CHAPTER XVIII 



LESSER KNOWN BREEDS OF SWINE 

 By G. E. Day 



584. There are certain little-known breeds or types of 

 hogs that are of interest historically, or in restricted areas. 

 In order to make the discussion of swine in this book more 

 nearly complete, brief notes on several of these breeds are 

 introduced. 



585. Historic breeds. It is an old opinion, apparently 

 well substantiated, that the English swine, from which 

 the modern American types are derived, sprang from 

 breeds introduced from the East, as Chinese, Neapolitan 

 and Siamese pigs. Even in such a noted live-stock coun- 

 try as Great Britain, the pigs of less than a century ago 

 were, on the whole, a rather undesirable lot, according to 

 descriptions that have been handed down to us. Long 

 legs, general coarseness and slow fattening propensities 

 were then commonly characteristic of British breeds. It 

 is out of the question, even if it were desirable, to attempt 

 to trace all the steps that led to the establishment of 

 British breeds as we know them to-day, but there is no 

 doubt that much of the improvement came from the in- 

 troduction of foreign breeds, which were crossed on the 

 native stock. Although these foreign breeds are now 

 practically unknown in Great Britain and America, there 

 are three breeds whose influence has been so far-reaching 

 as to render them worthy of at least a passing notice. 



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