1922.] 



The Large White Pig. 



277 



at different shows. It is within the knowledge of the writer th it 

 the same pig has won at the Royal as a Small Yorkshire and in 

 the nondescript class, and that a pig has won in the latter class 

 and then in later years has won as a Large Yorkshire. Any 

 difficulty which might have arisen was easily overcome by enter- 

 ing a pig as " age and breeder unknown." This last practice 

 had become so common, seven prizes for pigs so described having 

 been won at one Royal show, that the buyers from the United 

 States discussed the question in the American live stock papers 

 and asked how any pigs of unknown descent could qualify in the 

 classes for pigs of a denned breed and possessing a pedigree? 

 This, and the difficulty, if not impossibility, of identifying white 

 pigs and their breeders, were two of the chief causes of the estab- 

 lishment of the National Pig Breeders' Association some forty 

 or more years ago. Some few years before the classification of 

 Yorkshire pigs had been altered at the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's shows, where prizes were offered for Small White pigs, 

 Large White pigs, and Middle W T hite pigs, and as scales of points 

 had been drawn up, these with the registered pedigrees of the 

 pigs entered, ensured to a considerable extent that the exhibits 

 were accurately described and shown in the various classes. The 

 comparatively short recorded pedigrees possessed by the pigs 

 entered in the first few volumes afforded proof that the three 

 varieties of Yorkshire pigs had not been bred on denned lines for 

 any great length of time prior to the foundation of the herd book. 

 Indeed it would be most difficult, if not impossible, to furnish 

 proof that the Large White pig existed as a distinct and separate 

 type before the seventies of last century. 



About that period there was also a great change in the type of 

 pig demanded by the purveyors of pork and especially bv the bacon 

 curers. Pigs furnishing a much smaller proportion of fat to lean 

 meat were in more general demand. The introduction of the 

 cold air system had enabled bacon curers to carry on operations 

 with as great ease during the summer months as during winter, 

 so the necessity ceased for salting heavily the bacon intended for 

 consumption during the summer. The necessity for bacon pigs 

 carrying a large proportion of fat to lean also ceased when the 

 mild-curing system became possible with the aid of the cold air 

 chambers. With the passing of the heavily salted lean portion 

 of the bacon there sprung up an enormously increased demand 

 for what has been termed " breakfast bacon," i.e., lightly cured 

 bacon carrying comparatively little fat and manufactured from 

 pigs long in the carcass and thus affording the largest possible 

 proportion of the middle portion of the side of bacon. 



