94: THE HOG. 



cerned. In Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and some of the 

 neighboring counties, smoked bacon is a rarity. However, the porky 

 or the smoky flavor is a matter of taste. 



Wiltshire is celebrated, and deservedly, for bacon, as Yorkshire 

 for hams. The old Wiltshire hog was of large size, short-limbed, 

 but heavily-boned, long in the body, but round and high on the 

 croup. The ears, though large, were pointed. These animals were 

 slow feeders, and great consumers of food ; nevertheless, when at 

 some cost they were fattened, they produced meat of excellent qual- 

 ity, especially fitted for converting into bacon. They were proba- 

 bly a mere variety of the Berkshire strain, and certainly possessed 

 good qualities ; but they are greatly improved, owing to the judici- 

 ous crossings with the Chinese and Neapolitan stocks ; and though, 

 as might be anticipated, they are smaller in stature than formerly, 

 they are finer-boned, more compact in contour, far quicker fatteners, 

 and consequently ready for the butcher earlier. At the same time, 

 the superior quality of the meat has suffered no decline, indeed 

 quite the contrary. Wiltshire bacon commands a high price. 



The Hampshire are excellent hogs, generally black, and middle- 

 sized, with rather a long snout, but compactly made ; are a modifi- 

 cation of the old large-sized Hampshire stock, individuals of which 

 in former days were of huge magnitude, and some carried about 

 for show. This colossal breed is now seldom to be seen, but it had 

 its good points : when fattened (and time and much food were re- 

 quired to effect this) it returned by the way of payment a weighty 

 carcase. As in all such cases, however, the question comes in, Was 

 it profitable? Was the repayment for food and time in a just ratio? 

 The answer must be, quick fattening, even with a smaller carcass, a 

 gain of time and of provision being included, is one of the points 

 in which the farmer finds himself the best remunerated. Slow 

 feeders, however weighty their carcass at last, will not be found 

 profitable when all expenses are calculated. The present Hamp- 

 shire hog is compounded of the old race, and the Essex, the Chinese, 

 and the Neapolitan, with an admixture also of the improved Berk 

 shire. 



A semi-wild breed of pigs are peculiar to the New Forest ; they 

 are termed Forest pigs, and differ materially from the ordinary 

 stock cultivated by the Hampshire farmers. Though far inferior in 

 size to the true wild hog, these animals exhibit much of the charac 

 teristics of that animal, and probably owe their origin to a cross be 

 tween the wild hogs introduced into the forest by Charl'es I., and 

 some of the ordinary breeds of his period. These animals are 

 heavy in the fore quarters, but light and meagre behind ; the withers 

 are high, the ears short, the mane thick and bristly, the color black 

 or brindled ; the disposition is fierce and distrustful, and they display 

 extraordinary activity and acuteness. The troops are headed by 



