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ments of Ellis, of Gaddesden, who had published some works on farming and cattle, were the first incentives to improvement experienced by our rural philosopher. These, however, only produced theoretic notions, and excited a desire to visit other counties and places, in order to observe and learn the practices of some experienced and noted farmers. He therefore made tours into Norfolk, Ireland, Holland, Flanders, &c. and from carefully and rationally examining the various and different practices of others, acquired a large portion of that useful wordly wisdom which consists in knowing what ought to be avoided, and what may be best and most advantageously adopted and persevered in. Nothing either of great or inferior consequence in rural economics escaped his indefatigable research. Having satisfied himself respecting the management of others, after his father's death, he employed the full energies of his mind and knowledge on his own farm at Dishley. This, according to Mr. Young, "consisted of four hundred and forty acres, one hundred and ten of which were arable, and the rest grass. On this he kept sixty horses, four hundred large sheep, and one hundred and fifty beasts of all sorts, and yet he has generally about fifteen acres of wheat, and twenty-five of spring corn; the turnips not more than thirty acres. If the degree of fatness in which he keeps all these cattle be considered, and that he buys neither straw nor hay, it must at once appear that he keeps a larger stock, on a given number of acres, than most men in England: the strongest proof of all others of the excellence of his husbandry *." In selecting the above stock, Mr. Bakewell evinced his discriminating judgment; which was equally displayed in his mode of keeping and fattening them. His general treatment of live stock, and management of servants, all constituted parts of that system which at once did honour to his head and heart. At Dishley every branch of rural economics was systematized; and after various experiments had been tried, that was adopted and persisted in which had proved most successful, and therefore pro

mised

* "Farmer's Tour," 1771, 8vo.

mised to be most advantageous. Though the views and plans of Mr. Bakewell embraced almost every object and office in the compass of agriculture and breeding, yet he appears to have been most successful in the rearing and management of Sheep. The peculiar sort that originated from his mode of breeding and rearing, has acquired the name of the Dishley, or New Leicester sheep. Their bodies" are as true barrels as can be seen*; round broad backs, and the legs not above six inches long; and a most: unusual proof of their kindly fattening is, their feeling quite fat just within their fore legs on the ribs, a point in which sheep are never examined in common." In making his sheep fat, as in fattening his cattle, he was only solicitous of augmenting and en riching the useful parts of the carcase. He also enured his live' stock to hardihood, and contended that his sheep would thrive much better on the mountains of Wales, in lanes, &c. than those accustomed to such places. The original breed was the Lincolnshire; but these were greatly improved and altered. Respecting that destructive and fatal disease called the rot in sheep, Mr. Bakewell tried different experiments, and ultimately concluded that it arises wholly from floods. The grass produced from these inundations being unnaturally forced and "flashy,” almost invari-› ably causes this disorder in sheep. Irrigation, when discontinued before the month of May, does not occasion the grass to produce this effect, nor does any continuation of rain. This was repeatedly tried by Mr. Bakewell, who also made use of the following plan to satisfy himself that his fat sheep should always be killed when sold to the butcher. He overflowed a piece of pasture, or meadow, in summer, and in the following autumn turned in such sheep as were destined for the butcher, and these invariably were affected with the rot. "After the middle of May," says Mr. Young, "water

flowing

* A three years old ram was accurately measured, and the result thus stated- -"Girt 5 feet 10 inches; height 2 feet 5 inches; his collar broad at the ear tips, 1 foot 4 inches; breadth over his shoulders 1 foot 11 inches; ditto over his ribs 1 foot 10 inches; ditto his hips 1 foot 9 inches."

flowing over land is certain to cause it to rot, whatever be the soil *."

