286 MONTHLY JOUKxNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



HOGS. 



This is a subject on which every one likes to be allowed to cut and come again. 

 If any one desires to see it " done up brown," that is, well done, let hira look at 

 The Cultivator for October and November. We wish we had room for these ar- 

 ticles. The writer has evidently " eaten salt " with practical farmers, if he be not 

 one himself, and knows " a hawk from a handsaw." He designates clearly the 

 difference in the quality of various breeds of swine, and why and wherein it is 

 that a breed eminently suited to one locality and purpose may be as eminently 

 unfitted for another. We have put extracts from these articles aside for early 

 insertion. 



Of the (Captain John) Mackay breed, so highly and justly praised, the writer 

 says truly that " only a few of them now remain which retain the characteristics 

 of the originals in such a degree as to be recognized." 



On this, as well as on all subjects near akin to it, Major Jacques, of Massachu- 

 setts, stands at the head of the, well informed; and he told us, we remember, 

 some 18 months since, how Mr. Webster had sent a long distance for a genuine 

 Simon Pure of this breed, and which we believe he has now at Marshfield. 



If we have not given much space to this subject, it is under the impression 

 that it is one with which most farmers are familiar, and that it is altogether so 

 much within the control of every farmer to modify and manufacture his hogs to 

 his liking and purposes, that very little new can be said about it. The Cultiva- 

 tor gives about all that need be noted. 



Forty years ago, the " Parkinson'''' was the best breed of hogs in Maryland and 

 Virginia. He was a spotted hog, but much lighter in color than the Berkshire — 

 white, with black spots, rather than black, with white spots ; stood on a stronger 

 foundation ; was square built, like a Dishley sheep, with a good ham, and ac- 

 tivity and constitution to travel in search of his victuals, instead of having it 

 brought to him. But, in our judgment, the best breed of hogs ever brought to 

 this country was a black hog, sent many years ago — say twenty, at least — into 

 Maryland, to the Editor of this Journal, then Editor of the American Farmer, 

 by a Mr. Wright — brother-in-law of Charles Champion, from whom we im- 

 ported the bull Champion, and heifers White Rose and Shepherdess ; also the 

 bull and two heifers for Gen. Van Rensselaer, that were brought into this State. 

 Mr. Wright came consigned to us, and of course, as was then our wont and de- 

 light, we did the best we could by him, as a "stranger within our gates." We 

 did not leave him to be fleeced by tavern-keepers, for we look him to ourselves. 

 After going to many Agricultural Fairs, and being well pleased, on going away 

 he said: " Well, Mr. Skinner, there 15 one thing I can send you better than any 

 in your country, and thai is hogs .' " — and accordingly he sent a Mack boar and 

 sow ; sucli animals for shape of the right sort, and meat of the right sort, as we 

 have never seen, before or since. The breed was sent into Virginia, where it 

 got the name of " Skinner's breed," and has been much inquired fur lately. — 

 Heartily do we wish the name may never belong to anything worse ; for what 

 can man or beast do better than well fulfill the highest purposes for which Na- 

 ture designed him ? True, a hog is a glutton, and so is man : but, while re- 



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