94 SWINE 



Irish Grazier. This pig probably has its peculiar name 

 because its foundation stock was the Irish pig and be- 

 cause of the fact that it was allowed to roam and get a 

 large share of its living by grazing. These pigs were 

 white in general, but had a few black spots. They were 

 very early-maturing hogs with a tendency to take on con- 

 siderable fat. They had a fine coat, upright ears, light 

 jowls, all of which helped to give the Poland-Chinas their 

 fine coat and symmetrical form. 



Berkshires. The Berkshire was also introduced into 

 the Miami Valley between 1835 and 1840 and used in de- 

 veloping the Poland-China. Many of the hogs used dur- 

 ing the early part of this period were white, but with the 

 Berkshire came the solid black hog with six white points. 

 This probably is responsible to a considerable degree for 

 the present fancy color of the Poland-China. 



Development of the Breed. The above mentioned 

 types of swine were taken to the Miami Valley, together 

 with still other of the early hogs of the country, and all 

 bred together, which furnished the original Poland-China. 

 Many of these, as will be seen, were composite breeds, 

 which in turn were made up of a considerable number of 

 other types and breeds, all of which had a tendency to de- 

 stroy type and break up the entity of the hog into the 

 various characters of the race to such an extent that the 

 possibility of the Poland-China reverting toward any par- 

 ticular type is largely eliminated. 



The development of the Poland-China cannot be ac- 

 credited to any one man, but to the farmers of the Miami 

 Valley in general. The packers of Cincinnati also took 

 great interest in developing the hogs of the country so as 

 to have the best possible pork product. In many instances 

 the packers bought at their own expense considerable 



