278 



The Large White Pig. 



[June, 



The bacon curers in these islands gave free expression in the 

 public press to their requirements as to the form and degree of 

 fatness of the pigs for which they were enabled to pay the 

 highest price, so that the breeders of the various kinds of pigs 

 had placed before them a model to which they might work up. 

 The general body of pig breeders did not seem inclined to make 

 any great alteration from the type of pig which they had been 

 breeding, but one or two breeders of Large White pigs were 

 apparently impressed with the fact that with some modification 

 their favourite breed of pig could be made so that it would 

 qualify as a bacon curer's pig. The jowl was lightened, the 

 shoulders were made much lighter, the lean meat increased, the 

 bone was made of finer quality, the form of the ham was im- 

 proved and the quantity of fine hair increased. In the seventies 

 of last century the Large White was a large pork pig, in the 

 eighties and nineties it was a bacon pig. The so-called improved 

 Large White and its crosses were tried by the home curers with 

 satisfactory results ; the bacon placed on the London and Man- 

 chester markets complied so much more nearly with the require- 

 ments and fancies of the consumer than did the imported bacon, 

 that the manufacturers of bacon in Denmark purchased a con- 

 siderable number of large white boars from a large herd in the 

 Midland Counties. The results were so satisfactory that the 

 Canadian curers sent orders for breeding pigs of the Large 

 White breed to the same breeder. Eventually exports of Large 

 White pigs of this distinct type were made to all those foreign 

 countries where bacon curing is carried on to any extent. 



The Large White pig had become so popular that foreigners 

 whose native pigs were far too small and short, purchased at 

 prices which were at the time considered to be exceedingly high, 

 the largest pigs of the breed, those which were long in the face 

 and high on leg. Unfortunately, owing to this, a large propor- 

 tion of the breeders of Large Whites followed the example of 

 the Berkshire breeders by studying the requirements of this 

 limited proportion of the buyers of pure -bred pigs whose wants 

 were of a special character, and by so doing rendered their pigs 

 of considerably less value to the greater portion of their cus- 

 tomers whose demands were for smaller fine joints from pigs 

 which developed early. The breeders of Berkshires have restored 

 their pigs to public favour and usefulness and there are clear 

 signs of an awakening of the breeders of Large Whites to the fact 

 that although fancy points help to sell a few pigs at high prices 

 for a short period, the commercial market is of greater import- 



