SWINE.-NO. 3. 
152 
about thirty years ago, accidentally picking up a 
pretty pig one day in the market, and taking it home 
and breeding from it. The progeny proved to be 
fine and quiet little animals : but in consequence 
of their rarely attaining over 250 to 300 lbs. 
weight, full grown, and being rather shy breeders, 
they were soon given tip as too small and unprofit¬ 
able for the general purposes of the farmer. Their 
color was pure white. 
Captain; John Mackay, of Boston, Mass., pro¬ 
duced a superior breed of swine, about the year 
1825, by judiciously crossing various excellent an¬ 
imals, which he had the good taste and enterprize 
to select and bring home in his voyages from vari- 
Fig. 34, 
ons quarters of the globe. It is said that the pigs, 
from which he derived the greatest benefit in estab- 
lishing_his breed, came from China. This breed j 
was given the name of “ Mackay,’ 7 in honor of its ! 
originator, by Sanford Howard, Esq., at present 
one of the editors of the Albany Cultivator. Mr. I 
for their history. Col. Samuel vfaques, of Ten- 
Hills Farm, near Boston, the Honorable Daniel 
Webster, the great northern statesman, of Mafsli- 
field, and Mr, Paoli Lathrop, of South Hadley Falls, 
still possess the Mackays in their original purity. 
Those we have seen of this breed, were large, thrifty, 
and fine : and of a pure white color. We have no 
doubt they were quite equal to the celebrated Wo¬ 
burn s. 
The Spanish black hog's, from the Mediterranean, 
brought over by Commodore Chauncey and other 
naval officers, have been sources of considerable 
improvement along the Atlantic coast. Then we 
have had the Norfolk Thin-rind, the Leicestershire, 
the Lincolnshire, the Hampshire, the Yorkshire, the 
English and Irish Grazier, the French, the Swiss, 
the German, the Neapolitan, the Russian, the Cal¬ 
cutta, and time would fail to tell how man}- more 
breeds, if we undertook to enumerate them all. 
We now come to the breed which has been 
more widely spread, and exercised a greater influ¬ 
ence in giving shape and character to the swine 
of the United States, thai^any other. We allude to 
the “Berkshire.” The first was imported from 
England, in 1823, by the late Mr. John Brentnall, 
He was an English farmer, and settled in Canter¬ 
bury, Orange county, N. Y. The next importation 
of Berkshires, was in the autumn of 1832, by Mr. 
Siday Hawes, who resided on the Three-Hills Farm 
(since owned by Mr. Bement), in Albany, this state. 
In 1833 and r 35, he made other importations; and 
j after his return to England, in 1838, he sent outoth- 
! ersin 1839. Subsequent to this, Messrs, Bagg & 
| Wait, of Montgomery, Orange county, N. Y., mads 
1 large importations of Berkshires, both here and into 
Fig. 35. 
H., obtained some stock of Capt. M., as early as 
1830, and was highly instrumental in diffusing those 
fee bred from it, in different parts of the United 
States. It is to him that we are mainly indebted 
the south and west. In 1841, we imported up¬ 
ward of forty head of this superior breed. 
The Berkshires are so well known, that we need 
not describe them. Notwithstanding the disap- 
