OLD iKisn noo.] 



AND TTTKIU VAlilOUS IMIEEDS. 



lEXTINCT uace. 



TIIK OLD lUlSn IIOU. 

 In Ireland tho pi^» is truly a ilomoslicatcd 

 animal, ol'ten haviiiij tho suugi^ost part of tho 

 labourer's cabin allotted to him, wliero ho 

 sleeps at his ease, leeds with comtbrt, ^rumphs 

 to tho children, and fattens for the rent. Tho 

 old, high-leirged, tlat-sided race, has for many 

 years been gradually dying out, and is now to 

 be met with perhaps only in Galway, and the 

 western part of tho country. An improved 

 breed is taking their place; and as they ex- 

 hibit all or most of tlie characteristics of the 

 English races, it has become dilficult to dis- 

 criminate between them. The small cost at 

 which pigs can be kept and fattened, coupled 

 with their extraordinary fecundity, make them a 

 real substantial blessing to many a poor cottier, 

 who, with his small savings, may purchase a 

 young and poor-conditioned animal, fatten it 

 on all the refuse he can spare or collect, 

 and sell it at a very remunerative profit. 

 Nay, he may kill it with advantage to his own 

 family, who will thereby obtain a large supply 

 of a cheap, nutritious, and strengthening 

 diet. AYere it not for this animal, numberless 

 individuals of the labouring poor would hardly 

 be able to preserve a roof over their heads ; 

 and, on this account, the pig is not inaptly 

 called " the poor man's friend." The improve- 

 ment effected in Ireland upon her old stock, 

 has been done by the introduction of Berkshire 

 and Chinese boars and sows, with which the 

 old breed has been extensively intermingled. 

 Accordingly, the great size and large bone have | 

 been reduced, whilst the fattening qualities 

 have been very much increased. It is well 

 known that England imports a large propor- 

 tion of the bacon, pork, and live pigs, whether 

 fat or as stores, necessary to her consumption, 

 from Ireland, which has a great tendency to 

 keep up the price of bacon in that country. 

 Notwithstanding the rather unpromising ex- 

 terior presented by the original old Irish pig, 

 there was one shown, some years ago, at the 

 cattle-show of the lioyal Dublin Society, which 

 is said to have been the oflspring of a cross 

 with the Hampshire. AVhetber this was or 

 was not the case, the animal weighed over 

 forty-one stone, and was the property of an 

 humble cottier. It attained that weight with 

 a very small proportion of feeding. Irish , 



Bwine possess flesh of a peculinrly good flavour, 

 which tho principle of iinproveinent does not 

 deteriorate; whilst tho hams chisely restinble, 

 in form aud quality, those of Wcatphalia. 



EXTINCT RACE. 



The skull of a variety of pig found in an ex- 

 cavation in an island on Loch (iur — a lake in 

 tho neighbourhood of Limerick — is, by Mr. 

 Kichardson, supposed to indicate suilicient 

 evidence of having been the great ancestor of 

 our well-known long-faced pig, once so plenti- 

 ful in Galway, and usually designated, from its 

 long limbs and gaunt appearance, by the name 

 of tho " Greyhoutid Pig." Several of these 

 skulls were found at Loch Gur, with those of 

 oxen, goats, sheep, red deer, reindeer, and the 

 extinct gigantic deer, sometimes erroneously 

 styled the "Irish Elk." They were found 

 several feet below the surface, resting on layers 

 of a calcareous tufa, and covered with black 

 bogstuft', the result of the decomposition of 

 vegetable substances. All the skulls, appa- 

 rently, belonged to animals which had been 

 slaughtered ; as their froutals were all broken 

 in, as if by the blow of a pole-axe, or other 

 heavy instrument. It would be difficult to 

 assign the precise period when these animals 

 were thus slaughtered ; but, from the circum- 

 stance of their being cotemporary with the 

 gigantic deer, it has been suggested as possible 

 that they lived in the times of the Druids, and 

 that Loch Gur was the scene of one of their 

 vast assemblages, and these osseous fragments 

 the long-buried remnants of a stupendous 

 sacrifice to their sanguinary gods. 



Having thus described the principal breeds 

 of swine, several of which present really such 

 veiy slightly-marked differences from others, 

 that it was almost unnecessary to introduce 

 them to our pages — but, in order to give this 

 work all the fulness possible, we deemed it un- 

 avoidable — we may observe, that there are cer- 

 tain fancy breeds, which require no specific 

 descrii>tion, as being less adapted to the prac- 

 tical, than to the gentleman farmer and breeder. 

 Prominent among these is the Windsor breed, 

 greatly cultivated by his late royal higiiness 

 Prince Albert; the Coleshill and the Bushy 

 breeds. Tiiese are all wiiite, and much sought 

 after by gentlemen pig-breeders, who hold 

 them in high 'Nstimation. 



771 



