AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
ITarm, G-arden, and Id oul seliold. 
“AGRICULTURE IS TIIE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AN 1> MOST NOBLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.”— Washington. 
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Entered according to Act of Congress in March, 1870, by Orange Judd & Co., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. 
VOLUME XXIX.—No. 4. 
NEW YORK, APRIL, 
1870. 
NEW SERIES—No. 279. 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.! 
ESSEX S W I N L . Drawn from Photographs and Engraved for the American Agriculturist . 
The Essex tire at present attracting much at¬ 
tention from those interested in improving their 
swine. As there is not space here to enumerate 
even briefly their claims to consideration, we 
give a separate article on page 130. The animals 
above represented are upon the farm of Mr. L. 
A. Chase, of the American Agriculturist , at 
Northampton, Mass., and are only in breeding 
condition. The two young sows were bred by 
JosephHarris, Esq., (“Walks and Talks,”) More- 
ton Farm, Rochester, N. Y., and the old boar, 
represented in two positions, is from the herd 
of Edwin Thorne, Esq., Washington Hollow, 
N. Y. Iu contrast with tiiese animals, we give 
upon the cover an excellent portrait of a wild 
boar. The influence exercised by man upon the 
form and character of animals is nowhere more 
strikingly shown than in the pig. The form and 
peculiarities which adapt the animal to a wild life 
in which it has not only to provide its own food, 
but to protect itself and its young from enemies, 
are quite different from those required in a state 
of domestication, where the the animal’s whole 
energies are to be concentrated upon turning 
vegetable food into pork. By selection and cross¬ 
ings, breeds have been established in which not 
only aptitude to fatten has become a fixed char¬ 
acter, but the amount of bone and useless parts 
reduced to a minimum. The offal iu the Essex 
is only about teu per cent of the live weight. 
For the mere purpose of making pork we 
would not recommend the pure bred Essex. 
They are too fine and delicate. Their value 
consists in their capacity of improving the large 
breeds, or in fact, any kind of common pigs. 
For this purpose they must be bred pure. Wliat 
a farmer needs to improve his stock is thor¬ 
ough-bred males. And in pigs there is no breed 
more thoroughly established than the Essex. 
