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CONDUCTED BY ISAAC HILL. 



" Tlwsa who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, whose breasts he has made his peculiar ilepositefnr substantial and genuine jiirft/s. "-Jefferson. 



VOLUME 2. 



CONCORD, N. H., MAY 30, 1840. 



NUMBER 



THE VISITOM 



Improved Berkshire Swiiie. 



Enfield, N. II. May lIUi, 1S40. 



Hon. Isaac Hii.i., — Esteemed Friind: — I here- 

 with send you a statement conoerninfl; Berkshire 

 Hog-s, upon which I think you may rely for accu- 

 racy. I consider it of great value, and liope you 

 will publish it in your next Visitor. It was writ- 

 ten expressly for that object. 



Tliose wlio arc desirous of purchasing full blood 

 Berksliire pitjs are advised to look well to thcirlin- 

 eagc. Impositions are frequently practised upon 

 purchasers. H.Tif bloods purchased of our Socie- 

 ty have been denominated full bloods in a few 

 months after the sale. Tl;ree quarter bloods may 

 easily be pahncd upon those who are unacquainted 

 with tliis breed of hogs for full bloods. 



Wc have taken great pains and have been to 

 .some expense to procure full blood Berkshires and 

 the best in the United Stales. All our Berkshires 

 are from Lossing's stock, or from the Society of 

 Slu.kers Watcrvliet, or of late importations. 



\Vm. S. Marland, Esq. of Andover, Mass. pur- 

 chased of the Society at Canterbury a pair of full 

 blood Berkshire pigs last spring, which drew the 

 first premium last autumn at the Agricultural So- 

 ciety in Essex or Middlese.x county, Slassachusetts, 

 notwithstanding there were several other Berk- 

 shires presented for exhibition and premium. In 

 all cases as far as our knowledge extends these pigs 

 are spoken of in the highest terms, and those who 

 purchased of us last season arc highly pleased with 

 them. 



The Societies at Canterbury and Enfield will be 

 able to supply early orders for full bloods, three 

 fourth and half blood pigs. 



Your friend, 



CALEB M. DYER. 



Uj' The Society at Canterbury, N. H. sell tlieir 

 mixed three-fourths blood at $4 each : full bloods 

 $10. Their mixed bloods are excellent, partaking 

 of tlicir; celebrated native breed and of the full 

 blood Berkshire. 



Fur the Fanitpr's .Mtmliily Visitor. 

 Eerlishire Figs. 

 I have been repeatedly requested to write the 

 liistory of tlie Bi'rksliirc breed of swine— to pre- 

 sent to the public the identity, statistics, habits, 

 qualities and properties of, the animal ; and 1 now 

 attempt a perforn>ance of that duty from a knowl- 

 edge that the pulilio are liable to imposition from 

 the efforts of the unprincipled, who are willing to 

 j-acrifice the agricultural interest of the country at 

 the shrine of avarice. 



For instance, the drover collects liis heterogen- 

 eous sv.;arms of animals niidv/oy of the State, com- 

 prising every form from the .llli^utor to the -iiiap- 

 ping Tiiit'e, as they were represented in the col- 

 umrrs of the Cultivator. Passing through Albany, 

 by the*tiine he reaches Hancock mountains, his 

 drove becomes full blooded Berkshires. Though 

 thev may comprise in color nil the tints of the rain- 

 how, yet each is the infallible mark of tlie thor- 

 ough breed, so that by the time he reaches Boston, 

 he has pnrcliased Ihem from my yard ; and of this 

 fact the reckle.ss speculator hesitates not to show 

 my certificate ! All this passes well v.'ith the sim- 

 ple and the unsophisticated, on whom its effects 

 are seen in the quaint assertion that "our folks have 

 tried the Berkshires, and they arc no better than 

 other liog."i."- Hundreds of tijnes has this story 

 been repeated to me by persons who have never 

 seen a Berkshire nor even a fraction of one. 



But what shall we say of the wealthy, influen- 

 tial citizen armed with science, and who can dis- 

 course eloquently upon the merits of animals, who 

 with the fascinations of apparent indifference and 

 disinterestedness, palms off' his white, half black 

 and white counterfeits at enormous prices ! 



