710 Ueport on the Pigs Exldhited at Winchor. 
have had immediate effect, but ouly two years afterwards the 
Stewards had to complain of similar practices. A society, like 
an individual, cannot easily protect itself against absolute bad 
faith ; but it is to be hoped that these frequent remonstrances 
have at last begun to have some eflfect upon the few exhibitors 
who have in the past done only too much to bring discredit 
upon their class. 
White Breeds. 
Authorities seem generally to agree that the Large White 
breed is descended, practically uncrossed, from the native pig of 
the country. Mr. Rowlandson in his prize essay ' says that 
there are good grounds for supposing that " the old English 
hog," with flop ears, was originally the only domestic animal 
of its kind throughout the kingdom. The genuine old 
English breed was " coarse-boned, long in limb, narrow in the 
back, and low-shouldered," and Professor Low tells us, further, 
that it was " mostly white " in colour. It is said that one of the 
earliest, if not absolutely the first improver of pigs was 
Bakewell, who applied to the local breed of Leicestershire the 
same principles which he adopted with such marked success in 
the case of Long-horned cattle and Leicester sheep. These 
improved Leicester pigs were subsequently used to improve the 
breed of Yorkshire. Mr. Coleman, in his work on the pigs of 
Great Britain, refers to the enormous specimens of white pigs 
exhibited at the earlier Shows — from 1839 to 1850 — of the 
Royal Agricultural Society, and states that he remembered 
seeing animals which were estimated at fifty imperial stones. 
Of late years the Large Whites — always popular — have taken a 
still more prominent position by reason of the marked favour 
shown them by the bacon-curers. The display at Windsor was 
not exceptional either in numbers or merit. There were twenty- 
seven entries, and the prize-winners were Messrs. J. & W. H. 
Charles, Sanders Spencer, 0. E. Duckering, Denston Gibson, 
E. W. Harcourt, A. Hiscock jun., J. Nuttall, and Joseph Innes, 
and the Guardians of Prescot Union. 
The Middle White breed has been recognised for a good many 
years, but the line which divides a Middle White from a Large 
White on the one hand and a Small White on the other is one 
which is, to say the least, irregular. Mr. William Wright, in 
his " Report on the Farming of Yorkshire," published in 1861,^^ 
says that the Yorkshire Middle breed " are about the same size 
as the Berkshire, but have smaller heads and are much lighter 
' Journal, Vol. XI. 1st Series (1850), p. 575. 
2 Ibid. Vol. XXII. (1861), p. 124. 
