SWINE. 363 



Commence to breed largely from tlie most approved stock, 

 upon a large scale. The little grunters will always sell to 

 profit. Instead of fatting four or five hogs a year, you can 

 about as well fat forty or fifty, and let us have the pleasing, the 

 profitable reflection, here in this part of the county, that, let 

 others do what they will, here we save our own bacon. 



A. Crocker, Cliairman. 



HAMrSHIRE. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The show, as a whole, has been a very good one. The sev- 

 eral varieties of swine, for which a premium was offered by the 

 society, have been well represented, as have also the different 

 breeds most esteemed in this region. Some specimens, how- 

 ever, appeared to be of such a mixture of breeds, that it would 

 puzzle a farmer, and probably any body else, to trace their 

 genealogy, or to call them any thing but hogs. 



The best and cheapest mode of producing the best pork, is 

 a subject of very general interest. Probably, more families 

 within the limits of our society participate, in the production 

 of pork, than of any other variety of meat. And the same 

 remark is doubtless true, in regard to most country towns in 

 New England, and throughout the United States. Every step 

 of progress, therefore, in the selection and improvement of 

 breeds, in determining the most suitable food, the best and 

 most economical mode of its preparation, and the best general 

 treatment of swine, is an advantage shared directly by large 

 numbers. And it becomes us, in this part of the United States, 

 especially, to look well to this matter, that it may be profitable 

 for us to produce pork for market. The quality and mode of 

 producing it must be superior, or our western brethren will 

 supply our markets, and even our next-door neighbors. The 

 farmer who lives a thousand miles from Boston, and produces 

 his corn (doubtless the best food for fattening swine) on the 

 cheap and fertile soil of the West, at a cost, varying from six- 

 pence to fifty cents a bushel, can now, in many cases, by the 

 aid of railroads, transport his pork to that city for about the 



