56 SAVINE. - 



The only remaining difficulty is to know and obtain the best breed 

 for crossing with them. And first, it should not be the Chinese, be- 

 cause they incline to fatten too much on the belly and too httle on 

 the back, and besides, according to Youatt, they are too oily, 

 and do not make good bacon. Neither should they cross with either 

 the Berkshire or Byfield, because both are too small and snug 

 boned, to make a large hog. But probably, to put a case within 

 the reach of all, almost any of the large kind, the "old fashioned 

 kind," would make a good crossing with the Suffolk. 



To be definite however, the Committee have been exceedingly 

 pleased with the sow of Mr. Foster, of Andover, exhibited this year 

 at Lawrence, and her four pigs. This sow is the result of the 

 crossing of a pure Suffolk boar and a large breed of sows, called 

 sometimes the Chester, and sometimes the Westchester breed. — 

 The Committee are unable to learn whether this last breed is 

 common in our county. The mother of Mr. Foster's sow, referred 

 to, was a large, long-sided animal as we were informed, owned by a 

 Mr. Kimball, of Bradford. One such case, of course, is not suffi- 

 cient to determine a question of so much consequence ; but if Mr. 

 Kimball could be induced to keep his sow for breeding, and Dr. 

 Kittredge his pure Suffolk boars for the same purpose, much would 

 be done towards determining the matter. Nothing in the pens at 

 our show could begin to compare with the sow of Mr. Foster, re- 

 ferred to. 



One fact going to show the accidental differences in different 

 animals of the same breed, has come under the notice of the Com- 

 mittee, and goes to confirm the theory above suggested, viz. : that 

 hidden, occult causes may be at work on a part of the individuals 

 of the same species, and not upon others. The Chester sow, mother 

 of Mr. Foster's, above mentioned, was, as the Committee were 

 credibly informed, large, long and rather coarse. But no sooner 

 had we fixed in our minds the leading properties of the Chester sow, 

 than we met in the very next pen (Mr. I. Osgood Loring's,) a 

 Chester breeding sow, thirteen months old, with her four pigs, eleven 

 weeks old. The sow, however, had no resemblance to the mother 

 of Mr. Foster's, as it had been described to us, being small and 

 neat, and in many points resembling the Suffolk. If Mr. Loring's 

 is a genuine Chester breed, then the mother of Mr. Foster's could 

 not be, and in any way, a crossing of the pure Suffolk, and Mr. 



