360 PIGS 



than is wanted at home. The ears must stand well up, and 

 be of a good size, with a big fringe of hair round the edges. 

 The body hair should be abundant but fine ; coarse hair 

 along the back of the neck is very objectionable. The tail 

 should be strong but not coarse, straight, and hanging per- 

 pendicularly like a cow's. 



The prices for young boars from well-bred herds, six 

 to eight months old up to eighteen months, are from 5 

 guineas up to 25 guineas each. A boar can serve about 30 

 sows in the season. 



The size to which the animals are now reared has been 

 much reduced within the last generation, but this is more a 

 matter of change in the system of management than a 

 change in the character of the breed. It was no uncommon 

 sight at the Royal Agricultural Society's Shows a few years 

 ago to see large Yorkshires estimated to weigh over 50 

 imperial stones, or as much as a bullock. 1 



The tendency to early maturity, arrived at by care in 

 breeding and good feeding and management, has yet left 

 as an attribute of the breed the property of lean flesh pro- 

 duction as against fat production. 2 It is thought that the 

 general improvement of the large breed of White Yorkshires 

 was initiated by crossing with improved Leicestershire white 

 pigs, which had themselves been improved by Bakewell, who 

 applied to pigs the system of breeding explained at page 106. 



The Journal of The Department of Agriculture, etc., 

 for Ireland, for October 1904, says: 



" Recent experience has gone to show that no other pig 

 is so well qualified to meet the requirements of the feeder 

 and owner in Ireland as the Large York. Among other 

 desirable points, good specimens of the breed possess the 

 following: (i) A neat head ; (2) light neck and shoulders; 

 (3) a good girth, and plenty of depth through the heart ; (4) 

 well sprung ribs, with moderate depth of side ; (5) great 



1 Sanders Spencer's boar, "Sampson VI.," winner at the Royal 

 Society's Shows at Carlisle and Derby, weighed 9 cwts. as he walked. 



2 Referring to the foreign trade, S. Spencer, writing to the Author in 

 1889, says that during the last four years breeding pigs (boars especially) 

 have been sent by him to many important centres of bacon-curing in 

 Ireland, Canada, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and quite 

 recently to Russia, where the Government are assisting in the establish- 

 ment of bacon-curing factories. 



