertion, a detailed history of the different steps of the changes would be most interesting to the reader. The means were simple, and the effect was almost magical The principle was, that" like produces like; " and therefore he selected a few sheep with aptitude to fatten, with a disposition to produce an unusual quantity of valuable meat, with little bone and offal, and with quiet, fleas of temper ; and from these he exclusively bred. Ho cared not about near or distant affinities, but his object was to increase every good point, and gradually to get rid of every had one. They were not ditlerent sorts of sheep that he selected, but the best of the breed to which he had been accustomed.
His sheep were smaller than those of his neighbours, but they retained every good point, and had got rid only of tile bad ones. The alteration was rapid as well as great in his own flock, and the practice which he introduced of letting some of his rams quickly extended the benefit of his system far and wide. The first rain which he let was in the year 1760, at 17s. Gd for the season. In 1780 he let one ram for 1000 guineas, and lie cleared more than 6000 guineas in the same year by the letting of othera. After that, so great was the mania, or desire for improvement, that 31r. Lawrence calculates that 100,0o0f. were annually spent by the midland farmers in the hiring of rams.
The chief value of the new Leicester breed consists in the improve ment which it has effected in almost every variety of sheep with which it has been cruised, in which its influence has corresponded among long-woolled sheep with that which the Southdowns has exerted on breeds allied to it in the character of their wool.
The largest of the other breeds of long-woolled sheep was the Lin coins, " hornless, with long, thin, and weak carcases, large bones, weighing from 20 to 30 lbs. a quarter ; the wool averaging from 8 to 14 lba. the fleece ; the ,1 cep a slow feeder, and the flesh coarse grained." This is the account of them given by a good, but a pre judiced observer-31r. Olney. In fact, while Bakewell and his ad mirers were almost neglecting the fleece, the Lincolnshire farmer was quite as inattentive with regard to the carcase. Both parties were wrong. The old Lincolnshire sheep yielded a wool which in quantity and in quality was unrivalled, while the Leicesters could boast of a disposition to fatten which the other could never equal. At length the attempt was honestly made to amalgamate the valuable qualities of the two breeds, In consequence of the cross, the wether attained its maturity a full year sooner than it was accustomed to do, and the fleece became finer and improved in colour, but it was shorter and more brittle, and not fitted for some of its former purposes. On the
whole, a great improvement has been effected both in the carcase and the fleece; and so satisfactory did this prove, that it is now find any sheep in Lincolnshire that have not been crossed with the Leicesters. This cross is deeper on the welds than in the marsh lands, which may serve to account for the difference of the fleece in the two. The breed of these sheep generally has been greatly increased since the introduction of the turnip system. The lustrous character of the wools has given them a higb value in the manufacture of woollen fabrics, corresponding to those made of Alpaca wool, with which they are mixed.
Among the long-woolled sheep that have been improved by the admixture of the old and new long-woollcd breeds and the altered system of husbandry, the inhabitants of Romney Marsh must not be forgotten.
The Cotswold sheep, of Gloucester, were a long-woolled breed, yield ing in the 15th century a description of wool much valued on account of the fabrics in the construction of which it was employed. Even they, like the rest, have amalgamated themselves with, and been in a manner lost among, the Leicesters. They were taller than the present sheep, flat-sided, deficient in the fore-quarter, but full in the hind quarter, not fattening so early, but yielding a long and heavy fleece. Malay of these good qualities have been preserved, and to them have been added that which is of so much importance to the farmer—the capability of rearing and fattening so many more sheep on the same qu amity of laud, and of bringing them so much earlier to the market.
This will be the proper place to speak of the shearing of the sheep, or the separation of the fleece from the animal. The animal is first washed in some running stream. Two or three days are then allowed for the drying of the wool previous to its being shorn, the sheep being turned into a clean pasture, and remaining there until the fleece is dried. and that the now yolk. which is rapidly secreted, may penetrate through it, giving it a little additional weight and a peculiar softness As soon as the sheep is shorn, the mark of the owner is placed upon it, consisting of lamp-black and tallow, with a small portion of tar, meited together. This will not be washed away by any rain, but may be removed by the application of soap and water.