S WINE D ESC RIP TION OF BREEDS. 951 



Head small, broad, dished, ....... 10 



Ear thin, fine, drooping, ....... 3 



Neck short, full, well arched, ....... 4 



Jowl neat and full, ........ 2 



Brisket full and deep, ........ 3 



Shoulder broad and deep, 7 



Girth about heart, ......... 9 



Back straight and broad, 5 



Sides deep and full, ........ 9 



Ribs well sprung, ........ 9 



Loin broad and strong, ........ 7 



Belly wide and straight, ....... 5 



Flank well let down, ........ 3 



Ham broad, full, and deep, ...... 10 



Coat fine and thick, ........ 4 



Limbs strong, straight, and neat, ..... 5 



Tail tapering, and not coarse, ...... 2 



Color dark spotted, ........ 3 



Total, 100 



As a specimen of the weight which can be made with these 

 hogs I give the following, which has been vouched for by the 

 owner of the hogs : 



In 1867 a sow belonging to Mr. Thomas J. Conover, of But- 

 ler County, Ohio, produced eleven pigs on the 18th day of April. 

 In October following she and her pigs weighed 2,735 pounds. 

 The sow pigs were kept for breeders, but five barrows of the 

 litter at eight months and twenty days old averaged 282 pounds, 

 and the sow fattened the same fall weighed net 535 pounds. 

 In 1869 the same gentleman exhibited a sow and six pigs that 

 weighed 2,000 pounds, the pigs being but five months old. 



The Berkshires. In numbers and importance the Berk- 

 shire hog stands next to the Poland-China, while by many farmers 

 they are preferred to any or all other breeds. They were intro- 

 duced generally into the United States about the year 1832, 

 although one or two importations had been made previously, one 

 as early as 1823, and for ten years there raged what might be 

 called a Berkshire fever. They sold at fancy prices, often bring- 

 ing from $50 to $100 per pair, and that at a time when hogs and 

 the hog products were uniformly low priced, ordinary hogs sell- 

 ing at from one to three dollars per hundred pounds. Doubtless 

 stimulated by these high prices dishonest dealers sold grades as 

 pure bred, and farmers at that early day were not prepared to 



