ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 263 



They are very hardy, but are not proof against dis- 

 eases of the more fashionably bred hogs. They take 

 care of themselves and live in swamps and river bot- 

 toms, but it requires two or three years for them to 

 mature ready for them to put on fat/' Such hogs 

 are still encountered on the over-flowed lands along 

 the rivers of the interior valleys where they afford 

 some sport to local hunters. 



Hogs of the best blood of the time came to Cali- 

 fornia in 1853, being included in the efforts for 

 improved farming in that year. After satisfying 

 demonstration of the success of this movement, the 

 State Board of Agriculture in 1860 published this 

 memorandum : "Seven years ago a few men saw the 

 peculiar adaptation of our climate to the rapid devel- 

 opment of animal existence and hence the richness of 

 the field for the rearing and improvement of stock. 

 They purchased at great expense of time and money, 

 in distant portions of the earth, at great risk, a few 

 choice specimens of blood cattle, horses, sheep and 

 swine. Their growth and tendency to multiply more 

 than verify the predictions of the projectors of the 

 enterprise/' 



This importation was not by association; it was 

 a group of individual enterprises in which many 

 entered in their own ways. Contemporary records 

 show that the breeds of hogs thus brought to the 

 State were Westphalia, Bedford, Suffolk, Berkshire, 

 Essex, Yorkshire, Leicester, Chester-White, Irish 

 Grazier, and China. All these were shown at fairs 

 previous to 1863, and this claim was officially made 



