SWINE. 101 



been well represented, as h:ive also the different breeds most esteem- 

 ed in this region. Some specimens, hoAvever, appeared to be of such 

 a mixture of breeds, that it would puzzle a farmer, and probably any 

 body else, to trace their genealogy, or to call them any thing but 

 hogs. 



The best and cheapest mode of producing the best pork, is a sub- 

 ject of very general interest. Probably, more families within the 

 limits of our Society participate in the production of pork, than of 

 any other variety of meat. And the same remark is doubtless true, 

 in regard to most country towns in New England, and throughout 

 the United States. Every step of progress, therefore, in the selection 

 and improvement of breeds, in determining the most suitable food, 

 the best and most economical mode of its preparation, and the best 

 general treatment of swine, is an advantage shared directly by large 

 numbers. And it becomes us, in this part of the United States, 

 especially, to look well to this matter, that it may be profitable for us 

 to produce pork for market. The quality and mode of producing it 

 must he superior, or our western brethren will supply our markets, 

 and even our next-door neighbors The farmer who lives a thousand 

 miles from Boston, and produces his corn (doubtless the best food for 

 fattening swine) on the cheap and fertile soil of the AVest, at a cost 

 varying from sixpence to fifty cents a bushel, can now, in many cases, 

 by the aid of railroads, transport his pork to that city for about the 

 same sum, that it used to cost our fathers twenty or thirty years ago, 

 to take it to the same market. 



It is quite certain that these causes arc producing the efi"ects, that 

 might naturally be expected. By the sixth United States census, 

 taken in 1840, it appears that the number of swine raised in Massa- 

 chusetts was 143,221. In our State census of 184.5, the number re- 

 turned was 104,740; being a reduction of 38,481 in five years. In 

 the last United States census, taken in 1850, the number is 81,119, 

 which shows a reduction of nearly one-half, in the brief period of ten 

 years. And during this same period of ten years, the population of 

 our state increased from 737,699 in 1840, to 994,271 in 1850. 



Notwithstanding the odds against us, pork has been, and will pro- 

 bably continue to be produced among us at a profit. But it can be 

 done only by good management, and by the production of a superior 

 article. The circumstances surrounding the Massachusetts farmer — 

 whose corn is worth a dollar a bushel, and who expects to rear and 

 fatten his pork in a pen of moderate size, with a small yard connect- 

 ed, and to feed them with the refuse of the dairy and kitchen, and 



