BREEDS OF SWINE 51 



characters which are most desirable. These characters 

 are then established and stabilized by continued selection. 



It is a noteworthy fact that all of our breeds of swine 

 of today have had extremely local origins. For example, 

 the Poland-China, a lard type of swine that originated 

 largely in Warren County, Ohio, now has a world-wide 

 distribution. Among the other breeds, the Berkshire and 

 Yorkshire were extremely local during their early de- 

 velopment, but now their distribution is very wide. 

 Thus we have many breeds of hogs, some very generally 

 distributed and of great importance, and others very much 

 localized and of less importance. In the British Isles 

 alone, there have been numerous breeds described. On 

 the Continent breeds and sub-breeds are present in 

 abundance, and we find almost every agricultural section 

 with its own native breeds. It was not until about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, or a little later, that an 

 active and systematic effort was made to improve the 

 breeds. At that time the efforts were centered upon the 

 production of new breeds, while all of our efiforts at 

 present should be centered on perfection of what these 

 breeders have accomplished. 



Breeds of swine. — Breeds and races of swine are identi- 

 cal. By these terms we refer to the several small groups 

 of swine that closely resemble each other. The breeds 

 usually derive their names from the locality in which 

 they originate. Our present day breeds are the results 

 of generations of effort, and we are very fortunate to 

 have them in their present state of perfection. 



In making a study of the breeds of swine, one is at 

 once impressed by their numbers, which far exceed 



