SWINE. 375 



ing in and in from the same stock, however excellent, will 

 ultimately result in its degeneracy. Comparatively speaking, 

 it is only within a few years that the improved breeds of pigs 

 have risen up to reward the skill of the breeder. The Chinese 

 or Siamese, the Neapolitan, and the African varieties, have 

 greatly contributed to their creation, and continue to modify 

 those in which a farther cross is desirable. After one or two 

 crosses, the best progeny is generally selected to inter-breed 

 again with the original stock, and thus is its improvement 

 effected." 



The writer first referred to, thus continues : — 

 " Before proceeding to notice tlie various breeds of swine, it 

 may be observed that the general wants of the community, in 

 relation to pork, can be best supplied by two descriptions or 

 classes of hogs ; one for supplying the market with meat to be 

 eaten fresh, and for baconing, as above mentioned, and the 

 other for making fat pork for barrelling, <fec. This classifica- 

 tion will therefore be adopted in the remarks which follow. 

 Those breeds whose special characteristic is the formation of 

 fat, will be first considered. And, as having been the principal 

 stock in changing the character of the Old English, we will 

 notice first of all, 



" The Chinese. — There are doubtless various breeds of 

 swine in the '■ Celestial Empire.' Specimens brought from that 

 country frequently present so marked a contrast of character 

 that no one would hesitate to pronounce them of different 

 breeds. They vary in size and in color, ranging from white to 

 black. Some of the early importations made to England, and 

 thence to this country, were black; and the idea appears to 

 have been held that this was the invariable color of Chinese 

 swine. Hence Culley, who wrote in the year 1784, speaks af 

 them as ^ the Chinese, or black breed.' Youatt makes two dis- 

 tinct varieties of the Chinese, the 'white' and the 'black.'* 

 The race, however, in all its varieties, possesses the common 

 characteristic of fattening easily. They are small-boned, and 



* It may not generally be known that the progeny of the white hogs transported 

 from Europe and the United States into the tropical regions of Africa and America 

 are usually black, and continue of that color through successive generations. How 

 far this will explain the differences in the color of the Chinese hogs, a series of 

 physiological inquiries can only determine. 



