BREEDS OF PIGS IN TIIE UNITED STATES. 107 



try, coming fully up to the requirements of a farmer's 

 hog, and are rapidly superseding Suffolks, Berkshires, and 

 other smaller breeds. 



"The best specimens maybe described as long and deep 

 in the carcass, broad and straight on the back, short in 

 the leg, full in the ham, full shoulder, well packed for- 

 ward, admitting of no neck, very small proportionate 

 head, short nose, dish face, broad between the eyes, moder- 

 ate ear, thin skin, straight hair, a capacity for great size 

 and to gain a pound per day until they are two years old. 

 Add to these, quiet habits, and an easy taking on of fat, so 

 as to admit of being slaughtered at almost any age, and 

 we have, what is considered in Chester County, a careful- 

 ly bred animal, and what is known elsewhere as a fine 

 specimen of a breed called ' Chester County White.' 

 They have reached weights of from 600 to 900 Ibs. 



"We have recently heard of a case where a farmer in the 

 West had purchased some pigs from Chester County, and 

 wrote back that part of them were full-blood, part half- 

 blood, and part no Chesters at all. We know of another 

 case where a purchaser insisted that a pig from Chester 

 County was half Suffolk. 



"There is considerable misapprehension about the Ches- 

 ter County breed, so-called. It is constantly forgotten 

 that it is not an original, but a made up breed. They 

 differ from each other quite as much as any one known 

 breed differs from another. We have often seen them, 

 and the offspring, too, of good animals, with long noses, 

 whicli would root up an acre of ground in a very short 

 time, slab-sided, long-legged, uneasy, restless feeders, re- 

 sembling somewhat the so-called race-horse breed at the 

 South, that will keep up with a horse all day on ordinary 

 travel, and that will go over a fence instead of taking 

 much trouble to go through it. They show more develop- 

 ment of head than ham, and as many bristles as hair, and 

 are as undesirable a hog as can well be picked up. Any 



