improvement, in the established practice of the kingdom at large, are those of selecting females from the native stock of the country, and crossing them with males of an alien breed."[1] It was by such crossings that a few breeders in the English midlands came to possess some cattle that were better than their neighbours'.
Then came Robert Bakewell, the master of them all, to show how those somewhat casually obtained improvements might be conserved and perpetuated. Results similar to those obtained by the midland farmers may have been obtained much earlier elsewhere—in Hereford by Lord Scudamore, for instance, or in Lincolnshire—but there is no evidence of Bakewell having had any forerunner.
The first part of the story may be told by Youatt.[2] "It was not, however, until about the year 1720 that any agriculturist seemed to possess sufficient science and spirit to attempt the work of improvement in good earnest. A blacksmith and farrier, of Linton, in Derbyshire, on the very borders of Leicestershire, who at the same time rented a little farm, has the honour of standing first on the list. His name was Wei by. He had a valuable breed of cows which came from Drakelow House, a seat of Sir Thomas Gresley, on the
