THE IMPROVED SUFFOLK 79 



This gives them excellent feeding qualities, and there is no breed 

 that can be pushed more rapidly and fattened to a greater extent 

 for their size than the Essex. This overfattening has weakened 

 the breeding capacity of the breed and they are relatively poor 

 producers. The sows are also rather poor milkers and the litter is 

 often partly lost. 



The fully developed Essex is a short, chunky, black hog, neatly 

 proportioned, graceful in movement, and a very nice appearing 

 animal, but lack of size and poor breeding quahties deprive the breed 

 of popularity with large American breeders. The meat produced 

 by swine of this breed is fine grained, firm, and very desirable. 



Crosses. — As a cross with other larger and rougher breeds the 

 Essex has been largely used, and many of the standard breeds of 

 to-day owe no small part of their improvement to the cross with 

 Essex strains. The Essex blood gives a more rapid maturity and 

 increased feeding qualities. 



THE IMPROVED SUFFOLK 



History. — Nearly a century ago the Suffolk was a prominent 

 white breed in Suffolk County, England. In the stock shows of 

 that time, and for the first fifty years or more of the past century, 

 the breed was a prominent one in the prize ring of that country. 

 After the development of the improved Essex and Essex-Neapoli- 

 tan breed the breeders of Suffolk began to cultivate that type, and 

 the native Suffolk was allowed to pass into obscurity, until to-day 

 the hog which is known in Europe under the name of Suffolk 

 is a small black animal instead of white. 



The breed has, to some small extent, been preserved in this 

 country, although its distribution here is only small, and the 

 breed does not appear to be gaining in popularity. About 1855 

 Hon. John Wentworth, of Illinois, imported from England some 

 swine of the then prevailing type in Suffolk County, England. 

 These hogs were the basis for the Improved American Suffolks. 

 This type somewhat closely resembles the Small Yorkshire breed, 

 and there is some question as to whether or not the original im- 

 portation was not of this blood instead of Suffolk. 



There are perhaps about two thousand registered animals of 

 this breed in the United States. The principal distribution is in 



