108 HA KRIS ON THE PIG. 



traveler through Chester County can see such specimens 

 continually. The standard of excellence in all animals, 

 no matter how high or how pure may be the breed, so- 

 called, is only to be kept up by judicious care in feeding, 

 breeding and management. If either is neglected, they 

 are sure to run out, and go down hill. With swine most 

 especially, ' the breed is said to be in the trough.' 



" When persons speak, therefore, of a pure Chester hog, 

 or a half-blood, or a quarter-blood, we consider it only 

 absurd. There is no such thing. By an original breed is 

 meant, one that has been long established, and of which 

 there are peculiar marks and qualities by which it has 

 been long known, and which can be carried down by 

 propagation. Such is the Devon cow and the South- 

 down sheep. The difference in results between an original 

 and a recently made up breed may be compared to that 

 between a seedling and grafted variety of fruit. If the 

 seed of a very fine pear or apple is planted, there is no 

 certainty, perhaps no probability, that the fruit will be 

 the same as the parent. A graft of the parent tree, how- 

 ever, always produces the same. The results of the other 

 are accidental. The law of breeding domestic animals, 

 that c like produces like,' applies more certainly to dis- 

 tinct and original breeds, like Devons or Southdown s, 

 than to a made up breed of recent origin, like the Chester 

 County hog. The owner of a very fine animal, who, for 

 several years, has been selecting his stock carefully, and 

 feeding them liberally, has the chances greatly in his favor 

 that c like will produce like,' but there are very often to 

 be seen very poor specimens from good parentage, and 

 also very good individual animals from very inferior pa- 

 rents. We have one now which, at a year old, will not 

 weigh over 250 Ibs. ; she is the offspring of large and 

 well-shaped parents. In adjoining pens are others which, 

 at the same age, will weigh about 400 Ibs. The hair, 

 sometimes, is straight, at others, waved or curly. The 



