SWINE. 365 



hams and shoulders heavy, body compact, and well ribbed ; color varying from a jet black 

 to a slate, or deep plum; skin thin and elastic, but firm. The form is symmetrical, while 

 the quality of the flesh is excellent. These characteristics have been transmitted largely to 

 our present breeds in crossing with others. 



Improved Breeds of Swine. Fifteen or twenty years ago, but little attention was 

 paid by the farmers of this country generally to the improvement of swine, except to breed 

 from the best of the common stock; but at the present tirrife we see that a great change has 

 taken place in this respect, there being comparatively but few hogs raised that are not of the 

 improved breeds, or their crosses; hence we now have the desirable qualities of compact 

 form with the least amount of offal or waste; early maturity, readiness to fatten on a smaller 

 amount of food, together with a better quality of meat. When we compare the present 

 improved breeds of swine, the Berkshire, Poland, China, and Essex, for instance, with their 

 ancestors, the wild boar, old English, or old Irish, or Irish greyhound hog (as the latter is 

 sometimes called), we shall then be able to realize what the breeder has accomplished, and 

 some of the difficulties that have been met and overcome. 



The breeds formerly raised were mostly white, but a large proportion of them now bred 

 are black, or nearly so, the most numerous of these being the Berkshires, Poland Chinas, and 

 Essex. The improved breeds of to-day are the Berkshire and Essex of the black varieties , 

 the Poland China and the Jersey Red and Duroc, that are of mixed colors, black and white, 

 the latter being a yellowish red with black spots, while of the white breeds we have the 

 Yorkshire, the oldest and originally the largest of the English varieties of swine, a strain 

 from which have come several types or breeds, through the efforts of English breeders, such 

 as the Improved Large Yorkshire, the Middle breed, the Small Yorkshire, and the Suffolk. 

 Then we have the Chester Whites and Cheshire, or Jefferson County hogs, that belong to the 

 popular white breeds, these being distinctly American, as are also the Poland China, the Jer 

 sey Eeds and Durocs. Of these, the Poland Chinas and Chester Whites have perhaps been 

 bred in the largest numbers. 



The principal English breeds are the Berkshire, Essex, Suffolk, Yorkshire, Dorset, Lan 

 cashire, etc., the first four mentioned being the most widely disseminated of breeds from 

 this source. The above-mentioned breeds supply mainly the porcine products for the pork 

 markets of the civilized world. 



