SWINB. 395 



thin, soft, and showing veins; jowl full; neck short and thick; shoulder 

 short fiom neck, to middling deep from back down; back broad 

 and straight, or a very little arched; ribs — long ribs, well sprung, giving 

 rutundity of body; short ribs of good length, giving breadth and level- 

 ness of loins; hips good length from point of hip to rump; hams thick, 

 round, and deep, holding their thickness well back and down to the 

 hocks; tail fine and small, set on high up; legs short and fine, but 

 straight and very strong, with hoofs erect, legs set wide apart; size 

 medium; length medium, extremes are to be avoided; bone fine and 

 compact; offal very light; hair fine and compact; skin pliable. 



The Bershires are hardy, prolific, and excellent nurses; their meat is 

 of superior quality, with fat and lean well mixed. 



Size. There have been improved Berkshires, both in England and 

 America, whose dead weight, dressed, occasionally exceeded eight 

 hundred pounds; but the general weight, full grown, is from three 

 hundred to six hundred pounds, according as the smaller or larger pigs 

 are selected from the litters for fattening, and as they are subsequently 

 fed and attended. The smaller sizes mature several months the quickest, 

 and are preferred in the markets for fresh pork; and for curing also, for 

 those who are particularly nice in the choice of their meat, find their 

 meat more tender and delicate than the larger animals. 



Quality of Meat. The meat of the improved Berkshire, like that 

 of the unimproved, abounds in a much greater proportion of sweet, ten- 

 der, juicy lean, well marbled with very fine streaks of fat, than other 

 breeds of swine; but the former is far more delicate now, than the latter 

 ever was. This renders the whole carcass the most suitable of all for 

 smoking. The hams and shoulders almost entirely lean, a thin rim of 

 fat covering only the outside. 



Maturity.' The improved Berkshire can be fattened at any age. 

 Barrows mature in twelve to eighteen months, according as selected 

 from the litters, whether the largest or smallest, and as subsequently fed 

 and treated. It takes boars and sows reserved for breeding about six 

 months longer to get their fullest size and weight, as they are not 

 pushed by high feed so rapidly as those destined for more immediate 

 slaughter. 



The SuflEblks. F. D. Coburn, in "Swine Husbandry," has the fol- 

 lowing to say regarding this breed: 



"The Suffolks are not raised pure, or used as a cross in the principal 

 pork producing States so extensively as several other breeds, nor are 

 they so well known to a majority of farmers, who have a belief, ir noi 



