376 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



NORFOLK. 

 From the Report of the Committee. 



The display of swine at the Norfolk Agricultural Fair was 

 one of the finest ever seen in Massachusetts. The attention 

 of farmers in Norfolk County seems to have been especially 

 directed to the subject of swine. The Suffolk breed, in partic- 

 ular, is regarded with much enthusiasm. 



The First Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of 

 Agriculture of Massachusetts, 1854, says, page 93, " We see 

 that the Suffolk, or rather a cross of the Suffolk with some 

 other breed, holds the highest place in public estimation in all 

 parts of the State." 



It is claimed, and coincides with the views of your committee, 

 that, in point of economy, this breed of hogs is much easier 

 kept, and takes- on fat faster, and at less expense, than any other 

 known. There is much less waste in cutting up for the barrel ; 

 the pork is sweeter and more delicate. They are docile, 

 thrifty, and mature early, weighing, at from twelve to eighteen 

 months, from two hundred to four hundred and fifty pounds, 

 and occasionally as high as five hundred. The extent to which 

 these weighty considerations have a bearing upon the Massa- 

 chusetts farmers cannot be better conveyed than by instancing 

 the fact that the committee saw a few days since, at the farm 

 of Dr. Morton, in West Needham, a pair of pure Sufifblks, im- 

 ported from the yard of Prince Albert for the sole purpose of 

 getting a different strain of blood into his herd of Suffolks, 

 which have already carried more prizes from the Norfolk 

 County Show than any others in it, and from which a boar and 

 a sow each took your Society's first premium at their last ex- 

 hibition. 



The profit in raising swine by the New England farmer is 

 not in the breed alone; there should be warm, comfortable pig- 

 geries, with conveniences for manufacturing manure. This is 

 one of the largest sources of profit, and one which is entirely 

 lost sight of by many. 



Hiram W. Jones, Chairman. 



