SWINE FOR THE HOME MARKET. 245 



deal to improve our stock, and a breed called the Mackay 

 breed was soon well known throuorbout New England and 

 the Middle States. These pigs, although a great improve- 

 ment, varied very much in size and shape, as one might 

 naturally suppose. 



The Stickneys, William and Josiah, imported, from 1842 

 to 1848, a number of the improved Suffolk, and created a 

 great demand for this stock throughout the country ; and 

 the effects of this importation are found to-day in many a 

 New England pen. 



Later, the old Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agri- 

 culture, always ready to lend a generous hand to improve 

 the condition of our common fiirm-stock, imported Berk- 

 shires, Essex and Yorkshires, selected from tho best pens in 

 England, and from time to time has distributed them 

 throughout the State. 



The question of to-day is. What pig is the most profitable 

 for us to breed for our home market ? This can be easily 

 answered by saying, That pig which in the shortest space 

 of time on a given amount of food will produce the most 

 pork. 



Our market has changed, even in my day, very greatly. 

 Formerly, the packers wanted a large hog, weighing from 

 400 to 600 pounds, from one to two years old, and paid the 

 highest price for such pork. To-day, these same buyers 

 want pigs weighing from 200 to 300 pounds, and prefer those 

 not over ten months old. 



Compare a grade shorthorn steer of to-day, with its 

 almost perfect symmetry and small amount of waste, to the 

 beef animal of fifty years ago, and what do we find by the 

 comparison ? In the former, as much beef at two years of 

 age and of much better quality than in the latter at four 

 years of age. Similar results are obtained with our best 

 grade pigs, for we get as much pork in eight months as we 

 formerly did in twelve. 



Nearly all writers on this subject agree that for the 

 ordinary farmer, with his usual facilities for fattening pigs, 

 a thoroughbred boar of small bone, with a short nose and of 

 early maturity, crossed in sows that have plenty of constitu- 

 tion, and that might, perhaps, be considered a little coarse; 



