SWINE. 175 



CHAPTER VIII. 



[THE following report, made by C. N. BEMENT, 

 Esq., at the annual meeting of the New- York State 

 Agricultural Society, will be found to embrace much 

 valuable information on the several breeds, as well 

 as the treatment of this animal. In scarcely any 

 instance has improvement been more manifest than 

 in the case of swine ; and it must be admitted, thai 

 in no case was such improvement more needed. 

 For farther information on this subject we refer to 

 the Cultivator, vol. vii., No. 1.] 



Until recently, very little attention has been paid 

 to the breeds of our farm-stock; and pigs, being 

 considered an inferior species of domestic animals, 

 have been the last to engage the attention of the 

 farmer : even at the present day, in many districts 

 of our country, the old, unprofitable kinds of this 

 animal continue to prevail. Indeed, systematic 

 breeding, with a view to improve the form and value 

 of the animal, may be said to have hardly com- 

 menced among us, the improvements which are 

 perceptible being rather the fruits of European thak 

 American skill. 



A common error in this country has been to re- 

 gard more the size of the animal than its symmetry 

 or good points ; to estimate a breed according to the 

 great weight which it could be made to attain rather 

 than the profit with which it could be fitted to the 

 hands of the butcher the most material point to the 



