364 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



same sum that it used to cost our fathers; twenty or thirty 

 years ago, to take it to the same market. 



Notwithstanding the odds against us, pork has been, and will 

 probably continue to be, produced among us at a profit. But 

 it can be done only by good management, and by the production 

 of a superior article. The circumstances surrounding the 

 Massachusetts farmer — whose corn is worth a dollar a bushel, 

 and who expects to rear and fatten his pork in a pen of mode- 

 rate size, with a small yard connected, and to feed them with 

 the refuse of the dairy and kitchen, and with a variety of other 

 food, raw and cooked — are quite different from those of his 

 western brother, who rears his pigs on the prairies or oak- 

 openings, and fattens by turning them into his corn-fields. 

 What would be wisdom in one case, might be folly in the other. 

 The breed of swine, for instance, that would be profitable for 

 one, might be poorly adapted to the purposes of the other. 

 This may be illustrated by reference to the last Agricultural 

 Report of the United States Commissioner of Patents. Before 

 preparing the report, the Commissioner had sent a circular to 

 various parts of the United States, in which he proposed this 

 question, among others, ''What are the best breeds of hogs?" 



New Hampshire answers, " the Suffolk ;" Connecticut, " a 

 mixture of ' old fashioned hogs ' with Berkshire and the China 

 breed, generally does very well ;" New York, by three of her 

 citizens, separately, " Berkshires and Leicesters ;" New Jersey, 

 " a cross with the Berkshires j" Pennsylvania, " a cross of the 

 Berkshires and Chester County;" Virginia, "Irish Grazier and 

 mixed Berkshires are our common stock ;" Georgia, " the best 

 breeds for the climate are the Woburn and Grazier ;" Missis- 

 sippi, " the best hogs I have tried are the Berkshires ;" Texas, 

 " Irish Grazier ;" Tennessee, " the common old Grazier mixed 

 with the Hindoo breed ;" Kentucky, " Woburn ;" Ohio, " Leices- 

 ter, Bedford, Chinese, and Calcutta;" Michigan, "the Berk- 

 shires are too small, and are nearly extinct. We have the 

 Byfield and Leicester;" Indiana, "Berkshires, Russia, and 

 China;" Missouri, " Berkshires, or a cross between the black 

 Berkshire and white Irish;" Iowa, " China and Byfield. Berk- 

 shires are not much esteemed of late ;" Florida, " for the range, 

 or shift-for-yourself system, the long-nosed Pike stands A No. 



