CHAPTER LXVII 



THE DUROC-JERSEY 



Red, or sandy-colored, pigs have been bred in America for very 

 many years. When pigs of this color were first imported is not 

 recorded. A number of so-called breeds of red pigs were kept 

 early in the last century, and from these it has been assumed 

 the present-day red American pig, the Duroc-Jersey, is descended. 

 One well-known breeder of red hogs in New Jersey, in a circular 

 published about 191 3, states that "a century ago the Jersey Red 

 was known as the hog native to New Jersey." 



The Guinea breed of pigs is frequently referred to in agricultural 

 writings of a half century or more ago. In that section of western 

 Africa known as Guinea, slave-trading ships secured cargoes for 

 American ports. Here existed a red, or sandy, breed of swine, which 

 no doubt found its way to our shores. Youatt states that these pigs 

 were " large in size, square in form, of a reddish color, the body 

 covered with short, bristly hair, and smoother and more shiny than 

 almost any other variety of the porcine race." W. H. Montgomery 

 in 1852 wrote that the Red Guinea hog was imported into his 

 county in Iowa in 1849 from Steuben County, New York. A 

 correspondent of the American Farmer states that the African, 

 or Guinea, breed was brought to America as early as 1804 or 

 possibly earlier. 



The Portuguese breed of pigs was imported from Portugal by 

 Daniel Webster, about 1852, for his farm in Massachusetts. They 

 arrived at New York about the time of Webster's death, and his 

 heirs disposed of them to S. W. Jewett of Middlebury, Vermont, 

 and A. E. Beach of New York. They were dark red in color, and 

 in form resembled the Chinese pig. Red pigs from the Webster 

 importation and ancestry were distributed over several states east 

 and south. 



Spanish red pigs were imported by Henry Clay in 1837, four in 



number, and taken to his farm, Ashland, at Lexington, Kentucky, 



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