ORKNEY HO a.] 



PIGS, 



rORKNET HOG. 



arrival at maturity, and a small proportion of 

 loss between live weight and dead. A very 

 favourable specimen of the whole, weighed, 

 alive, 688 lbs. ; and dead, as much as 653 lbs. 

 — a most unprecedented fact — her offiil being 

 but 30 lbs. She was shown at the Yorkshire 

 Agricultural Society's meeting at York, with 

 twenty-nine competitors ; and though she did 

 not receive a prize, was highly commended. 

 This, against all the best pig-breeders in the 

 kingdom, showed her to be of a very prime 

 sort." 



There is another improved breed in this 

 county, called Half-blacks, supposed descen- 

 dants of the Berkshire race. Lord Western ori- 

 ginally introduced it into the county, and it rose 

 to great celebrity. They are black and white, 

 line-skinned, short-haired, with smaller heads 

 and ears than the Berkshire, having short 

 snubby noses, and a very fine bone. They are 

 broad and deep in the belly, full in the hind 

 quarters, but light in the offal. They feed re- 

 markably quick, grow fast, and are of an 

 excellent quality of meat. The sows are 

 capital breeders, and bring litters of from 

 eight to twelve; but they have the character 

 of being bad nurses. 



THE ORKNEY BREED. 

 In the Orkney Islands, the Hebrides, and 

 the Shetland Islands, there exists a small breed 

 of swine, characterised by Dr. Hibbert, in Ins 

 Account of the Shetland Isles, as a little, ugly, 

 brindled monster — an epitome of the wild boar, 

 yet scarcely larger than an English terrier. 

 " This lordling of the Shetland scatholds and 

 arable lands," says he, "ranges undisturbed 

 over his free demesnes ; and, in quest of the 

 roots of plants, or of earthworms, hollows out 

 deep furrows and trenches in the best pastures ; 

 destroys, in his progress, all the nests which 

 he can find, of plovers, curlews, or chalders ; 

 bivouacs in some potato field, which he rarely 

 quits until ho has excavated a ditch large 

 enough to bury within it a dozen fellow-com- 

 moners of his own size and weight. Nor is 

 the reign of this petty tyrant altogether 

 bloodless. When a young lamb is just dropped, 

 it is then that he foams, and, as Blackmore 

 Las pompously sung, 'flourishes his ivory 

 war,' never quitting liis ground till the grass 

 is stained with the red slaughter of his victim " 

 770 



These small animals give their owners little 

 care, as they are mostly left to shift for them- 

 selves in the best way they can. They are 

 wholly unprovided with shelter ; and although 

 they must, during some part of the year, un- 

 dergo great privations, still they are healthy, 

 and produce good and agreeable flesh. In 

 autumn they are in best condition ; and if 

 then put up to fatten, very inexpensive prov- 

 ender will suffice for this purpose, as they 

 lard themselves with considerable rapidity, 

 growing quickly in size, and presenting a short, 

 diminutive, aldermanic appearance, capable of 

 raisins: astonishment in the minds of those 

 who, before the commencement of the hringing 

 up process, had seen them. 



The Eev. G-eorge Low, in his Fauna Crea- 

 densis, describes them as very diminutive 

 creatures, but exhibiting a great variety of 

 colour. They are bristly in the back, stand 

 erect on their legs, and have short, pointed 

 ears. Their snouts are singularly strong, pro- 

 duced, no doubt, by the constant exercise of 

 their grubbing propensities in t!ie inhospit- 

 able region to which they are confined. They 

 travel far and near in search of food, wander- 

 ing over distant hills, and feeding on such roots 

 and earth-worms as they can find. With 

 such roving habits, it need be no matter of 

 wonder that this little animal, notwithstand- 

 ing his dwarfish size, should perpetrate greater 

 ravages in corn-fields than the most gigantic 

 of our English porcine breeds. This small 

 breed is usually converted into pork, and 

 forms an article of considerable commerce 

 between the natives and the coast, for shipping 

 stores. In Mr. Low's time, the butchers used 

 to purchase the breed from their owners at 

 from four to five shillings a-piece ; and after 

 being cleaned and cured, they were disposed of 

 to the shipping contractors at the rate of two- 

 pence per pound. The average weight of these 

 pigs is from sixty to seventy pounds. Eopes 

 are made of their hair, and used in the Orkneys 

 by those adventurers who suspend them- 

 selves from the summit of the clifis, in search 

 of the eggs and young of the sea-fowl. They 

 are preferable to those made of hemp, on 

 account of their not being so apt to cut from 

 the efiects of friction against the sharp edges 

 of the rocks. The Highland pig of Mr. Cully, 

 is the same as that of the Orkney Isles. 



