USEFUL PROJECTS. Great Improvements made in the Breed of Cattle, by Mr. Bakewell of Dibley in Northamptonshire; from the Farmer's Tour through the East of England, by Arthur Young, Efq; MR R. Bakewell of Difhley, one of the most confiderable farmers in this country, has in fo many inftances improved on the hufbandry of his neighbours, that he merits particular notice in this journal. His breed of cattle is famous throughout the kingdom; and he has lately fent many to Ireland. He has in this part of his bufinefs many ideas which I believe are perfectly new or that have hitherto been totally neglected. This principle is to gain the beaft, whether fheep or cow, that will weigh most in the most valuable joints :there is a great difference between an ox of 50 ftone, carrying 30 in roafting pieces, and 20 in coarse boiling ones and another carrying 30 in the latter, and 20 in the former. And at the fame time that he gains the fhape, that is, of the greateft value in the fmalleft compafs; he afferts, from long experience, that he gains a breed much hardier, and eafier fed than any others. Thefe ideas he ap plies equally to sheep and oxen. In the breed of the latter, the old notion was, that where you had much and large bones, there was plenty of room to lay flesh on ; and accordingly the graziers were eager to buy the largest boned cattle. This whole fyftem Mr. Bakewell has proved to be an utter mistake. He afferts, the smaller the bones, the truer will be the make of the beast the quicker fhe will fat-and her weight, we may eafily conceive, will have ą larger proportion of valuable meat; flesh, not bone, is the butcher's object. Mr. Bakewell admits that a large boned beaft, may be made a large fat beaft, and that he may come to a great weight; but juftly obferves, that this is no part of the profitable enquiry; for ftating fuch a fimple propofition, without at the fame time fhewing the expence of covering thofe bones with flesh, is offering no fatisfactory argument. The only object of real importance, is the proportion of grafs to value. I have 20 acres; which will pay me for those acres beft, large or fmall boned cattle? The latter fat fo much quicker, and more profitably in the joints of value; that the query is anfwered in their favour from long and attentive experience. Among other breeds of cattle the Lincolnshire and the Holderness are very large, but their fize lies in their bones: they may be fattened to great lofs to the grazier, nor can they ever return fo much for a given quantity of grafs, as the fmall boned, long horned kind. The breed which Mr. Bakewell has fixed on as the best in England, is the Lancashire, and he thinks he has improved it much, in bringing the carcass of the beaft into a truer mould; and particularly by making them broader over the backs. The hape which fhould be the criterion of a cow, a bull, or an ox, and alfo of a fheep, is that of an hog head, or a firkin; truly circular, with fmall and as fhort legs as poffible: upon the plain principle, that the value lies in the barrel, not in the legs. All breeds, the backs of which rife in the leaft ridge, are bad. I meafured two or three cows, 2 feet 3 inches flat across their back from hip to hip and their legs remarkably fhort. brings up thefe animals. All his bulls ftand ftill in the field to be examined: the way of driving them from one field to another, or home, is by a little fwish; he or his men walk by their fide, and guide them with the flick wherever they please; and they are accustomed to this method from being calves. A lad, with a ftick three feet long, and as big as his finger, will conduct a bull away from other bulls, and his cows from one end of the farm to the other, All this gentleness is merely the effect of management, and the mifchief often done by bulls, is undoubtedly owing to practices very contrary-or elfe to a total neglect. The general order in which Mr. Bakewell keeps his cattle is pleafing; all are fat as bears; and this is a circumstance which he infifts is owing to the excellence of the breed. His land is no better than his neighbours, at the fame time that it carries a far greater proporMr. Bakewell has now a bull of tion of stock; as I fhall fhew by his own breed which he calls Two- and by. The fmall quantity, and penny, which leaps cows at 51. 55. the inferior quality of food that a cow. This is carrying the breed will keep a beast perfectly well of horned cattle to wonderful per- made, in good order, is furpriz fection. He is a very fine bulling: fuch an animal will grow moft truly made, according to the in the fame pature that would principles laid down above. He ftarve an ill-made, great boned has many others got by him, which one. he lets for the feafon, from 5 guineas to 30 guineas a feafon, but rarely fells any. He would not take 2001. for Twopenny. He has feveral cows which he keeps for breeding, that he would not fell at 30 guineas apiece. Another particularity is the amazing gentleness in which he fat In the breed of his fheep, Mr. Bakewell is as curious, and I think, if any difference, with greater fuccefs, than in his horned cattle: for better-made animals cannot be feen than his rams and ewes : their bodies are as true barrels as can be feen; round, broad backs; and the legs not above fix inches long: and The following is an account of two fheep