Bakewell's livestock breeding: in-and-in mating, culling and letting of sires
A way of breeding in which the stock is kept closed and a trait is set by selection: close inbreeding (breeding in-and-in), hard culling, and hiring out the best sires instead of selling them. In this way, within a single lifetime, a breed is obtained whose traits do not fade in the offspring.
At the English farm of Dishley the method was brought to a model form in the 1760s by Robert Bakewell. The New Leicester sheep became the showcase that a trait could be set by an economic aim, and that breed mattered more than feed. The practice was commercial, not investigative: Bakewell published nothing and kept his methods secret, and Wykes stresses that he had no reliable way of testing a sire by its progeny.
It was in this form, a set of procedures without an explanation, that the method travelled to the Continent and there became the subject of a dispute about why a trait is transmitted at all.
Why this date
The dating is conventional and disputed. Bakewell published nothing himself, so the anchor is the first recorded ram letting: Wykes (Agricultural History Review 52, 2004, pp. 38-55) writes that all authorities agree on the price of 16s. but differ on the year, Arthur Young naming 1744 and Hunt, who knew Bakewell more closely, about 1760. The date he took over Dishley is also contested: Britannica dates his inheritance of the farm to 1760, while Wykes writes that he was managing the estate before his father's death in 1773. The axis year follows Hunt's 1760 as the start of the letting system; the upper bound is the year of Bakewell's death.
What grew out of it
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The Sheep Breeders' Society in Brno: heredity becomes a subject in its own right
influenced · Confidence: high
The in-and-in mating procedures worked out by Bakewell at Dishley were carried into the Habsburg monarchy by Ferdinand Geisslern and other sheep breeders who visited England, and it was the dispute over them that made heredity a subject of discussion in its own right in the Brno society.
Dispute: The dispute is not about the transfer of the procedures but about what that transfer owed to Bakewell as a thinker. Wykes (2004) insists that Bakewell published nothing, kept his methods secret and had no reliable progeny test, and Poczai and co-authors (2014) write plainly that he was not a scholar and had no intention of looking for laws of nature: 'he was no academic and certainly had no ambitions to investigate abstract laws of nature'. What crossed to the Continent, then, was a successful practice without a theory, and the question of heredity arose there, out of the need to defend inbreeding against religious and scientific objection.
Link sources
- Péter Poczai, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, Jiří Sekerák, A. T. Szabó, How Political Repression Stifled the Nascent Foundations of Heredity Research before Mendel in Central European Sheep Breeding Societies, Philosophies 6 (2), 41 (2021)
Inbreeding methods, developed by Robert Bakewell (1725–1795), were also transferred to the Habsburg monarchy by Ferdinand Geisslern (1751–1824) and other members of SBS who visited England.
- Péter Poczai, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, Jiří Sekerák, A. T. Szabó, How Political Repression Stifled the Nascent Foundations of Heredity Research before Mendel in Central European Sheep Breeding Societies, Philosophies 6 (2), 41 (2021)
Both Nestler and Napp supported inbreeding tracing back to Bakewell and stressed by Festetics.
- Péter Poczai, Neil Bell, Jaakko Hyvönen, Imre Festetics and the Sheep Breeders' Society of Moravia: Mendel's Forgotten "Research Network", PLoS Biology 12 (1), e1001772 (2014) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Such a meeting of minds was unlikely in England, where the eminent naturalist Sir Joseph Banks regarded Bakewell with suspicion, and it would be the application of Bakewell's methods to wool production in Moravia by Ferdinand Geisslern (1751–1824) that would eventually bring them to the attention of a scientifically minded audience.
- Péter Poczai, Neil Bell, Jaakko Hyvönen, Imre Festetics and the Sheep Breeders' Society of Moravia: Mendel's Forgotten "Research Network", PLoS Biology 12 (1), e1001772 (2014) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Influenced by Bakewell's approach—often referred to as "breeding in-and-in"—which had rapidly gained popularity with European breeders interested in fine wool production, Festetics had started to breed sheep in 1803 on his estate in Hungary.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- Péter Poczai, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, Jiří Sekerák, A. T. Szabó, How Political Repression Stifled the Nascent Foundations of Heredity Research before Mendel in Central European Sheep Breeding Societies, Philosophies 6 (2), 41 (2021)
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Domestic breeds as an argument: artificial selection in the Origin of Species
influenced · Confidence: high
Darwin got the notion of selection from the practice of animal and plant breeders rather than from nature: Evans states that his recognition of the power of selection was almost entirely due to what he learned of breeding, and Bakewell is named in the first chapter of the Origin as an example of such work.
