•276 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



MARCH C, isau. 



(From Ihe Genesee Farmer.) 



IMPROVED BREEDS OF SWINE. 



The production of pork is one of the most valu- 

 able and important staples of the farmers of the 

 UnitedStai.es; and the swine of our country are 

 scarcely second in value, as farm stock, to the en- 

 tire amount of its neat cattle. Besides converting 

 the offal and coaser and less valuable of the farm 

 products into a marketable commodity in the feed- 

 ing of swine, tlie richest and most luxuriant grain 

 of the country is usually devoted to their prepara- 

 tion for market ; and throughout the whole interior, 

 in the pork crop of the farmer is combined the sur- 

 plus of his root cultivation, and the net proceeds 

 of his coarser grains: the gross result of all de- 

 pending on the final proceeds of his pork account. 



This is a very important matter for the farmer. 

 The entire modus operandi of rural economy is more 

 or less concerned in a subject so interesting in its 

 results of profit or of loss ; and is entitled, I fancy 

 to infinitely more consideration than is usually be- 

 stowed upon it. 



With most of our farmSrs,'6*en at the present 

 day, particularly in tlie western' country, among 

 that Klimorous and wide-spread class whose prin- 

 cipal dependence is on their pork crop for reward, 

 a hog is simply a — hog — the name comprising all 

 of excellence in the animal necessary to produce 

 the article of pork required. The brute in ques- 

 ■ tion, for it deserves no softer name, is indi- 

 genous to ihe country. It exists in the streets 

 of our cities, in the highways of our ordinary farm- 

 ing districts, and in the forests of the west and 

 south — and in every cornfield and potato ground too, 

 of the regions which they inhabit at all, provided 

 the fences enclosing them be not remarkably close 

 and of an extraordinary height Their chief ex- 

 cellencies are, the possession of a surpassingly ac- 

 tive and vigorous lever power in the poll and snout, 

 acting by an ingenious co-operation of the spinal 

 and nasal muscles ; a celerity of speed, equalled 

 only by the fox, or the hound, in a chase; and an 

 indomitable propensity to ali evil, conclusively il- 

 lustrative of their lineage from a conspicuous race 

 of scripture date. And this is the material from 

 ■which is jirodiiced, in more than three-fourths of 

 the United States, and indeed in almost the entire 

 continent of America, the vast supplies of pork 

 which are annually sold, purchased and consumed 

 in the land ! 



Important improvements, and wonderful changes, 

 have been introduced in most of our breeds of do- 

 mestic animals and farming sitock; but less in our 

 swine than in any other. Why tiiis universal ne- 

 glect in the improvement of an animal furnishing 

 us with our richest meats, and adapted to consume, 

 in the most profitable manner, not only to the farm- 

 er, but to the common house-keeper, the offal of 

 both the harvest and the kitchen, is not easy of 

 answer, unless it be that it.^ remarkaUle propensi- 

 ties of shifting for itself in its semi-savage condi- 

 tion, render it more acceptable to those who con- 

 sider that every thing pillaged from their neighbors, 

 or from the public, is so much direct benefit to 

 themselves. This perhaps is an uncharitable solu- 

 tion of the problem ; but I feelingly appeal to those 

 who, having a due regard to neighhorhood comfort, 

 and to individual right, if any other reason will ac- 

 count for the legions of miserable, starved, and 

 mischievious brutes running at large, disgracing the 

 name of even a — hog, and infesting almost the en- 

 tire land. 



Nor are the characteristics above named the only 

 objections to the common swine of our country. 

 They are huge and gross feeders; equally glutton- ' 

 ous in offensive animal offal, even to carrion, as in 

 vegetable food and grains. Measuied by well 

 chosen and approved physiological rules, and none , 

 other will or can be admitted by true economy, ! 

 utility, or common sense, the animal in question will j 

 be found utterly inadequate in comparison, to the ' 

 main purposes of the farmer or housekeeper for ^ 

 profit. From fifty to one hundred per cent, more 

 food, as the case may be, is required to make a giv- 

 en quantity of pork of inferior qui lity, both in taste, 

 and marketable varieties, from the common hog, 

 than is required in the improved breeds of our 

 swine. This fact h:is been so often demonstrated 

 that it needs no further confirmation, as all those 

 who are conversant with the subject will readily 

 testify. My own experience for many years is sat- 

 isfactory on this point, and with all intelligent men, 

 and practical farmers, no doubt exists upon the 

 subject 



Within tlie last three or four years, the public 

 attention has become much awakened to the ne- 

 cessity of a reform in this important branch of ag- 

 riculture, and following the rapid spirit of im- 

 provement in our neat stock by the importation of 

 many valuable breeds of short horn cattle from 

 abroad, and their dissemination throughout our 

 country, the better and more approved breeds of 

 swine have been eagerly sought after, and to a 

 considerable extent introduced into many sections 

 of the Union. Among our truly intelligent and 

 thrifty farmers, the spirit of acquisition in all im- 

 proved breeds of animals was never so active, and 

 I imagine that it only needs the dissemination of 

 fact and information ameng them, to draw their at- 

 tention yet more closely to it. 



