CHAPTER LXXVII 



THE TAMWORTH 



The native home of the Tamworth is the counties of Stafford, 

 Leicester, Northampton, and Warwick in central England, but 

 notably in Stafford. This is generally a rolling but not very hilly 

 region, with a temperate, moist climate. 



The ancestry of the Tamworth pig is obscure. Tradition and 

 history refer to a pig of Tamworth type existing early in the last 

 century. Most writers on the pig say but little of this breed and 

 we know almost nothing of its early development. Spencer states 

 that this is one of the oldest English varieties, which fed in 

 large droves on oak and beech mast in the forests of the mid- 

 land counties even before the battle of Waterloo. In an address 

 before a breeders' association at Detroit in 1899, Mr. E. N. Ball 

 stated that the breed was introduced into England from Ireland 

 by Sir Robert Peel about 18 12, but no evidence is found else- 

 where to support this statement. 



The early type of Tamworth was long of leg and snout, narrow 

 of back, and shallow of body, slow to mature, very active and 

 hardy, and usually of a sandy or reddish color. 



The improvement of the Tamworth came with the conversion 

 of England into a cultivated region, when farmers wanted a less 

 active type of pig. The opinion seems to prevail that this breed 

 was mainly improved by selection, the breeders seeking to secure 

 a quieter type, fattening more rapidly than of old and yet retain- 

 ing the characteristic color. In 1886 Mr. F. C. Fidgeon of 

 Tamworth, England, who had a considerable knowledge of the 

 breed, informed Professor Long that in the nearly sixty years 

 he had known the Tamworth he had never noticed so great a 

 change as from about 1880 to 1886. 



A generation ago [he says] they were a lean pig, of a very dark red color, 

 which never varied in shade and were provided with a very long snout. Of 



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