176 BREED HISTORIES 



into the field. After 1870 many others followed and so on down 

 to the present." 



Tribute to the Breed in England. Mr. Humfrey closes his let- 

 ter with the following tribute to the accomplishments of the Berk- 

 shire in his country: "If I may dwell for a moment on the con- 

 spicuous outstanding merit of the Berkshire, apart from its perfect 

 markings, beautiful outline and symmetry of body, it would be in 

 reference to the wonderful way in which it has sustained and im- 

 proved its fine proportions of fat and lean and good quality of 

 bacon and pork during the past 50 years. For the most convincing 

 evidence of this fact we need only see the results of the competitions, 

 open to any breed or cross, at the great annual Smithfield Show in 

 London. In the live classes since 1883 Berkshires have won the 

 championship 15 times, and it has been awarded 7 times to a Berk- 

 shire cross bred. In the carcass classes at the same show, 1904 to 

 1915, Berkshires won the championship and reserve for same every 

 year. They have also won 40 out of 45 first prizes awarded in 12 

 years, the classes being open to all breeds. "What further proof need 

 we that Berkshires are easily first for quality. ' ' 



White Berkshires. How many Americans are aware that white 

 Berkshires were ever imported to this country? I have before me 

 a copy of an agricultural paper published in 1842 at Cincinnati 

 which describes an importation of white Berkshires which were 

 brought into the Miami Valley that year. Portraits of other im- 

 ported Berkshires of that period indicate that many of them were 

 one-third to one-half white. Undoubtedly J" however, these were 

 hogs from Berkshire County, England, and were of strains which 

 entered but slightly into the composition of the present-day Berk- 

 shire. It is not unlikely that these white hogs were the forbears of 

 the Suffolks, or perhaps the Yorkshires of today. In Kentucky they 

 have a breed of red hogs which they call Red Berkshires, but the 

 writer has been unable to discover a single authentic record which 

 would indicate that they have anything in common with the ancestry 

 of the Berkshire. The evidence on which I base my opinion as to the 

 purity of the Berkshire as a breed leads me to say that the breed 

 today can boast a longer period of time without the introduction of 

 outbreeding than any breed of swine in existence. A few years ago 

 there was a far wider variation in type than is noticeable today, 

 and it is my opinion that no breed, for the reasons mentioned, pos- 

 sesses the prepotency of the Berkshire. 



