THE ESSEX 



775 



received first prizes on a boar and sow at the Royal Agricultural 

 Society Show at Cambridge, which gave the breed much fame. 

 Since the time of Mr. Hobbes this breed has become distributed 

 in England, especially in Suffolk County, adjoining Essex, where 

 the leading breeders reside. In England to-day the Essex is 

 generally known as the Small Black breed or Black Suffolk. 



The introduction of the Essex pig to America dates back to 

 early in the last century. The old-fashioned type of Essex, it is 

 thought, was owned about 1820 in Massachusetts, John Prince 

 having a crossbred 

 sow, part Essex, part 

 Chinese. In 1839 

 Henry Parsons of 

 Canada imported and 

 kept Essex pigs near 

 Massillon, Ohio. In 

 1886 S. M. Shepard 

 wrote that of recent 

 years a number of im- 

 portations had been 

 made and a few herds 

 kept in New York, 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, 

 and a few other states. One of the extensive breeders and 

 importers of twenty-five years ago was William Smith of Michigan. 



Characteristics of the Essex pig. This breed has certain very 

 distinguishing features. The color is entirely black. The head 

 is rather short, the face is slightly dished, the forehead is broad, 

 and the ears are small, fine, and carried erect. The jowl is 

 rather broad and full. The neck is short, the back very broad 

 and somewhat short and strongly carried, while the sides are deep 

 and short. The shoulders are well laid and thickly fleshed, and 

 the hams are thick and deep and of superior merit. The legs, 

 which tend to be rather short, show bone of fine quality. Inform 

 the Essex is distinctly of the thick-fleshed, fat, chunky sort, and 

 perhaps no breed in England has been fattened to so high a 

 degree. There is also criticism of enfeebled constitution. 



FIG. 357. An Essex boar owned by Charles Lafferty, 



Little Valley, New York. From photograph, by 



courtesy of Mr. Lafferty 



