171 
ENGLISH HOGS IN FRANCE. 
boned, short, and thickly formed, with long but thinly-set bristles, 
and almost blinded by their enormous lopping ears. I was then 
a young man; and because they pleased my eye, and were large 
in size, I was satisfied for some time. I began, however, to re¬ 
mark that they fattened very slowly, although they devoured an 
astonishing quantity of meat; that they seemed to derive no ad¬ 
vantage from the herbs and other vegetables which they found in 
the fields; in a word, they were always hungry, and made no 
progress, at least, no constant one. 
When they were killed, the flesh, and particularly the fat, was 
exceedingly coarse; and the noise of the knife in cutting them 
more resembled that of a saw than of a well-sharpened instru¬ 
ment. The sows, nevertheless, yielded many pigs at each farrow, 
which, from their size, when young, sold well to people who were 
tolerably well off, and knew nothing at all about the breeding 
of pigs. 
I then changed my breed for the smallest of the Berkshire, 
and perceived almost immediately a very sensible improvement. 
They fattened quickly, and procured much of their nourishment 
in the fields; and when they were killed, the quality of their flesh 
was very superior to that of the former breed ; but, as in size 
they approached nearly to the Shropshire breed, I imagined that 
they might possess the greater part of their defects, and I changed 
them for the Chinese, and in this change I fell too much into the 
extreme with regard to size. The Chinese breed w 7 as prolific, 
fattened speedily, and almost obtained its owm subsistence, 
which was a point of infinite importance ; but it was very faulty 
in its form: its limbs were strangely disproportioned ; its back 
hollow, and its belly dragging on the ground; the skin was not 
sufficiently covered with hair or bristles ; the flesh was too loose 
in fibre, and appeared to indicate that the animal had died of 
disease. 
Still dissatisfied, I again changed for the breed which I now 
possess, and in which are united all the good qualities that 
perhaps it is possible to obtain, and qualities which, by diligent 
attention, I have been enabled to preserve, for there is no animal 
that degenerates so soon as the pig under injudicious manage¬ 
ment. The characteristics of my breed are very similar to those 
of Mr. Western’s boar. It seems to be produced by a cross be¬ 
tween the Berkshire, the wild breed, and the Chinese. It is 
very prolific, and fattens sooner than any that I have seen ; and 
when it is in good condition, which it almost always is, its form 
is perfect. It is not, however, exempt from faults; the principal 
one is, that it is too small for some purposes, although I have 
killed them of 3001bs. weight. Another fault is, that when 
