IMPROVEMENT OF THE ENGLISH BKEEDS OP PIGS. 55 



tilings agricultural, breed and experiment with great zeal, 

 varied success, and little or no profit, until they reach the 

 point where the tenant farmer, with sufficient capital, 

 equal zeal, and a clear eye to the . s. d., takes up the 

 work, breeds, and works the problem out with a degree 

 of practical knowledge, personal attention, and enthusi- 

 asm, which few, except farmers breeding for a profit, can 

 contrive to combine, and persevere to bestow for a long 

 series of years. 



" Foreign governments endeavor, with very limited suc- 

 cess, to produce the effect of our aristocratic breeding 

 enthusiasts by government studs. But an official, however 

 gilded, titled, or crossed, has never the influence of a peer 

 or squire ; and besides his name, the raw materials the 

 working bees, the great tenant farmers are wanting on 

 the continent. 



u The improved Essex are ranked amongst the small 

 breeds, and there they are most profitable ; but exception- 

 al specimens have been exhibited at agricultural shows in 

 the classes for large breeds, as, for instance, at Chelms- 

 ford, in 1856. 



" There is probably no black pig which combines more 

 good qualities, as either porker or bacon hog, than the 

 produce of an improved Essex boar and an improved 

 Berkshire sow." 



The facts here narrated are of great importance as il- 

 lustrating the principles of breeding which we have en- 

 deavored to lay down in the first chapters of this work. 

 The old Essex pigs were great eaters. All the authorities 

 mention this fact as one of the objections to the breed. 

 The Lord Western Essex were highly refined pigs, of 

 good form, little offal, maturing very early, and fattening 

 with great rapidity, but destitute of size and vigor. 

 Crossed with selected sows of the old, hardy, vigorous 

 race, the offspring possessed the form, early maturity, and 

 fattening qualities of the improved breed, united with the 