Some have traced the genealogy of their pigs to 

 Noah'sark, and found them to be "the exact coun 

 saved in tliat vast menagerie. 



as the other) and may thus explain the purify of 

 tlieir white iSerkshires — white being an emblem of 

 innocence, although I have never conceived white 

 to be an emblem of Berkshire pigs, save in their 

 extremities. 



A ppeculutor in the western part of this State is 

 figuring largely before the public W'ifh what he is 

 pleased to christen "Improved Berksh re pigs.'" — 

 Of this mushroom breed I know nothing inore 

 than can be learned from the jiuffs of their master. 

 The Berkshire pigs brought to this country in the 

 spring of 1S:!"2 by Sida Hawes, Esq., a retired Eng- 

 lish gentleman who purchased Judge Spencer's 

 seat three miles from Albany, N. Y. are animals 

 that have never had or needed any such adverb. 



Mr. Hawes, associated with several other gentle- 

 men in and about Reading, Berkshire county, Eng- 

 land, had, by a series of unweaiied experiments 

 and investigations for upwards of twenty years pre- 

 vious to his coming to this country, brought the 

 full blooded Berkshire to beconic the proud, noble 

 animal he now appearf?, as he waddles forth supe- 

 rior in svmmetrv, and himself conscious of the ad- 

 miration he every wliere excites : he exists as the 

 I'loble monument of what the plastic hand of culfi- 

 vation can efiect upon th,at otherwise uncouth, fil- 

 thy and devouring cannibal — an improvement made 

 not by mercenary speculators, but hymen of ample 

 fortunes, whose only object has been to promote 

 the great and vital interests of agriculture as the 

 firmbase for the general prosperify and happiness 

 of man. 



I was the Cn^lto procure the breed of Berkshires 

 from Mr. Hawes in l^'i'i. These pigs soon attract- 

 ed general admiration. In lf~lvl and '3.5 they were 

 first introduced to Ohio and Kentucky ; and since 

 that period 1 have sent moie or less of them to ev- 

 ery State in the Union. I understand they took 

 premiums in many counties of the two first named 

 States last autumn. T'lere the full bloods have 

 heen obtained and continued without alloy. They 

 have not been suftcred to run wut by breeding with 

 those near akin ; nor iiavo they been let to run 

 with other hogs, of v. born they v/ill soon imbibe 

 their habits, and ulti'uately degenerate to a point of 

 equilibrium between the tv/o. In those States I 

 have never heard of but one expression, and that 

 of unqualified approbation. 



Mr. Hawes' family becoming discontented in 

 this country, he returned with them to England in 

 1838, anil he has been over once since. Through 

 his agency I have procured five fresh imi>ortations 

 of the animal since 1832— the last in the fall of 



Color. The Berkshire pigs imported as above 

 are princijially black, with the ends of the hairs 

 tino-ed with red or brown, giving them a beautiful 

 briilianl changeable appearance in the sun, some- 

 tiling like velvet of that color. 



Mr. Hawes informed uie that he had never known 

 a full blood to have less than three white feet, some 

 white in the face or end of the nose, and occasion- 

 ally white hair interspersed over the whole sur- 

 face ; the end of the tail invariably white. There 

 is, however, occasionally a slight variation from the 

 aforesaid color. Some are much less brilliant with 

 sandy coats and hair sliglitly inclined to curl. 



Pius were imported from Beikshirc forty years 

 a'.-o of nearly the same description of color, but far 

 inferior in point of rolundily »nd other essential 

 points of symmetry. , 



All the stock procured from Mr. Hawes which I 

 have bred, and all the full bloods procured through 

 anotlicr channel, have been essentially the same in 

 point of color. 



Four yeans ago I saw a boar that the owner in- 

 formed me he had purchased from on board a ship 

 for a full blood. His form and color were right. — 

 Being anxious to ^et a fresh cross, I took Mr. 

 Hawe.- to look at him : he also thought his appear- 

 ance was right. As a test he said I might put him 

 to one of mv full blood sows, which I did. At the 

 litter, two of her pigs were entirely black — three 

 all white — the balance Berkshires. Mr. Hawes 

 pronounced him a counterfeit. 



