CHAPTER LXXVIII 



THE TAMWORTH 



The native home of the Tamworth is the counties of Stafford, 

 Leicester, Northampton, and Warwick in central England, but 

 notably in Stafford. This is generally a rolling but not very hilly 

 region, with a temperate, moist climate. The name of the breed 

 is taken from the town of Tamworth, located partly in Stafford- 

 shire and partly in Warwickshire. Sidney, in 1871, says, "the 

 Staffordshire breed is the 'Tamworth.'" 



The ancestry of the Tamworth pig is obscure. Tradition and 

 history refer to a pig of Tamworth type existing early in the last 

 century. Most writers on the pig say but little of this breed, and 

 we know almost nothing of its early development. Spencer states 

 that this is one of the oldest English varieties, which fed in large 

 droves on oak and beech mast in the forests of the midland coun- 

 ties even before the battle of Waterloo. In an address before a 

 breeders' association at Detroit in 1899, Mr. E. N. Ball stated 

 that the breed was introduced into England from Ireland by Sir 

 Robert Peel about 181 2, but the author has found no evidence 

 elsewhere to support this statement. 



The early type of Tamworth was long of leg and snout, narrow 

 of back, and shallow of body, slow to mature, very active and 

 hardy, and usually of a sandy or reddish color. 



The improvement of the Tamworth came with the conversion 

 of England into a cultivated region, when farmers wanted a less 

 active type of pig. The opinion seems to prevail that this breed 

 was mainly improved by selection, the breeders seeking to secure 

 a quieter type, fattening more rapidly than of old and yet retain- 

 ing the characteristic color. In 1886 Mr. F. C. Fidgeon of Tam- 

 worth, England, who had a considerable knowledge of the breed, 

 informed Professor Long that in the nearly sixty years he had 

 known the Tamworth he had never noticed so great a change as 

 from about 1880 to 1886. 



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