Dispute: Theunissen (2012) challenges the familiar picture in which the breeder showed Darwin selection. On his reading, nineteenth-century breeding was a contested and difficult field, the analogy cost Darwin considerable effort, and it worked only because he played down two techniques that breeders themselves held to be essential, the crossing of varieties and inbreeding, that is exactly the part of Bakewell's legacy that proved decisive on the Continent. Darwin's main informants were not livestock improvers but pigeon fanciers, whose methods, according to Theunissen, were not typical of breeding at large: 'the methods of his main informants, the breeders of fancy pigeons, were not representative of what went on in the breeding world at large'. And the influence, on Theunissen's account, ran both ways: Darwin's understanding of breeding practice was itself moulded by his understanding of natural selection.
Link sources
- L. T. Evans, Darwin's use of the analogy between artificial and natural selection, Journal of the History of Biology 17, 113-140, T. R. Gregory, Artificial Selection and Domestication, Evolution: Education and Outreach 2 (1), 5-27 (2009) (1984) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Darwin's recognition of the power of selection in changing organisms was almost entirely due to what he learned of plant and animal breeding.
- Bert Theunissen, Darwin and His Pigeons. The Analogy Between Artificial and Natural Selection Revisited, Journal of the History of Biology 45, 179-212 (abstract) (2012) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Thus while his studies of domestic varieties were important for the development of the concept of natural selection, the reverse was also true: Darwin's comprehension of breeding practices was moulded by his understanding of the working of natural selection in nature.
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species, 1st ed., London: John Murray, chapter I (Darwin Online, F373) (1859)
Nevertheless I cannot doubt that this process, continued during centuries, would improve and modify any breed, in the same way as Bakewell, Collins, &c., by this very same process, only carried on more methodically, did greatly modify, even during their own lifetimes, the forms and qualities of their cattle.
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong.
- L. T. Evans, Darwin's use of the analogy between artificial and natural selection, Journal of the History of Biology 17, 113-140, T. R. Gregory, Artificial Selection and Domestication, Evolution: Education and Outreach 2 (1), 5-27 (2009) (1984) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Node sources
- D. L. Wykes, Robert Bakewell (1725-1795) of Dishley: farmer and livestock improver, Agricultural History Review 52 (1), 38-55 (2004) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Bakewell let his first ram for 16s. at Leicester Fair to a Mr Wildbore of Illston-on-the-Hill. All the authorities agree on the price, but there is considerable dispute over the date. Arthur Young claimed it occurred as early as 1744, but Hunt, who knew Bakewell more intimately, suggested around 1760.
- D. L. Wykes, Robert Bakewell (1725-1795) of Dishley: farmer and livestock improver, Agricultural History Review 52 (1), 38-55 (2004) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Bakewell founded his reputation on the principle of 'in-and-in breeding', the persistent inbreeding with closely related animals.
- D. L. Wykes, Robert Bakewell (1725-1795) of Dishley: farmer and livestock improver, Agricultural History Review 52 (1), 38-55 (2004) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Unfortunately, Bakewell and his fellow animal improvers lacked an effective means of progeny testing; the hiring of tups was only a very imperfect method.
- Robert Bakewell, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2024) Verified 24 Sep 2026
He also pioneered the large-scale use of letting animals for stud
- Péter Poczai, Jorge A. Santiago-Blay, Jiří Sekerák, Imre Bariska, A. T. Szabó, Mimush Sheep and the Spectre of Inbreeding, Journal of the History of Biology 55 (3), 495-536 (2022) Verified 20 Sep 2026, quotation assembled from fragments
Bakewell perfected sheep breeding...His success was grounded in excellent methodological approach: he pursued inbreeding ('breeding in-and-in') in a closed stock
- Péter Poczai, Neil Bell, Jaakko Hyvönen, Imre Festetics and the Sheep Breeders' Society of Moravia: Mendel's Forgotten "Research Network", PLoS Biology 12 (1), e1001772 (2014) Verified 20 Sep 2026
Bakewell's success lay in his highly methodical approach to close inbreeding (inbreeding with first-degree relatives), and helped to encourage the developing belief that breed was more important than "pasture."
"Verified" means that on that day the quotation was found at the address given, word for word. No date means we have not been able to open the source yet, not that the quotation is wrong. "Assembled from fragments" means the words do not stand together on the page: we found each fragment separately and joined them with an ellipsis.