The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica identifies two Robert Bakewells as worthy of inclusion. The first being the 18th century agriculturist (dealt with also in far greater detail above) the second being the 19th century geologist.
English agriculturist
Born 1725 Died 1795
Robert Bakewell was born at Dishley, Leicestershire, in 1725. His father, a farmer at the same place, died in 1760, and Robert Bakewell then took over the management of the estate. By visiting a large number of farms all over the country, he had already acquired a wide theoretical knowledge of agriculture and stock-breeding; and this knowledge he now put to practical use at Dishley.
His main object was to improve the breed of sheep and oxen, and in this he was highly successful, his new Leicestershire breed of sheep attaining within little more than half a century an international reputation, while the Dishley cattle (also known as the new Leicestershire long-horn) became almost as famous. He extended his breeding experiments to horses, producing a new and particularly useful type of farm-horse. He was the first to establish the trade in ram-letting on a large scale, and founded the Dishley Society, the object of which was to ensure purity of breed. The value of his own stock was quickly recognized, and in one year he made 1,200 guineas from the letting of a single ram.
Bakewell's agricultural experiments were not confined to stock-breeding. His reputation stood high in every detail of farm-management, and as an improver of grass land by systematic irrigation he had no rival. He died on the 1st of October 1795.
English geologist
Born 1768 Died 1843
Robert Bakewell was born in 1768. He was an able observer, and deserving of mention as one of the earliest teachers of general and practical geology. His Introduction to Geology (1813) contained much sound information, and reached a fifth edition in 1838. The second edition was translated and published in Germany, and the third and fourth editions were reprinted in America by Professor Silliman of Yale College. Bakewell was author also of an Introduction to Mineralogy (1819), and of Travels comprising Observations made during a Residence in the Tarentaise, etc. (2 vols., 1823). He died at Hampstead on the 15th of August 1843.
Being the entry for BAKEWELL, ROBERT in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.