OEDEE OF PACHYDEEMATA. 173 



the back arched ; the ramp hanging down {avalee) ; the legs 

 thin ; the skin hard and covered with coarse bristles. 



The Norman race is better made. Its body is long, and its 

 back horizontal. It has been brought to great perfection in the 

 valley of Ange. 



The Craonaise race (Fig. 41) is remarkable for the fineness of 

 its bones, of its skin, and of its bristles. Its pork is excellent, and 

 so are its hams. 



The Lorraine race furnishes pork and bacon of excellent quality. 

 All these races are white, and are gentle in their habits. To 

 another group belong races which are piebald with white and 

 black, and have semi-pendant ears. Such, for instance, are the 

 Perigordine race (Fig. 42), of which the best specimens are 

 sold at the fairs of Saint Yriex and Saint Leonard ; also the 

 Bressane race (Fig. 43), of which the meat is rather coarse and 

 stringy. 



Among the foreign breeds, we will confine ourselves to mention- 

 ing the Middlesex, the Windsor, and the new Leicester breeds, 

 remarkable for the symmetry of their shape, and their fine and 

 rosy skin ; these in ten or twelve months become so excessively 

 stout that the neck, the face, and the eyes almost disapj^ear in the 

 fat. Their flesh is fine and melting, but the animal is of a deli- 

 cate constitution. 



The Berkshire breed (Fig. 44), hardy, rapid of growth, the most 

 lucrative of all when it is well fed, furnishes excellent pork and 

 a much firmer bacon than that which is given by the English 

 white-skinned races. 



As examples of mixed races, that is to say crosses made between 

 French and foreign breeds, we will confine ourselves to mentioning 

 the New-Leicester Craonaise. 



The fecundity of Pigs is remarkable. Two litters a year can be 

 obtained from a Sow, and each litter may consist of from twelve to 

 fifteen. Agricultural reports teU us that one single Leicestershire 

 Sow had three hundred and fifty-five young ones, in twenty litters. 

 Vauban, when occupied with the question of provisioning towns, 

 recommended the rearing of these animals : he calculated that in 

 ten generations one single Sow could supply 6,434,838 Pigs. 



When a Sow has had a litter of Pigs, the little ones should be 

 placed within reach of her teats, the most vigorous of the young 



