CHAPTER LXVI 



THE BERKSHIRE 



The native home of the Berkshire pig is in south-central England, 

 and more especially the counties of Berks and Wilts. The 

 neighboring counties of Leicester and Stafford also have been 

 prominently associated with Berkshire history. The climate of 

 this section of England is mildly temperate. The soil tends to 

 be a clay loam and is cold and retentive. The standard crops of 

 this section are the small grains, roots, and the grasses. Beautiful 

 pastures are found in Berkshire, where there are lands that have 

 not been plowed within the memory of man. 



The foundation of the Berkshire breed is veiled in obscurity. In 

 1767 "A Country Gentleman " wrote 1 as follows of English swine: 



There are three sorts of swine commonly bred in England ; the first I shall 

 mention is the large Herefordshire, or as some would have it, Lincolnshire 

 breed, which is the quickest grower, and ripens to the greatest size of any we 

 know with us. ... Another sort, which is famous here, is called by some the 

 Bantam breed, or the Guinea breed, or the African hog, or the black French 

 hog. . . . But the sort of swine most frequent in England, requiring the least 

 care, and bringing the most profit, are the cross kind, bred between the two 

 foregoing sorts. 



No information of a descriptive nature in this work offers any 

 evidence of the existence at that time of what might be termed 

 a Berkshire breed. In 1789 George Culley, a noted English 

 stockman, wrote in an often-quoted book 2 : 



The most numerous breed of hogs in this island is that excellent kind 

 generally known by the name of the Berkshire pigs, now spread through 

 almost every part of England and some places of Scotland. They are in 

 general reddish brown, with black spots upon them, large ears hanging over 

 their eyes, short-legged, small-boned, and exceedingly inclined to make 

 readily fat. 



1 The Complete Grazier (second edition), London. 



2 Observation on Live Stock (second edition), Dublin. 



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