SWINE. 203 



Tlie progenitor was a hog, probably brought from China, which 

 was purchased in Newburyport from a ship's cook by a Byfield 

 farmer, and crossed with the " Newbury Whites," and with the 

 Mackay* and Leicester swine, brought by Gorham Parsons, Esq., 

 to his " Fatherland Farm " in Byfield. The pens of the well- 

 arranged and comfortable piggery were always creditably filled, 

 and the food for the inmates was always excellent and well 

 cooked. In 1826, James Ferguson, the foreman of Mr. Par- 

 sons, sold at Newburyport thirteen ,hogs, the weight of which 

 was as follows : 494, 424, 530, 406, 556, 454, 496, 336, 578, 

 370, 500,400 and 526 pounds, and two pigs, the weight of which 

 was 211 and 255 pounds, making an aggregate of 6,536 pounds. 

 He only received seven cents a pound, which was then consid- 

 ered a high price for pork, and it is questionable whether he 

 was remunerated for his outlay. But these unprofitable agri- 

 cultural operations by " gentlemen farmers " are useful lessons 

 to our yeomen, and the Byfield hogs were then and are now 

 unsurpassed in the county. 



About 1840 the Suffolk breed of hogs was introduced into the 

 county, by the purchase of imported stock, and we have since 

 had specimens of the Middlesex, the Berkshire and the Essex 

 breeds from England, the Neapolitans from Italy, and the Ches- 

 ter and the Columbia, of native production. But there has not 

 been that care bestowed upon the improvement of our hogs that 

 has been lavished upon our neat cattle, horses, sheep and even 

 poultry. Some of our best farmers either breed from indifferent 

 animals, or purchase pigs from droves ; and not only the num- 

 ber but the quality of the hogs of Essex is falling off. Our 



* Captain John Mackay commanded for some years a packet-ship which 

 sailed between Boston and Liverpool, Having a taste for rural pursuits, as 

 is generally the case with seafaring men, the captain bought a farm in Wo- 

 burn, and stocked it with the best hogs which he could find on the vessels 

 which came to Liverpool from different parts of the globe. When he at 

 last ceased to plough the deep, and devoted himself exclusively to his farm, 

 he gave especial attention to the combination of the several excellences of 

 his best hogs, especially those of the Asiatic race, and by perseverance and 

 judgment he at last produced (just as Robert Bakewell produced the Short- 

 horns,) the " Mackay " breed. For several years Capt. Mackay's hogs took 

 all of the premiums at the Brighton State cattle shows ; and Sanford How- 

 ard said of them, in 1838, that " for aptitude to fatten, and the attainment 

 of great size at an early age, they are unrivalled by any swine ever known 

 in our country." 