I have been much surprised at the attempts 

 which have been made through the columns of the 

 Albany Cultivator to break down color as a test. — 



terparts of the two 



\nd olhei-s, I presume, have traced their stocks to ^ 



the garden of Eden Cas one can be as oasily traced \ One asserts he has been credibly informed thatthis 



breed in England has as much white as black, and 

 that the color imported by Mr. Hawes v/as merely 

 accidental. Another extensive speculator inform- 

 ed me, as an apology for full bloods of any color, 

 that it was from a particular method of breeding 

 them in England. I should very ir.uch question 

 the ability of pealed sticks to produce the effect 

 thev might have had on Jacob's catile. 



There is an imporled sow in the vicinity of Al- 

 bany all white, and there are three clher.s of differ- 

 ent strains of about as much white as black. Two 

 of these I have seen; and from their general ap- 

 pearance I should call them counterfeits. 



I am informed that a planter from Kentucky 

 purchased a male from a gentleman on Long Isl- 

 land entirely white from a stock he had imported 

 for Berkshires. This male stands in that State at 

 h'gh prices. 



I iiavc seen one bred in .\lbany seven eighths 

 Berkshire, purely white, retaining, all the Berk- 

 shire points. Such will run immediately into the 

 old stock. 



I have never met with a pure black Berkshire 

 pig, though there are many advocates for them be- 

 t'nre the public. I saw an Englishman last year a- 

 bout fifty years of age, who was emigrating to Up- 

 per Canada, who bad Durham cattle, some sheep 

 and two pias. The color of his pigs agreed with 

 that of Mr. Hawes' importation. He iniormed me 

 that it was the only standard color for the full 

 bloods, and that it was extremely difticult if not im- 

 possible for a stranger to get full bloods. He pro. 

 nounced mine pure and very superior. 



I fear that our advocates for new strains will soon 

 strain the full bloods from the country', or at least 

 overrun it with a spurious mixed breed at the ex- 

 ptinse of the pure. 



We luave several other gentlemen residing ihHiis 

 vicinity, formerly of Berkshire, England, who al- 

 so testify that the different importations of Mr. 

 Hawes agree with the full bloods of England in 

 point of color. 



All these circumstances combine to make it as- 

 tonishing to me that the color of all the pigs 

 brouuht and sentto thiscountry at five difl'erent pe- 

 riods during the last eight years shoulij "happen" 

 to be within a few shades of the same color. 



I have observed that in a few generations as the 

 pio-s recede from the originals, they lose something 

 of the bright glossy appearance or lustre that dii- 

 tinguish the imported ones, and a slight change to 

 something lighter. This I attribute to tlieir leav- 

 ing the humid almoiiphere of England for the dry 

 clear air of the interior of onr ccuntry. 



It is evidently the interest of those who have 

 high-fed pigs of difi'erent strains from entire white 

 to entire black to destroy the well known and long 

 established color of thv pure kind in order to sell 

 their spurious articles at high price-; but in my 

 opinion it would be as easy t? introduce all white 

 or all black leopards. Any gentleman purchasing 

 pigs as Berkshires of any other color than above 

 stated, I think may have just reason to suspect thSir 

 blood. I would advise purchasers in general who 

 are paying high prii'Cs to be a little particular in 

 ascertaining their pedigree, and also to be on their 

 guard ag.ainst imposition in relation to their being 

 imported. I could mention a number of instances 

 where fine looking pigs raised in this city going 

 west have had the degree of "imported' summari- 

 ly conferred on them at Buffalo. Let the vender 

 produce at least his bill of lading, or some other 

 document more than mere asserticn ; and if he 

 proves that they have actually crossed the water, 

 let him give you some ju'oof that they were selec- 

 ted by competent persons. I think a little atten- 

 tion to these points would have a salutary effect in 

 frustrating the ends of imposition. 



Objections have been made to the Berkshires on 

 account of the supposed black rind : this objection 

 is without foundation, .i^fter a good scald a black 

 scurf or outer coating of the skin comes off, leav- 

 ing a rind not much thicker than paper, much 

 more white and delicate than that of any other 

 swine. Tho pork is sweeter, and the hams much 

 better than those of the old kind of hogs. 



Size.— Full grown Berkshires are of all sizes 

 from one thousand pounds downwards. The rea- 

 san why thers are »o many varying aiies is thia 



