57 



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 By- 

 field. 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. Parsons, sold at Newburyport thirteen 

 hogs, the weight of which was as follows, 494 — 424 — 530 — 

 406 — 556 —454—496—336—578—370—500—400—526, 

 and two pigs, the weight of which was 211 and 255, making 

 an aggregate of 6,536 pounds. He only received seven cents 

 a pound, which was then considered a high price for pork, and 

 it is questionable whether he was remunerated for his outlay. 

 But these unprofitable agricultural operations by "gentlemen 

 farmers" are useful lessons to the 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 Chester 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. 



♦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 sea-faring 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 thej combination of the several excellencies of his 

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

 ment he at last produced, (just as Robert Bakewell produced the Shorthorns,) 

 the "Mackey" Breed. For several years Capt. Mackey's hogs took all of 

 the premiums at the Brighton State Cattle shows, and Sanford Howard 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." 



