BREEDS OF SWINE. 963 



will average these weights. 350 pounds for Berkshire and 250 for Essex 

 may be taken as good weights. 



The Yorkshires in their three classes — small, medium and large — will 

 weigh 250 pounds for the small, 350 pounds for the medium and up to 450 

 pounds for the large breed. They may, of course, be made to weigh much 

 heavier at maturity if fully fat, and so may the other breeds mentioned. 

 The so-called Prince Albert Suffolks are simply modified small Yorkshires, 

 and the same may be said of the other sub-families called Suffolks. All 

 these sub-breeds, including the Yorkshires, are pure white, and dark hair 

 is not allowable, but bluish flesh marks or spots are not objectionable ; on 

 the contrary, they are an indication of purity of blood. 



The most widely distributed of American breeds are: First, the Poland- 

 China, and second the Chester county hogs. Well to the North the latter 

 have been more widely disseminated than the former. In all the great 

 corn growing region of the West, it may be safely said the Polands are 

 the favorite of American breeds. The Jefferson county, the Jersey Reds 

 and the Durocs, have never become widely known. We do not think the 

 first has anything to recommend it over the small Yorkshire. They seem 

 to have been too closely interbred, like particular families of Suffolks, a 

 thing that should be especially guarded against in swine, since they are 

 inclined more or less to scrofula and other cutaneous and sub-cutaneous 

 diseases. For this reason, the Jersey Reds and Durocs, as being especially 

 free from those taints, have been received with favor, growing year by 

 year, and stand to-day the peer of any of the superior breeds of swine. 



