210 
Pigs: their Breediirj and JMaiiagoncnt. 
no one can for a moment doubt. In my own practice I have 
repeatedly proved how much more j)rohtable is a well-bred pig 
than a coarse inferior animal. 
The Americans are paying the utmost attention to the 
breeding of pigs : a Herd-book has been established for the 
registration of pedigrees, and is supported by hundreds of 
breeders in the different States. VVhen an American comes 
over to England to buy pigs, he will buy only of those breeders 
who can produce a well-kept record of pedigrees. If English 
breeders would, by a small additional outlay, commence with a 
good race, and pay the same attention to rearing and feeding as 
they do to other animals, they would well-nigh double the amount 
of meat produced, and this at little more than the cost of bringing 
their present ill-bred animals to maturity. Several cottagers 
in my own neighbourhood are lully alive to the importance of 
this matter, for they will give lour or five guineas for a young 
sow-pig from good stock, rather than go into the market and buy 
cme for half the price. Instances have come to my knowledge 
in which cottagers have thus made 20/. to 25/. during the year 
from the produce of one sow, with the keep derived mainly 
from their own garden and house-refuse, in many cases the 
housewife taking the entire feeding into her hands. 
Before discussing further the subject of breeding, I would 
observe that some thirty years ago I was led to study the 
physiology of breeding through meeting with a remarkable 
book, ' Intermarriage,' by Alexander Walker, which, although 
devoted to the human family, contained valuable treatises upon 
'The Application of the Natural Laws to the Breeding of 
Horses, Cattle, and Sheep.' In 1854 Mr. Reginald Orton, a 
medical practitioner ot Sunderland, delivered two lectures to the 
Newcastle Farmers' Club upon ' The Physiology of Breeding,' 
in which he laid down certain fixed principles. Subsequent 
observations and experience have satisfied me that the principles 
laid down by Mr. Orton are sound ; and although, like every 
other breeder, I know something of the uncertainties attending 
the breeding of animals, yet I am convinced that there are 
certain laws pertaining to the process, which, like all Nature's 
operations, are fixed and unalterable, and which cannot be dis- 
regarded with impunity. 
From my own observation, from conversations with the late 
Mr. M'Combie, and comparing notes with other breeders, I have 
come to the conclusion that the following cardinal points in the 
art of breeding have been fairly established : — • 
1. That from the male parent is mainly derived the external 
structure, configuration, and outward characteristics — 
the locomotive peculiarities inclusive. 
