THE MODERN ENGLISH BREEDS OP PIGS. 93 



are useful animals.' The best Suffolks, as before men- 

 tioned, are Yorkshire-Cumberlands, that have emigrated 

 and settled in Suffolk, and thence been transported to 

 Windsor. 



" The NORFOLK PIG, also described by Youatt, is, accord- 

 ing to the report of one of the best farmers in the county, 

 ' an indescribable animal, the result of the mixture of 

 many breeds in a hocus pocus or porous style ; and al- 

 though they have improved of late years, the county 

 stands very low in that division of live-stock.' ' They 

 really are (writes another Norfolk farmer) a disgrace to 

 our county. The only thing to recommend them is, that 

 they are great breeders. If they would have three or 

 four less, and better quality, it would pay better.' In 

 the days of the first Earl of Leicester, he had, of course, 

 some good pigs for the time, and they then found their 

 way into book, and have remained there ever since. The 

 only noted pig-breeder in Norfolk cultivates the improved 

 Berkshire. 



" BEDFORDSHIRE cannot boast of a county pig, but a pig 

 was bred at Woburn, white, with occasional brown spots, 

 and depicted in Youatt's original edition of this book, 

 which I have the very best Bedfordshire authority for 

 saying, was ' a good sort of pig, without any particular 

 character, good feeders, but bad swillers, and they were 

 therefore allowed to die out, and replaced by Berkshire 

 sows, crossed with Suffolk boars. Indeed, the Bedford- 

 shire breed were so little known, that a tenant of one of 

 the first-class farms of that county told me that ' he did 

 not know that they had a breed until he saw it marked 

 over one of Prince Albert's pens, about ten years ago, at 

 the Smithfield Club.' 



" At present a white breed is the most fashionable, which 

 means salable, in Bedfordshire. 



" Another very eminent Bedfordshire farmer says : * The 



