530 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK v. 



at the large shows. It will prove a satisfactory way of dealing with the 

 subject, if we give a short description of those varieties for which at 

 the present time the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England offers 

 prizes. In the Society's prize schedule we find the Large White, the 

 Middle White, the Berkshire, the Tamworth, the Large Black and the 

 Lincolnshire Curly-Coated breeds. 



The Large, Middle and Small White pigs were originally included in 

 the term " Yorkshires," mainly because large numbers of pigs, principally 

 of a white colour, were kept in that extensive county by the farmers, 

 and to a very considerable degree by the mechanics in the neighbourhood 



Fig. 135. Large White Boar, "Holywell Czech II." 



Winner of many Prizes. Bred by Mr. Sanders Spencer, and pwnad by 

 Mr. Charles Spencer, Holywell, St. Ives. 



of the larger towns, at some of which agricultural shows have been held 

 for a great number of years. Indeed, the town of Otley claims to have 

 one of the oldest societies extant. It is only within the last forty years 

 or so that any particular attention has been paid to the sub-divisions 

 into which the white pigs are now generally separated, and it is only fair 

 that it should be recorded that breeders of white pigs not resident in the 

 boundaries of Yorkshire have contributed most largely to that fixity of 

 points aimed at in the three sections of what used in olden times to be 

 called the Yorkshire breed of pigs. 



The large Yorkshire, or, as it is now more generally called, the LARGE 

 WHITE (fig. 135), should have a white skin, although a few spots of blue 

 on the skin were not specially disliked until foreign buyers objected to it 

 as a sign of impurity. It is not always so, as many of the most successful 

 show pigs have had these blue spots, which, however, are now being care- 



