CHAPTER LXVIII 



THE CHESTER WHITE 



The original type of Chester White pig first became promi- 

 nent in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Long ago there existed 

 in both Chester and Delaware counties a large, coarse, white 

 pig. It has even been assumed that the original stock of this 

 sort came over with the early colonists, possibly at the time of 

 William Penn. Captain James Jeffries of Westchester, Pennsyl- 

 vania, in a voyage to England early in the last century (1820), 

 secured a pair of white pigs, male and female, from Bedford 

 County, England. These pigs have been referred to both as 

 Bedfordshire and Cumberland breeds, though the former is the 

 usually accepted title. The boar, which was retained by Cap- 

 tain Jeffries, had been a prize winner in England, and, used on 

 the old white type in Pennsylvania, had a distinctly refining 

 influence. This Jeffries boar was white, though he had bluish or 

 blackish skin spots, and a broad back, excellent hams, short legs, 

 and a refined head with droopy ears. Following the Jeffries 

 importation, Harvey Atwood of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 

 imported some white Chinese stock from England. This was a 

 sway-backed sort, with short legs, short face, droopy ears, and 

 having black, blue, and sandy spots in the hair, and possessing 

 excellent feeding and maturing qualities. The stock from Jeffries 

 and Atwood were blended together along with the common white 

 pigs of the region, and from this has come the first strain, if it 

 may be so termed, of the Chester White blood. 



The origin of the so-called Improved Chester White goes back to 

 England also. This has a special application to what is known as 

 Todd's Improved Chester White, and is based on a statement by S. 

 H. Todd, and adopted January 16, 190 1, by the American Chester 

 White Record Association. This is the most detailed informa- 

 tion published concerning the ancestry of the improved breed. 



497 



