BORDER LEICESTERS.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20248, 17 July 1937, Page 11

BORDER LEICESTERS.

ORIGIN OF THE BREED. FRESH FACTS UNEARTHED. The origin of the Border Leicester has for many years been a subject surrounded by controversy. While some authorities have asserted that it was originated by the mating of the Improved English Leicester with the Cheviot, other authorities have been equally emphatic on the point that the Border Leicester, though a distinct breed, has been evolved purely from the Dishley Leicester without the admixture of any outside blood, and that its pre-eminence as a dual-purpose sire has been attained through an improvement brought about by more selective breeding and the influence of better conditions of soil and climate. The Society of Border Leicester Breeders of Scotland has recently thrown some further light on the origin of the breed in a publication relating to ils early history, and the facts strongly support, the contention that the Border Leicester and the improved English Leicester have the one origin. The evolution dates back to mid-seventies, when Robert Bakewell, of Dishley, in Leicestershire, put to practical test his contention that it was unsound policy to send to the butcher the animals that matured quickly and to retain for breeding only those that matured later. Fundamental Breeding Basis. It was an apparently simple discovery, yet not till Bakewell expounded It in the latter half of the eighteenth century had it occurred to British livestock breeders that for generations they had been selling their best breeding stock to the butcher and breeding from sheep with the fault of late maturity. Even in this enlightened age this fundamental basis of successful fat-stock breeding is not as widely recognised as It might be, and in almost every fattening district will be found breeders who breed from the ewes that failed to fatten as lambs and were rejected by the butchers Bakewell pul his theory to practical test with such earnestness and vigour that within a few'years the results of his work began to have extraordinary effects on the live slock economy of the British Isles. Fame of Bakewoll. The fame, of Bakewell a? an Improver of stock spread to such an ex tent, that Dishley was visited by many leading breeders from the Home counties. Amongst his early visitors wer--

Matthew’ and George Gulley, who, after becoming disciples of Bakewell, began farming in Northumberland, in 1767. They brought to their northern home a draft of the Dishley Leicest.ers, the outstanding carcase qualities of which attracted such attention in the district that their example was soon followed by leading farmers on both sides of the border. When this new colony of Leicester breeders required fresh blood they invariably had recourse to Dishley, with the result that the blood became strongly represented along the border. Bakewell died In 1795, and a number of his neighbours at once formed themselves into the Bakewell Club and bought up the Di-shley sheep with the object of maintaining their purity. It Is recorded that the members of the Bakewell Club were besieged by northern breeders requiring rams, and for many years did big business in the sale and hire of rams. So keen was the demand for the blood that the price paid for the hire of a ram for the season ranged from 50 to 200 guineas. New Type Evolved. The demand led to the establishment of an annual -sale, both of rams and ewes, in Northumberland, resulting in the, number of small flocks of pure Leicester sheep being multiplied along the border and in the south-east coun-

ties of Scotland, reference to which is freely found in Sir John Sinclair's “Statistical Account of Scotland.” published in 1792-93, as "the Bakewell breed of sheep." °MU about 1830 rams bred in the south continued to be widely used in Scotland, but onwards from that date the demand for English rams gradually waned, and from the middle of the century the Scottish and border flocks became entirely bred from northern rams. By this time the border breeders had evolved a type that was distinctly different from that of the south. The northern type had become longer in the body, better sprung in the rib, and more developed in the brisket, more graceful in Die set of the neck, and altogether a gayer sheep than the Leicester of the south. This was, it Is asserted, wholly due to the different conditions of soil and climate, the different systems of feeding and, of course, to a degree, the different inclinations of the individual breeders.