THE IIOO. 209 



But what is meant by /orm, as applied to the pig? A development 

 of those points connected with the profit of the owner. In these points 

 liigh or low blood is demonstrated. The head should be small, high at 

 the forehead, short and sharp in the snout, with eyes animated and lively, 

 and thin, sharp, upright ears ; the jowl, or cheek, should be deep and full ; 

 the neck should be thick and deep, arch gracefully from the back of the 

 head, and merge gradually into a broad breast; the shoulders should be 

 set well apart at the clavicular joint; the body should be deep, round, 

 well-barreled, with an ample chest, broad loins, and a straight, flat, 

 broad back; the tail should be slender; the hams should be round, full, 

 and well developed ; the limbs fine-boned, with clean, small joints ; and 

 with small, compact hoofs, set closely together, with a straight bearing 

 upon the ground. If in perfect liealth, the animal will be lively, ani- 

 mated, hold up his head, and move freely and nimbly. We do not speak 

 of fat hogs, for they are necessarily sluggish and unwieldy ; nor yet of 

 pregnant sows ; but of young store-hogs, or of young stock selected for 

 breeding. 



The skin should be soft and thin, of a bright pink color; the neck 

 short, the chest wide (which denotes strength of constitution) ; broad, 

 straight back, short head, and fine snout, slightly curved upward ; and 

 in the large breed there is often a pretty prominent swelling on the 

 snout, between the nasal and frontal bones. The legs and hoofs should 

 be small. The sows should have at least twelve teats. In purchasing a 

 prize animal, whether boar or sow, see that it can walk well. A lump 

 of fat bacon may do to kill at Christmas, but will be of very little use 

 until reduced to breed from ; and in the journey and reduction you may 

 lose your pig and your money. 



For breeding sucking-pigs there is nothing better than the large Eng- 

 lish breed (they are prolific, and good mothers), crossed with a Avhite 

 Chinese boar. No other breed will raise sucking-pigs to the same size 

 as this cross; they also form excellent porkers, speedily attaining from 

 forty-eight to fifty-six pounds ; but if required to be nmch larger, it 

 wnll be found to pay better to treat them as stores, letting them graze, 

 or run as "shocks" in the field after harvest, or rooting on the manure- 

 heap, until they are ten or twelve months old, and then put them up to 

 fatten. Still they are not so profitable as the improved Essex, and do 

 not make such fine bacon as the improved Berkshire. 



The improved Essex, if well fed from the first, arrives very early at 

 maturity, as to its frame or bony structure, and is the best for making 

 hobbledehoys of porkers from eighteen to twenty pounds' weight. 



The improved Berkshire may be considered the more useful to a 

 farmer who desires a sort useful in every stage of its growth. The Berk- 

 shire sow will suckle ten or a dozen sucking-pigs — even more if assisted 

 by artificial means — and is very superior for large ham and bacon. The 

 small breed is very well for porkers, but not for the flitch. A good 

 little animal is good ; but we want a good and big animal. The im- 

 proved Berkshire realizes this desideratum, as it realizes the highest 

 price from the bacon-curers, cuts up wide over the back, well interlarded 

 with fat and lean. It is also more free from lameness than any other 

 breed. 



