OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 283 



AMERICA'S MOST CONSTRUCTIVE SWINE BREEDER 



111. The tale of Berkshire improvement in America is only 

 complete when one considers Berkshire types in seasons before 

 the advent of Wood Dale Farm in breeding and showrings, and 

 the stamp that prevailed thereafter. "The Master Breeder, 

 who has led the Berkshire breed up from the depths into a 

 position of commanding eminence," is Nicholas H. Gentry. 

 In early years the Berkshire was a short, compact fine-boned 

 pig, whose prick ears and short face were deemed non-concomi- 

 tant with the deep side, long body and finished scale that 

 market bacon and lard ideals demanded. So thoroughly had 

 this notion been inculcated into the American swine producers, 

 that the grass nurtured hog of the Miami valley and the mas- 

 sive framed descendant of the Jersey Red gradually over- 

 whelmed the qualitied progeny of English pork triumphs. To 

 "Nick" Gentry more than to any other man, is due the credit 

 for the re-establishment of the breed's prestige and the promo- 

 tion of its distribution. 



N. H. Gentry was born on Wood Dale Farm, March 16th, 

 1850. His grandfather, Reuben Gentry, had entered the land 

 from the Government direct, and had settled on it in 1819, just 

 one century ago. Not an acre of it has ever been transferred 

 from the family and the title reads only in the Gentry name. 

 The pioneer Gentry emigrated from Madison Co., Kentucky, to 

 Missouri in 1809, fast on the heels of Daniel Boone. Both 

 Reuben Gentry and son lived the fullness of their years on 

 Wood Dale Farm, but it was not until 1875 when N. H. Gentry 

 paid the Snells of Edmonton, Ontario, $1,800 for three imported 

 Berkshires that the standard of purebred livestock was placed 

 at the head of the farm policy. 



From the blood of these three individuals came the entire 

 herds of later years. Mr. Gentry's system of linebreeding and 

 inbreeding his Longfellows, Lees and Duchesses so patently 