After examining the Cattle of different counties, Mr. Bakewell chose the Lancashire, or long-horned breed, as most adapted to his system; and many bulls and heifers bred at Dishley have been much admired for their beauty, docility, and aptitude to fatten. In the mode of wintering these he was particularly careful. They were all tied up in open sheds, or houses, from November till the end of March, and fed upon straw, turnips, or hay. The lean cattle had only the first; and the proprietor never littered any of these from a motive of using all the straw as food. The floors on which the beasts stood were paved, raised six or eight inches above the yard, and so narrow that the bind legs of the animals reached the extreme edge. By this plan the dung generally fell beyond the floors, and these were kept dry and clean. Instead of oxen, cows were generally úsed in harness, though horses were also employed; and Mr. Bakewell is said to have been the first person who adopted the economical and judicious plan of ploughing with two a-breast. While one man was employed with only two horses in turning up the earth on his farm, many of his neighbouring farmers sent a team of four and five, with a man and boy, to perform the same work, and in similar soil. In the breed of Horses he was also very scrupulous, and chose the short, thick, black sort, as most advantageous for the harness. Some of his stallions were let out for very large sums; and one, a famous black horse, was made a public exhibition of in the court-yard, at St. James's. The Dishley breed of horses originated in that of Flanders, whence Mr. Bakewell selected the most valuable he could. procure, and that at very great prices. "The handsomest horse I have ever seen of the Leicestershire breed," says Mr. Marshall, " and perhaps the most picturable horse of this kind ever bred in the island, was a stallion of Mr. Bakewell's, named K. He was in reality the fancied war-horse of the German painters, who, in the. luxuriance

Farmer's Tour.

luxuriance of imagination, never perhaps excelled, the natural grandeur of this horse. A man of moderate size seemed to shrink under his fore end, which rose so perfectly upright, that his ears stood (as Mr. Bakewell says every horse's ears ought to stand) perpendicularly over his fore feet. It may be said, with little latitude, that for grandeur and symmetry of form, viewed as a picturable object, he exceeded as far the horse which this superior breeder had the honour of shewing to his Majesty, and which was afterwards shewn publicly some months in London, as that horse does the meanest of the breed. Nor was his form deficient in utility. He died in 1785, at the age of nineteen years *.”

The breed of hogs, raising of fences, mode of collecting and distributing manure†, planting, draining, implements of husbandry, watering of cattle, and watering land, were all objects of care and system at Dishley. Each was attended to, and each was adapted to its respective office and use. The common custom of having a large or small open pool of water in every inclosure, Mr. Bakewell found to be very inconvenient, and often dangerous to cattle; to remedy which he first railed the pools round, to prevent the animals getting further in than was necessary to drink; and afterwards he used troughs in every field. His mode of irrigation is thus fully described by Mr. Marshall ‡.

* Rural Economy of the Midland Counties, Vol. I. p. 308.

Mr.

+ His system of manuring has been much opposed, and with every appearance of reason. Yard dung was the chief manure he employed; but this was not thrown over the grounds in the usual way, being kept in heaps in the yard, till drained quite dry. In this state it was distributed: but having lost all its putredinous quality by drainage and evaporation, it became nearly useless. The principles of manuring are very satisfactorily and chemically defined in a small volume by Richard Kirwan, Esq. 8vo. 1796, fourth edition, where the author asserts that the water which issues from farm-yard dung should be préserved.

+ Rural Economy of the Midland Counties, Vol. I. p. 284.

"Mr. Bakewell, of Dishley, stands first in this quarter of the kingdom as an improver of grass land by watering. Formerly, a suite of meadows, lying by the banks of the Soar, received considerable benefit from the water of the river being judiciously spread over them in the times of the floods. But now, not only these meadows, but near one hundred acres, I believe, of higher land, lying entirely out of the way of natural floods, are watered on this modern principle. Mr. Bakewell, like a man of experience in business, before he set about this great work, studied the art on the principal scene of practice, the West of England, where he spent some days with the ingenious Mr. Boswell, who some years ago published a treatise on the subject. The great stroke of management in this department of Mr. Bakewell's practice, which marks his genius in strong characters, is that of diverting to his purpose a rivulet, or small brook, whose natural channel skirts the farthest boundary of his farm, falling, with a considerable descent, down a narrow valley, in which its utility, as a source of improvement to land, was confined. This rivulet is therefore turned at the highest place that could be commanded, and carried, in the canal manner, round the point of a swell, which lies between its natural bed and the farmery; by the execution of this admirable thought, not only commanding the skirts of the bill as a site of im→ provement by watering, but supplying, by this artificial brook, the house and farm offices with water; filling from it a drinking pool for horses and cattle, and converting it to a multitude of other purposes, one of which is too valuable to be passed without distinction. Mr. Bakewell, three years ago, was endeavouring to invent a flat-bottomed boat, or barge, to navigate his turnips from the field to the cattle-sheds; but, finding this not easily practi cable, his great mind struck out, or rather caught, the beautifully simple idea of launching the turnips themselves into the water, and letting them float down singly with the current! "We throw them in, and bid them meet us at the Barn End!" where he is now (October, 1789) contriving a reservoir, or dry ditch, for them to sail into, with a grate at the bottoin to let out the water, but res

taining

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