So important does the question of a thorough 

 improvement in the swine of the United States ap- 

 pear, as connected with not only the quality of our 

 pork, but as a means of the absolute saving of 

 liundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars 

 annually to our farmers, thftt, since I have com- 

 menced the subject I feel disposed, even at tlie ex- 

 pense of prolixity, to speak of some of our most 

 approved breeds of swine ; yet I shall discourse of 

 nothing but such as I know and have tried by ac- 

 tual demonstration, and such as I can with entire 

 confidence declare to be worthy of attention. 

 As first among the most desirable breeds, I name the 



IMPROVED CHINESE. 



These animals in Iheir purity, arc e.xceedingly 

 scarce in the country. They may exist in several 

 parts of the United States, but I know of them 

 now at only one farm in this region. I first pur- 

 chased a pair of Caleb N. Bement, Esq. at Albaiiy, 

 in the fall of 1833, he having obtained tliem of J\Ir 

 Dunn of that city, who many years before, procur- 

 ed the breed from New Jersey, At the time 1 pur- 

 chased these of Mr Bement, he had many others of 



the kind, and I then thought, as the fact has since 

 proved, that he placed altogether too low an esti- 

 mate on their value as an original stock for the im- 

 provement of other breeds. That gentleman has 

 for some years past, I believe, been entirely out of 

 the breed, having turned his attention almost ex- 

 clusively to the breeding of Berkshires. 



The principal and most important characteristics 

 of this breed are, their exceeding quietness of dis- 

 position and habit: round and perlect proportions; 

 tolerable length of body ; delicacy of bone and 

 limb; smallness of head, legs and feet; lighter in 

 the offal parts than any other breed whatsoever ; 

 and a propensity to take on fat to a greater extent 

 with less food than probably any other animal in i 

 exi.stence. They are in fact the beau ideal of hogs ! j 

 In size they are only middling, weighing at nine 

 months old frouK 180 to 200 ; and at fifteea to 

 eighteen month-s, 250 to -100 pounds ; depend- 

 ing much upon their previous keep and fattening. 

 Of the original pair which I purchased, the sow still 

 survives, a good breeder, weighing in fair condition i 

 about 200 pounds. The boar at the age of four i 

 years, was overgrown with fat, and useless, although 

 kept only on grass in summer and with low food in 

 winter. He died when five years old, and his usual I 

 weight was about 400 lbs. One of their descen- 

 dants is now four years old past, and has arrived at i 

 the same condition, being useless for breeding pur- i 

 poses. Numbers of their progeny have been i 

 scattered far and wide over the country. I bred i 

 many of them on my own farm, but the calls were 

 too incessant for me to part with them, and not 

 being conveniently located for their distribution, I , 

 parted with nearly my entire stock a year or two I 

 since, to Mr A. B. Allen, who has bred them ex- 

 tensively for sale on his farm on the Niagara River, 

 two miles below Black Rock. I have fatted many 

 of this breed, mostly mixed with English blood, and 

 a few full blood, and I never made pork with equal 

 economy, and of such perfect quality as from these. 

 It is the breed slightly mixed with some other, tha^ 

 I would always select for the purposes of my own 

 farm, and I feel warranted in saying, without fear i 

 of contradiction, that a cross of the China is the 

 most valuable of any other in the country for eco- 

 nomical pork making. 



With all their perfections they are objected to J 

 by some ; and entire frankness in the matter de- 

 mands that their objections should be noticed. The 

 first of these is, their want of size. That has 

 been already stated. It is not an'object'on in my 

 view. If they had longer legs, whicli would spoil 

 them, this objection would not be so apparent 

 Others object to their lack of hardihood and want 

 of constitution. If an entire absence of hog-like 

 ferocity, and the greatest amenitj' of disposition of 

 Aiiich the animal is susceptible, together with the 

 ii>ve of a warm and snug shelter in the inclement 

 season, instead of a wild burrow in a fallen tree 

 top, or an ability to burghir itself into luxury at 

 any sacrifice to Us owner or his neighbor, be faults, 

 then truly have tlie China pigs most grievous ones ; 

 for they love a shelter and a home in winter ; and 

 it is dangerous to life for their young to come into 

 this breathing world in very cold weather — the first 

 of April to the first of A! ay being early enough 

 for a litter of full bred China pigs to see tlie light. 

 I know of no otlier vices with which they may be 

 charged, unless it be ihe lack of bristks, and a total 

 aversion to run, or to jump a fence, even two feet 

 high, or to be rapidly driven. The sows are uni- 

 versally good and careful nurses, having" from six 



