THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



237 



us that when he came to turn them into bacon, 

 it was a very different business from selling the 

 pigs at ten dollars a piece. In short, he did not 

 think them as profitable or desirable as the best 

 of the common stock of the country. So it is, 

 if a man wants a good looking " old field pig" 

 about here, he must give a Berkshire and boot, 

 to get him. 



It will be remembered that a very interesting 

 contest was at one time waged in our columns 

 between two gentlemen of this vicinity upon 

 the subject of the relative merits of black and 

 white hogs. One of them preferred a white 

 hog belonging to Mr. Thomas Dicken to the, 

 at that time, popular Berkshire stock; and al- 

 though we then thought he was wrong, we are 

 now satisfied that he was right, and that for the 

 southern mode of management this stock of Mr. 

 Dicken is one of the most valuable in the coun- 

 try. We have every reason, from description 

 and tradition, to believe this hog to be identical 

 with the "Chester and Delaware County Hog," 

 a portrait of which adorns this article. We 

 find accompanying this portrait the following 

 description in the "Farmers' Cabinet": 



" The above cut is the portrait of a sow of 

 this distinguished and highly valued breed, drawn 

 from life, and engraved by those excellent artists, 

 Mumford & Brother, expressly for our work. — 

 The measurement of this fine animal was six 

 feet nine inches long, from the tip of the nose to 

 the root of the tail, and six feet in circumference 

 immediately behind the fore legs. Her color 

 was perfect white, with a softness and silkiness 

 of hair scarcely ever before witnessed, while her 

 great length and depth of carcass, together with 

 a breadth across the back and loins enormous, 

 were such as to satisfy the most craving appetite 

 for monstrous hogs. A sketch was first taken 

 when she was heavy in pig with her fouith lit- 

 ter ; in an adjoining pen on the right, was a 

 daughter, second only in size to herself, with a 

 litter of ten pigs, and in that on the left, were 

 her spring litter of pigs, fifteen in number, she 

 having brought up seventeen, two having been 

 sent to New Orleans as specimens of the Ches- 

 ter county white hog, of which so much has 

 been said. But before the sketch could be fully 

 completed, she had farrowed sixteen pigs, and 

 her death followed within the space of three or 

 four days of that event. Her very peculiar cha- 

 racter and fine points, however, have been traced 

 by the hand of our draftsman with the most 

 perfect exactness, and exhibit a specimen of [ a 

 Chester and Delaware county hog,' such as the 

 advocates for that breed might well be proud of. 

 It will readily be perceived that this fine animal 



was not allied to the no bone breed, nay, that she 

 'had a head of her own,' as honest John Law- 

 rence says, and that she was able to carry it 

 too ; nor was her gigantic carcass supported 

 upon four 'spermaceti candles!' her symmetry 

 of form and proportions were perfectly in keeping, 

 and it was a fact that when she lay down, she 

 was able to rise without assistance — which could 

 not have been the case with nineteen-twentieths 

 of those we see portrayed, with the assurance 

 that the likeness is perfect. Many of these fine 

 deep-sided, long-bodied white hogs may be met 

 with in the adjoining counties of Pennsylvania, 

 as also in New Jersey ; but to those who have 

 been acquainted with the best of that breed, 

 their peculiarities are as marked as the old Eng- 

 lish breeds — the Berkshire, the Hampshire, the 

 Lancashire, or the Ryswick, none of which, 

 however, ever exhibited a more perfect specimen 

 of what such a hog ought to be, than the indi- 

 vidual portrayed above. She was owned by a 

 person named Montgomery, who refused seventy 

 dollars for her and her seventeen pigs the last 

 year, but her progeny was not worthy of her, 

 the sire of the brood having nothing to recom- 

 mend him but his length of carcass and white 

 color, and his ability to subsist on almost no- 

 thing — a grazier indeed, coarse and heavy in 

 the offal, although boasting of the cognomen 

 ' The Great Western !' The character of the 

 old Berkshire and the present Hampshire (see 

 pp. 89, 121 of the Cab. vol. 5, for portraits,) is, 

 that the meat when cut up exhibits the same 

 thickness, or very nearly so, on the sides and 

 belly as on the back ; producing what is called 

 streaky bacon in extraordinary proportion, with 

 the rind by no means thin, but gelatinous, and 

 the whole carcass cellular, and remarkably deli- 

 cate in texture." 



REAPING MACHINES. 

 In our last number we expressed a preference 

 for M'Cormick's machine over Hussey's : this 

 lead to an application on the part of Mr. Hus- 

 sey to be heard in behalf of his implement. It 

 is a matter of great interest to the agricultural 

 public to be informed of the comparative merits 

 of the different articles presented to their consi- 

 deration, especially of one so costly and so im- 

 portant as a reaping machine. For this reason 

 we have willingly admitted Mr. Hussey to our 

 columns, and for this reason we shall be pleased 

 to encourage the dispute until all the facts in- 

 teresting to the public have been elicited ; but 

 we shall be very careful to prevent this, as such 

 things are too apt to do, from degenerating into 

 a personal controversy. These gentlemen must 

 also remember that our space is very limited, 



