42 The Large White Yorkshire Pig. 



In 1868 the R.A.S.E. provided classes for a Large White 

 breed and a Small White breed at its Leicester Show ; and in 

 the former case all the entries came from the North of England, 

 suggesting that the breed had not yet become popular in the 

 South. It was not until 181t2 that the R.A.S.E. provided classes 

 for Large White pigs eligible for entry in the N.P.B.A.'s Herd 

 Book — a society which issued its first volume in 188"), prior to 

 wdiicli date serious pedigrees had been kept only by a few 

 enthusiasts. In the records of the London Smithfield Club we 

 find that classes were provided for "Large White breed" in 1886, 

 whereas in 1880 the classes wei'e for " Large White breeds and 

 Small White breeds," and in 1879 for " White breeds " only. 

 The first appearance of Yorkshire pigs in the Championship of 

 the London Smithfield Club's Shows was in 18(54, when the 

 winners were described as " Yorkshire and Cross." 



Yorkshires do not again appear as winners of the Champion 

 Plate till after 1873. Most of the winning pens from 1841) to 

 1873 were described as " Improved " Dorsets, " Improved " 

 Chiltern, " Improved " Leicester, " Improved " Hampshire, etc.; 

 the Yorkshire alone were escaping the necessity of adding the 

 word "improved" to their native breed, being in many cases 

 the foundation of tlie so-called " improved " l)reeds, as, for 

 example, in the " Improved " Suffolk, " Improved " Middlesex, 

 the Coleshill, the Prince Alberts or Windsors, wdiich if not 

 founded on the Yorkshire stock were merely pure " Yorkshires " 

 transplanted and renamed. 



To Yorkshire, Lancashire, ai)d Cumberland should be given 

 the chief credit in the past for having improved the native 

 breed of pigs, and produced the Large Yorkshire, now called 

 the " Large White." In later years the chief strongholds of the 

 pure Large White breed have been Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, 

 and a large area around Peterborough, but the breed has been 

 ubiquitous for a considerable time, and good specimens are to 

 be found almost anywhere ; whilst a considerable and con- 

 tinuing increase in the number of entries of Large White pigs 

 in the Herd Book of the National Pig Breeders' Association is 

 one indication of the increase of breeders of pedigree animals. 

 In 1885, when the first volume of the Association's Herd Book 

 was issued, there were 113 entries of Large White pigs, and in 

 the last volume 1,783. It is also to the credit of the breed that 

 2,274 export pedigree certificates have been issued by the 

 Association during the last nine years for pigs exported to the 

 Colonies and foreign countries : the chief importing countries 

 being as follows : — Russia. Germany, Austria, South America, 

 Canada, and Switzerland. 



The accoin})anying copy of an old painting of a Large York- 

 shire boar gives a very fair idea of the breed about the year 



