394 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



whose characteristics they bear a great resemblance; fattening to a large size, 

 but not so kindly disposed as the Berkshire; yet they are both favourites with 

 the distillers, who seem to require a coarse heavy pig to consume their wash 

 and grains with advantage. 



The Yorkshire, which are similar in colour to the Berkshire but with longer 

 ears and coarser hair. They have long legs, flat sides, and are coarse in the 

 bone; they are also slow feeders; but, for the reasons already assigned, they, 

 ;i> u HI as the Northampton and Shropshire, are in esteem with the distillers. 



The Lincolnshire, with well-formed heads, and ears of a medium size point- 

 ing forwards, and curled at the lips; they are long and straight from the head 

 to the tail, and of sufficient breadth; ronnd in the carcass and deep in the 

 sidrs; the skin and hair thin. T'.e true bred pigs of this race are white, and 

 rather tender; but they reach to thirty stone, of fourteen pounds, and in point 

 of profit may be ranked next to the Berkshire. This breed is also well known 

 (with some occasional variation) as the NORFOLK and SUFFOLK. The CHKSIHKK, 

 of various colours, but chiefly marked with broad patches of black, or blue, 

 and white, have large heads, with long pendant ears; are of a great length, 

 but proportionably narrow; curved in the back and flat-sided; large-boned and 

 long-legged, with much loose skin, and altogether ill-formed; but they <jn>\\- 

 to an extraordinary weight, and are the largest kind of pigs in the kingdom 

 except 



The RUDGWTCK BREKD, which take their name from a village on the boarders 

 of Surrey and Sussex, and are remarkable for the enormous size to which 

 they reach; each of these breeds has its several advocates; but as their respec- 

 tive value does not, a in other species of stock, depend on soil and situation, 

 these differences of opinion can only be ascribed to the want of sufficient com- 

 parative experiments, or to prejudice. A very competent, and apparently a 

 very candid judge of the merits of the principal kinds, gives it as his decided 

 opinion that the Berkshire rough-haired, feather-eared, curled pigs, are supe- 

 rior in form and flesh to all others, even to the best Chinese. 



With regard to these two breeds, that opinion must have been formed on 

 fair experiments and due consideration of their respective value, for he men- 

 tions having fatted a Chinese sow to the weight of five hundred and sixty 

 pounds at three and a half years old, and the quality of the bacon of both kinds, 

 fatted and cured alike, was decided by a party of gentlemen at Lord CONYNG- 

 HAM'S table in favour of the Berkshire. In this we so far unhesitatingly coin- 

 cide; but from all the other information we have collected on the subject, we 

 are inclined to think that Mr. WESTEUN'S Essex breed, may fairly compete 

 with either; and the Woburn breed, has not yet been sufficiently tried to ad- 

 mit of a decisive comparison. 



To these also, there must, in justice be added, a breed partaking of the 

 Essex blood and generally known as the Essex and Hartford breed. It was in- 

 troduced by Mr. DODD, of Chenies, in Buckinghamshire, (a most successful 

 breeder.) 



The ESSEX BLACK PIG, descendants of the Berkshires, are 

 reckoned, according to the Editor of the Complete Grazier, 

 among the finest breeds.* He describes them as black and 



* Mr. SAMUEL D. MARTIN, in a communication to the Editor of the Franklin 

 (Kentucky) Farmer, speaks of this breed in the highest terms, and recom- 

 mends them to the notice of his brother farmers, as being better adapted to 

 rearing in that state than almost any other breed whatever. Their excel- 

 lence, he says, consists in their early maturity, large size, the ease with which 

 they fatten, hardiness, productiveness, and being excellent travellers. He 

 states, that a pig of this breed, sold to a Mr. PHELPS, when seven months old, 

 was weighed every ten days, and found to increase fifteen pounds, or a pound 

 and a half per day. As an instance of their capacity to take on fat, he cites 

 another instance of a boar, weighing two hundred arid sixty-seven pounds; in 

 thirty days he was weighed again, and was found to have gained precisely one 

 hundred pounds, a fraction over three pounds per day. 



