374 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



JERSEY REDS. 



THESE swine have been bred in some portions of New Jersey for more than fifty 

 years, although their origin is not positively known. It is claimed by some that the 

 breed is derived from an importation from England, in 1822, by a Mr. Kelsey of Long 

 Island, N. Y., and that moving subsequently to Montgomery County, and these pigs finding 

 a favorable reception, they spread from thence to various States of the Union. However, 

 this may be, it has become to be an established breed, and has many excellent qualities, 

 among the most important of which are unusually heavy weights attained at small cost ; the 

 live weight of full-grown, well-fattened barrows generally running from 600 to 700 pounds, 

 and not unfrequently to 800 and even 900 pounds; sows at maturity reaching from 500 to GOO 

 pounds. 



Both sexes possess very hardy constitutions, the males being exceedingly vigorous, the 

 sows prolific, and such good nurses as to usually rear a numerous offspring. In this 

 connection, it is said that they are almost entirely exempt from the rnange. With respect to 

 their fattening qualities; the pigs grow very rapidly, weighing at four months, when well 

 fed, from 120 to 140 pounds, and at a year old, 350 to 400 pounds. &quot;When put up to fatten, 

 at sixteen to eighteen months of age, they have been known to gain from two to three pounds 

 per day till ready for slaughter. A recent writer in the Swine Breeder s Journal says of them : 



JERSEY RED. 



&quot; Jersey Red swine were most probably descendants of the old Red Berkshire, retaining 

 some of the characteristics of that breed as it existed some thirty years or more ago, when 

 the white markings were supplied by red. They had been improved, as all other distinct 

 breeds were, by careful selection by the farmers of New Jersey, until they had new-acquired 

 qualities as distinct as those of the Essex, Suffolk, or any other well-known breed with 

 marked and fixed traits. The prepotency of the full-blood Jersey Red was such as to appear 

 and generally prevail over the peculiarities of other breeds with which it is crossed, a fact 

 which seems to support the belief that the Jersey Red of to-day is a lineal descendant of the 

 famous old Red Berkshire, which all breeders will understand is very different from the trim, 

 black, restless Berkshire of the present day. 



It is a fact that many farmers of New Jersey, after trying other well-known breeds, have 

 returned to the Jersey Reds as the best and safest for the pork raiser. The characteristics of 

 the breed are, as described by the oldest and largest breeders, a good coat of fine red hair, 

 occasionally interspersed with a fleck of black; broad faces; thin, pendant, or wilted ears; 

 good shoulders; large developed hams; broad, straight backs, and excellent middle pieces, 



