48 



locality, and he will be likely to form a different opinion. 1 

 remember that several years ago, I travelled over quite an ex- 

 tent of country, and looked at many lots of pigs before I found 

 a pair that came up to my standard, which I did not consider 

 an extreme one. How many coarse, long snouted, slab sided 

 runts were seen, T will not pretend to state. 



If we want a pig for bacon, we need a different sort of a pig 

 than for pork. 



The large breeds, such as the Berkshire, are best for bacon, 

 the smaller breeds for pork. If you want pigs with good con- 

 stitutions, which will come to early maturity and weigh 200 

 lbs. or thereabouts at a year old, take an Essex, or Small 

 Yorksliire boar and cross him on some of tlie large coarse 

 sows, with which the county abounds. Such pigs will be good 

 feeders, easily kept, and will give the best average results for 

 pork and bacon. 



Here comes in the importance of the sire. If real improve- 

 ment is expected, a pure bred boar should be used as much as 

 a pure bred bull on a herd of cows, whether the calves are 

 wanted for the dairy or the butcher. 



Harris says : " The question of Large vs. Small Breeds, 

 therefore, can only be answered by taking these oljjects into 

 consideration. We need both breeds. The large breed to give 

 us sows and the small breed to give us boars. It is a mistake 

 to refine and reduce the size of the large breed and then to 

 breed from these " improved" pigs of the large breed. To pro- 

 duce pigs merely for the butcher, we should resort to crosses 

 with a large, vigorous, unpampered sow, put to he finest, 

 thorough-bred boar of the small breeds that can be obtained. 



The larger the sow and the smaller the boar, the more will 

 the little pigs be able to eat in proportion to their size, and the 

 greater will be their growth in proportion to the food con- 

 sumed. 



Form — As the bullock which approaches nearest to the form 

 of a parallelopiped, is considered the greatest perfection of a 

 beef animal so the pig, whose shape suggests a parallelogram, 

 will be the most desirable porker for the butcher. 