of Mr. Bakewell's, measured in the wool. "I this and a moft unusual proof of kindly fattening, is their feeling quite fat, juft within their fore legs on the ribs, a point in which theep are never examined in common; from common breeds never carrying any fat there. In his breed of fheep, he proceeds exactly on the fame principle as with oxen; the fatting in the valuable parts of the body; and the living on much poorer food than other forts. He has found from various experience in many parts of the kingdom, as well as upon his own farm, that no land is too bad for a good breed of cattle, and particularly fheep. It may not be proper for large ftock, that is large boned ftock, but undoubtedly more proper for a valuable well-made sheep than the ufual wretched forts found in moft parts of England on poor foils fuch as the moor sheep the Welch ones and the Norfolks. And he would hazard any moderate stake, that his own breed, each fheep of which is worth several of those poor - forts, would do better on thofe poor foils than the ftock generally found on them: A good and true shape having been found the strongest indication of hardiness, and what the graziers call a kindly sheep; one that has always an inclination to feed. He has an experiment to prove the hardiness of his breed which deferves notice. He has 5 or 6 ewes, that have gone constantly in the highways fince May-day, and have never been in his fields: the roads are narrow, and the food very bare; they are in excellent order, and nearly fat; which provės in the ftrongest manner, the excellence of the breed. And another circumftance of a peculiar nature is his flock of ewes, that have reared two lambs, being quite fat in the first week of July; an instance hardly to be paralleled. The breed is originally Lincolnfhire, but Mr. Bakewell thinks, and very juftly, that he has much improved it. The grand profit, as I before obferved, is from the "I this day measured Mr. Bakewell's three years old ram, and found him as follows: N. B. I would have measured her breadth, but for a fall of snow. Dishley, ut fup. H. S. fame fame food going fo much farther in feeding these than any others; not however that Mr. Bakewell's breed is fmall; on the contrary, it is as weighty as nine tenths of the kingdom; for he fells fat wethers at three years and an half old at 2. a head. Other collateral circumftances of importance are the wool being equal to any other; and the fheep ftanding the fold better. He fells no tups, but lets them at from 5 guineas to 30 guineas for the season. Relative to the rot in fheep, Mr. Bakewell has attended more to it than most men in England: He is extremely clear, from long attention, that this diforder is owing folely to floods never to land being wet, only from rains which do not flow, nor from fprings that rife. He conjectures, that the young grafs which springs in confequence of a flood, is of fo flashy a nature that it occafions this common complaint. But whether this idea is juft or not, ftill he is clear in his facts; that floods (in whatever manner they act) are the caufe. Perhaps the moft curious experiment ever made on the rot in fheep, is what he has frequently practifed: When particular parcels of his beft bred sheep are paít fervice, he fats them for the butcher; and to be fure that they fhall be killed, and not go into other hands, he rots them before he fells; which from long experience he can do at plea fure. It is only to flow a pafture or meadow in fummer, and it inevitably rots all the sheep that feed on it the following autumn. After the middle of May, water flowing over land is certain to cause it to rot, whatever be the foil: he has acted thus with several of his fields, which without that management would never affect a fheep in the leaft: the water may flow with impunity all winter, and even to the end of April, but after that the above effect is fure to take place. Springs he afferts to be no caufe of rotting, nor yet the grafs which rifes in confequence; unless they flow: Nor is it ever owing to the ground being very wet from heavy rains, unless the water flows. This theory of the rot upon the whole appears fatisfactory; and that part of it which is the certain refult of experience, cannot be difputed *. In the breed of ftallions for getting cart-horses, Mr. Bakewell is also very attentive: he has those at present that he lets at from 25 to 150 guineas the feafon. He conceives the true make of a carthorfe, to be nearly that defcribed above for an ox-thick and short bodies, and very fhort legs. He makes them all particularly gentle and apprehends that bad drawing-horfes, can be owing to nothing but bad management. He has one ftallion that leaps at 5 guineas a mare. * Let me remark, that Mr. Bakewell has feveral comparifons between other breeds of cattle and his own, which I purpofely omit taking any notice of, because fuch experiments are impoffible to be accurate from the great difference in certain beasts in feeding, fatting, &c. Befides, fuppofing fuch accuracy, ftill other people, and particularly thofe of the countries compared, would never give credit to fuch comparisons, unless the very best breeders in the very best countries themselves chose certain beasts to represent their breed in the trial: Nor does Mr. Bakewell's breed want any fuch experiments to recommend them. Mr. |