BKEEDING SOCIETIES 105 



Sealand favour the Frederiksborg breed of horses. In Funen 

 the breeding of Oldenburg half-bloods has many advocates, 

 and in 1906 a " Society for Breeding Light Horses in the 

 Province of Funen " was formed for the purpose of buying 

 from Oldenburg breeding animals, mostly fillies. Another 

 society for breeding carriage and riding horses was formed in 

 Funen in 1891. Its aim has gradually changed till it has come 

 to resemble somewhat the above-mentioned society with which 

 it, therefore, to some extent collaborates. 



PIG BREEDING SOCIETIES. 



In a previous chapter mention is made of the improvement 

 of the Danish pigs in the eighties by means of crossing with 

 pigs of the Large White Yorkshire breed. This crossing was 

 carried on in some places with the object of gradually convert- 

 ing the Danish breed into pure Yorkshire by continued use of 

 pure Yorkshire boars and sows with more and more Yorkshire 

 blood. The quality of the bacon derived from the resulting 

 pigs was improved so as to conform more and more to the 

 requirements of the Enghsh market : but the pure Yorkshire 

 pigs and the highly improved crosses were found to be rather 

 delicate for the Danish climate and other conditions. It was 

 further found that by crossing crossbred boars and sows at 

 random, as was done in many cases, pigs were produced which 

 were neither so prolific nor so robust in constitution as the 

 Danish breed, and which, therefore, did not suit the require- 

 ment of Danish farmers. A committee appointed by the 

 Federation of Sealand Agricultural Societies proposed, in 1893, 

 to regulate the breeding of pigs on better lines, and the Live 

 Stock Commissioner, Mr. Morkeberg, was asked by the Koyal 

 Agricultural Society to make a thorough investigation of the 

 state of pig breeding all over the country. As the result of 

 his work he found that the best bacon pigs were produced by 

 crossing sows of the coarser home breed with pure-bred boars 

 of the Large White, by which means animals were obtained 

 possessing the desirable points in a bacon pig, being at the same 

 time proHfic and hardy. In order to enable farmers in general 

 to produce this first cross for bacon it was necessary to keiep 



