THE MODERN BREEDS OP ENGLISH PIGS. Cl 



smaller heads than the old York, erect ears, finer in the 

 hair, and lighter in the bone. 



" The improvement in the York large breed commenced 

 early in the century, when the White Leicesters were in- 

 troduced. The general run of pigs in the grain-growing 

 districts of Yorkshire shows that they partake more or 

 less of this cross. The old sort is seldom seen except in 

 the northern part of the county." 



A Yorkshire correspondent of Mr. Sidney, writing in 

 1860, says " The Leicester cross has been still further im- 

 proved by putting the largest and best sows of the Lei- 

 cester cross to boars of the small white breed from Castle 

 Howard* and Bransbyf , breeding from the progeny, and 

 selecting the largest and best of the young sows and the 

 best formed boars for that purpose, taking care that they 

 were not too nearly related. By this means the size and 

 constitution of the large breed, with the symmetry and 

 tendency to fatten of the small breed, have been, in a 

 great degree, transmitted to the offspring. If a sow shows 

 too much of the old sort, she is put to a boar of the small 

 breed for her first litter." 



Such seems to have been the origin of the present breed 

 of Large Yorkshires. 



" These improved Large Yorkshires," (says Sidney, in 

 I860,) " are principally bred in the valley of the Aire, in 

 the neighborhood of Leeds, Keighley, and Skipton. They 

 are in great request as breeding stores, and purchased for 

 that purpose for every part of the United Kingdom, as 

 well as for France, Germany, and the United States, at 

 great prices." 



These pigs " can be fed to 60 stone, of 14 Ibs., dead 

 weight, or 840 Ibs. The Prize Boar at the Royal Agri* 

 cultural Fair at Chester weighed, alive, 1,232 Ibs. The 



The Earl of Carlisle. 



t Mr. Wyley, of Bransby, introduced a small breed of White Leicester?, now 

 called Yorkshires. 



