'2U BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



however, the infusion of some first-class Yorkshire and Suf- 

 folk blood into New England has, during the past quarter of 

 a century, greatly improved the originals. 



These so-called American breeds, in my opinion, are not 

 true thoroughbreds, and this opinion has been formed by per- 

 sonal observation at the State Fairs, not only here in the 

 East, but throughout the West. 



I have always found a marked difference in the same lit- 

 ters ; among the Poland Chinas, some pigs with the long, 

 sugar-loaf head of the old-fashioned Magic type, and others 

 with the short-dished face of the thoroughbred Berkshire. 

 Among the Chester Whites in the same litters I have found 

 the drooping ear, with a sort of teat on the under side, 

 coarse bones and crooked legs, the early characteristics of 

 this breed, and with these same pigs the finer, shorter head 

 and clean limbs of the Yorkshire or Suffolk. 



The definition of a thoroui^hbred is when "like begets 

 like, or the likeness of some ancestor ;" and how clearly this 

 is found in the modern English breeds, every pig in the 

 litter having the characteristics, and only the characteristics, 

 of its distinct family, even to the markings of the bristles. 

 I fully appreciate that I am casting a bomb into the camp of 

 our American breeders ; but I will stand my ground. In 

 Greenfield, a few years ago, when talking on this same sub- 

 ject before a farmers' institute, the farmers objected to this 

 assertion of mine, but proved it, to my great satisfaction, 

 soon afterwards by admitting that their present Chester 

 Whites were no more like the original parent stock, brought 

 twenty-five years ago from Chester County, than the im- 

 })roved shorthorn steer is like the coarse ox found to-day on 

 some of our New England farms. Among the English farm- 

 ers, a few men — generally of wealth, and always with great 

 intelligence and perseverance — make the developing of a 

 breed a life study. 



I find Mr. Sanford Howard's paper on " Swine," published 

 in the Report of our State Board of Agriculture in 1853, by 

 our late secretary, Mr. Flint, most complete and interesting. 

 He speaks of Capt. John Mackay, a wealthy sea-captain and 

 ship-owner of Boston, who brought pigs on his ships from 

 all parts of the world, beginning in 1830. He did a great 



