SWINE IN ENGLAND. 87 



HAMPSHIRE. 



Here there are two varieties, the one larger than the other , in 

 color they are either white or black and white, with long necks and 

 bodies, flat sides, and large bones. The smaller variety are more 

 easily fattened to a considerable size and weight, and make excellent 

 bacon, but the larger kind require an extra amount of food to bring 

 them to perfection, although when this object is attained they will 

 often weigh from 600 to 800 Ibs. 



Considerable improvement has however been latterly effected by 

 crosses of the Berkshire, Chinese, Essex, and Suffolk pigs, with the 

 large old Hampshire hog. The animals resulting from these in- 

 termixtures are better shaped and more profitable; in fact, they 

 bear about them the characteristics of the breed from which they 

 were obtained. There is also a third variety of swine found in 

 Hampshire, called the " Forest pigs," differing materially from the 

 true Hampshire breeds, and in many points strongly resembling the 

 wild boar, from which it is not improbable they derived their de- 

 scent, for the last wild boars known to be at liberty in England were 

 those turned into the New Forest by Charles I., and which he ob- 

 tained from Germany with a view to the reintroduction of the fine 

 old sport of boar-hunting. The Forest pig is broad-shouldered and 

 high-crested ; light and lean in the hinder quarters ; has a bristly 

 mane and erect ears ; is of a dark or blackish color ; and lives 

 chiefly on beech-mast and acorns. This breed is no favorite in Hamp- 

 shire ; the animals are wild, fierce, not apt to fatten, and, from their 

 peculiar make, do not cut up to advantage when killed ; it is, how- 

 ever, ROW losing its distinctive characteristics, and becoming, as it 

 were, more civilized or domesticated. 



SUSSEX. 



The breed of this county are by some authors supposed to have 

 descended from the large spotted Berkshire swine; while others 

 assert them to be a variety of the black and white Essex pig, if not 

 the original stock. They are of a moderate size, handsomely formed, 

 thin-skinned, and black and white ; not, however, spotted, but white 

 at one extremity and black at the other. The hair is fine and long, 

 but spare ; the head long and tapering ; the ears well set on, and 

 pointing forwards ; the eyes quick and vivacious ; and the snout fine. 

 The chief fault in their make is, that the bones are somewhat too 

 large. They grow quickly, feed well, fatten kindly, and will, when 

 full-sized, weigh from 250 to 350 Ibs. 



Some of the finest pigs of this kind ever reared were ir the pos- 

 session of the Western family, at Felix Hall, Essex. 



