444 THE BREEDS OF LIVE-STOCK 
553. Types. — To meet the modern demand, many 
breeders of Essex swine are striving to develop a type with 
more size, heavier bone and greater length. That they 
are meeting with some degree of success is evidenced by 
the types of Essex placed on exhibition at some of the fairs 
during the past few years. This recent type gives more 
promise of present-day utility than the type we have 
been accustomed to see. 
554. Uses of Essex hogs. — The Essex belongs to the 
extremely quick maturing, easily fattened type. Its lack 
of size prevents its becoming popular with the general 
farmer, and it is more suited to the requirements of the 
villager, who keeps one or two pigs, and who wishes to 
use the minimum amount of food. He will not have so 
many pounds of pork, but he will have a finished hog with 
a small outlay. The breed is regarded as being a cheap 
producer of meat, and no doubt such is the case; but it 
would not be safe to assume that it will always produce 
meat at a lower cost than larger breeds. The meat from 
the Essex is fine-grained, but excessively fat. 
The sows are not regarded as prolific, but a great deal 
depends on how they are fed and managed. 
For cross-breeding, the Essex is suitable for crossing 
with unduly coarse types. In the past, it played an im- 
portant part in improving other breeds, but as the breeds 
of swine have been brought to a finer type, the field of the 
Hssex has become narrowed, until the breed is now more 
famous for what it has accomplished than for what it is 
capable of doing at present. About the only important 
opening for it in the United States at present, is the con- 
quest of the “ Razorback ’’ of the South, and on this 
mission it has already set forth. 
555. Distribution. — The Essex has spread from its 
