22 A MANUAL ON THE HOG. 



4 ' Another feature, aside from the half and half black and 

 white spots, hitherto occasionally found to mark the 

 improved Berkshire swine, which may be adduced in 

 support of the supposition of a sparing cross with the white 

 and light-spotted Chinese, is the shape of the jowls. All 

 these, which I have bred in my piggery, or imported, 

 at different times, direct from China, or have seen else- 

 where, had much fuller, fatter jowls than the Siamese. 



" Some of the breeders in England preferred the fat jowls, 

 because carrying the most meat ; others the leaner, as they 

 said this gave their stock a finer and higher-bred look in 

 the head." 



There is, perhaps, no better authority on this subject 

 than Mr. Allen, who went to England in 1841, and again, 

 in 1867, where he visited Berkshire county, and thoroughly 

 investigated the origin of this breed. This, taken in con- 

 nection with his large experience and observation in this 

 country, has given him unusual opportunities for correct 

 information. 



Under the head of 



"WHEN WAS THE CROSS FIRST MADE?" 

 Mr. Allen says: 



"Several aged men, in different parts of Berkshire, of 

 whom I inquired on my first visit to England, in 1841, 

 informed me, that they had known these improved swine, 

 of the same type as I then found them, from earliest 

 childhood. But the most particular, and apparently reliable, 

 account I was able to obtain, was from Mr. Westbrook, of 

 Pinkney Green, Bysham, who told me that his father pos- 

 sessed them as early as 1780, in as great perfection as the 

 best then existing in the country. 



"Thus, it will be seen, that the improvement is now, at 

 least, a century old, and, more probably, a century and a 

 quarter; for it would have taken some years back of 1780 

 to begin a new breed of swine, and get it up to a fixed 

 type at that period." 



