306 



side of the house, this wish I may say, in respect to the farm- 

 ers of Middlesex, seems accomplished. 



Large numbers of swine, as appears from the reports of the 

 Brighton market already given, are brought into this county 

 for sale. These come mainly from the state of New York. 

 Until within a few years, a breed known as the Grass-fed hogs, 

 constituted the principal stock. This was a hog, raised with 

 little other feed than clover pasturage for the first six months, 

 of a white color with black patches sprinkled over him, long 

 and well formed, of good thrift, and who, with good keeping, 

 at eighteen months old, was easily brought to 400 and 500 lbs. 

 weight. Within the last few years the Berkshire hog has been 

 introduced. His symmetry, thrift, cleanliness, fineness of 

 bone, his excellent shoulders and hams, and, above all, his 

 good humor and his marked deficiency in tlie organ of tune, 

 secured universal favor. In my visits among the farmers since 

 the introduction of this race, I have been amused with their 

 enthusiasm for their swine, resembling that of parson TruUiber, 

 in Fielding's History of Joseph Andrews; and in finding them, 

 I had almost said, more proud of their Berkshire pigs at their 

 troughs, than of their chubby and rosy-cheeked children round 

 their supper-tables. I am a great admirer of the Berkshire 

 swine, but I could never sympathize in these preferences ; and 

 my respect for human nature has considerably increased since 

 the progress of the blessed Temperance reformation, and since 

 men are now seldom seen as formerly with all rationality ex- 

 tinguished, and even their animal nature outraged and degraded. 



We have been compelled, however, in this as in many other 

 cases, to witness the capriciousness of public favor ; and to 

 adopt, with the variation of only a letter, the familiar proverb, 

 and say in this case, that " every hog must have his day." 

 The popularity of the Berkshire swine is on the wane. It is 

 objected to them by many farmers that they are not large 

 enough, though they are easily made to reach, at fourteen 

 months old. 300 or 350 lbs. ; and further, that they do not cut 

 up well ; and that the fat on their backs and sides is not thick 



