CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITE BREEDS 35D 



The selling of live pig's which superseded the practice of 

 thirty years ago, of marketing, usually in autumn when the 

 weather began to get cold, dead carcases that had been 

 killed at home, plotted, and scraped is in turn giving way to 

 the killing of pigs at home and delivering them cleaned but 

 unskinned at the rolling factory. The practice of sending 

 milk into town or to the factory has led in some districts to 

 the reduction of the number of pigs. The skins, worth about 

 half a crown each, are used for bicycle saddles, etc. During 

 the South African War they fetched 35. each. 



DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS 



WHITE BREEDS 



The Large White or Large Yorkshire is the largest 

 breed of white pigs in the United Kingdom, if not the 

 largest of any breed. Its long coat of moderately fine 

 texture should be free from black hairs, and the skin as far 

 as possible free from blue spots. It is pretty directly 

 descended from the original pig of the country without 

 having been so much as others crossed with foreign blood. 

 It has been vastly improved within recent years, but still it 

 inclines even in its modern form to exhibit the points of 

 the more direct descendants of the wild pig, viz., a hardy 

 constitution, long neck, full towards the shoulders, large head, 

 long nose, face slightly dished, broad snout not too much 

 turned up, jowl not too heavy, long, thin ears, slightly 

 inclined forward, and fringed with fine hair, strong bone, 

 flattish sides, and, when the great length and weight of the 

 Yorkshire are taken into account, proportional narrowness 

 as compared with the Berkshire. Large white pigs do not 

 develop their points till they are a year or more old. " Both 

 size and quality are most important. Black hairs, black spots, 

 a curly coat, a coarse mane, short snout, inbent knees, 

 hollowness at back of shoulders," are grave objections. 



The type of pig wanted for the American trade must be 

 free from the rose or swirl of hairs over the kidneys 

 resembling a cow-lick a characteristic which is often repro- 

 duced in the young though it is appreciated in Yorkshire 

 in pigs for home use. It must not be broader over the 

 shoulder than over the loin, and the head must be longer 



