200 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



sows. 



No. 1 11 months J. C. Crowder 200 



No. 2 10 months Jos. Stockdale 250 



JIo. 3 1 year C. Bohnman 380 



No. 4 11 mouths J. H. Thomas 195 



IRISH, CUMBERLAND, AND YORKSHIRE — BOARS. 



Boylo 11 months F. Stevenson 18 



John.. 8 months S. N. King 10 



Pert 8 months E. N. Tanter 125 



sows. 



No. 1 11 months J. Stockdale 300 



No. 2 11 months E. B. Hitt 200 



No. 3 12 months J. G. Taylor 205 



No. 4 12 months L. P. Sanger 215 



No. 5 12 months James Hill 40 



No- 6 8 mouths E. B. Hitt 110 



About the year 1840, A. B. Allen, of New York, gave considerable attention 

 to importing improved stock of various kinds ; among others he paid especial 

 attention to Berkshire hogs. One boar which he imported, "Windsor Castle," 

 was sold into Ohio for $1,000. From that stock, brought to the central part 

 of this State in 1842 by John Marhard, of Sangamon county, we are indebted 

 to the earliest introduction of the improved breed. There were some of the 

 old style of coarse lop-eared Berkshires there, then owned by J. C. Crowder. 

 These he crossed with the stock of IVl r. Marhard. But little more was done in 

 that section in changing the breed, except careful and judicious breeding, until 

 the importation by the association mentioned above, when both these gentle- 

 men, as well as others, improved the opportunity to obtain the stock for cross 

 ing with what they already had. 



CHESTER WHITES. 



The "Chester White" hogs, originating in Chester county, Pennsylvania, 

 have been very generally introduced all over the west, and are very popular, 

 although there have no doubt been many frauds in sending out stock from the 

 east for "pure Chesters" which were not such. Paschall Morris, of Phila- 

 delphia, one of the most popular and reliable breeders in eastern Pennsylvania, 

 writes us that within three years past he has sent to Illinois, and States north 

 and west of it, about one hundred and seventy-five head, some of which have 

 gone to Kansas and Miaeouri, and even by the overland route iato the territo- 

 ries, where they have been Avagoned one hundred or more miles. He has also 

 sent to Mississippi, Liberia, Cuba, &c. Several other men in that region have 

 sent as many or more of that breed into the west. This shows somethinjg of 

 the general distribution of that breed. It is claimed by many not to be a dis- 

 tinct breed. It is, however, probably as much so as many of the others. It 

 has at least been known as such in the east for more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury. These pigs have been sold at from twenty to thirty dollars a pair at 

 weaning age. 



A gentleman of large experience in the northern part of the State ( Whitesides 

 county) says : 



" I prefer the Chester Whites and Irish Graziers mixed, using the Chester boar, because 

 they are better adapted to our northern climate than most other breeds. They are more pro- 

 lific in breeding; their pigs are stronger when dropped. The sows are more motherly while 

 the pigs arc very young ; they seem to give a greater flow of milk for their young ; the pigs 

 are less liable to the scurvy than the liner grades. At eighteen months old they will pro- 

 duce a greater amount of pork to the same amount of feed than any other breeds that I have 

 tried, when they can have a good clover pasture to graze in. They are more inclined to have 

 a good and regular appetite for food than most other hogs that I have tried. On the whole, 

 they prove to uie a choice over all other breeds. I have been able to keep up a good stock 

 of hogs of this cross, while finer breeds failed me in both number and weight of pork.'" 



