MOV 3 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
713 
in battle it would only be in his way. He has 
just enough hind parts to balance his head, 
and that is all he needs. If he is short., it 
doesn’t take him so long to turn around. If 
he hasn’t much room for digestion, be hasn’t 
much to digest. Lf his hide and hair are thick 
and coarse, so much the better for fighting 
and sleeping in the cold. His back is sharp 
but it sheds the rain. In short, he is just what 
his environment made him. And the molding 
influence of environment is the moral of this 
picture. 
The next link in the chain of evolution is 
represented by the pig in the background 
jumping the fence. He is the Irish grey¬ 
hound. so-called, the nearest type to the wild 
boar, of all civilized pigs. 
Some changes are noticeable. He has less 
of the fighting points and more of the muning 
ones. The slight increase of ham has not so 
much reference to the pork barrel as to fence 
jumping. He is represented as jumping a 
fence not so much to symbolize his advent 
upon civilization as to show his principal way 
of spending his time after he got there. He 
is hardly an improvement ou his ancestor. 
He simply fights less and runs more. With 
this change has gone the war-like, touch-me- 
if-you-dare expression of his ancestor. In its 
place is the placid, knowiug, mgger-in-the- 
woodpile look which we have all seen in the 
pig that ‘'boards around.” With the danger 
of the forest has gone, too, the prick ears. The 
• iug Sally XXII., a fairly good pig of ten 
1 years ago. In the center of the picture, and 
just below Sally, stand Black Josephine and 
Royal Prosperity, illustrating the highest 
point reached so far in the evolution of the 
Berkshire. The latter won first prize at the 
Royal Show, England, and was pronounced 
the best pig of any age on the grounds. He 
also won several prizes after his importation 
into this country. He is very near the stand¬ 
ard in all points. He is represented in his 
show condition, when he was very fat. 
Before passing to Black Josephine, we will 
call attention to the head of Disraeli in the 
lower corner, introduced to show the great 
change in this one feature alone. Disraeli is 
noted not only as possessing one of the very 
finest heads among Berkshires, but also as 
transmitting it to his descendants. You will 
notice the projecting forehead, denoting an 
increase of brain: the thin, small, well-placed 
ears, denoting fineness and alertness, instead 
of shyness; the nose short, and nearly dished; 
the expression of the eye and mouth, bright 
and good-natured. 
Black Josephine in the center of the fore¬ 
ground has been chosen as being, when wd 
consider her individual form and her value as 
a breeder, perhaps what is claimed for her, 
the best Berkshire to date. Mr. Cooper con¬ 
sidered her one of the best, if not the best, he 
ever owned. Mr. Norton considered her his 
best breeding sow, and reserved her when he 
food and pure water, while I have seen whole 
droves swept away in a few days when either 
of these prime requisites was neglected. 
Among the majority of farmers all fatal 
swine diseases are known by the mysterious 
name of “cholera.” How this so-called 
cholera is generated I can best illustrate by 
recounting a few of the many instances which 
have come under my observation: 
Mr G-had a fine lot of hogs, averaging 
about 200 pounds each. He fed them on the 
ground in a place that was naturally dry and 
hard, but fully exposed to the northwest 
winds. They were housed at night in an old 
log-house, warm and dry. The weather, 
which had been warm and pleasant, changed 
suddenly to bitter cold, accompanied by a cut¬ 
ting northwest wind. He fed bis hogs as 
usual, but they refused to come out of their 
beds, where they lay packed together. When 
one did venture out it picked up an ear of the 
corn anrl ran quickly back again. Mr. G- 
was fattening the hogs for market, and, vexed 
to think that they would not come out to 
feed, he took a club and drove them out. 
They were warm and steaming, and the sharp, 
freezing wind nearly set them crazy, and, 
instead of eating, they ran wildly about or 
made desperate efforts to return to their 
shelter. To prevent this he closed and fas¬ 
tened the door and kept them out about an 
hour. Three or four days afterwards some of 
them began to cough, and in less thau three 
weeks every one was dead. He said they had 
taken the “cholera.” 
A neighbor of mine kept his hogs, a nice lot 
of 40 or 50, in a yard adjoining the stable. 
His shed was too small to contain them all, 
and those that retired late had to lie outside. 
He fed them on a plank floor, and they were 
doing finely until the cold rains of November 
set in, when those that were crowded out of 
the shed discovered that the pile of manure 
thrown out of the stable* was warm, and they 
nightly made a bed of it. Every morniug 
they were driven out of it wet and steaming. 
They soon began to wheeze, then cough, and 
then die. The disease was communicated to 
the others, and the entire lot died within four 
weeks. 
A gentleman not living far from here had 
at one time, over a hundred hogs running m a 
forty-acre woodland pasture. During the 
Summer they were fed with corn once a day, 
and were as fine a lot of smooth, healthy hogs 
as one would wish to see. About tbe middle 
of August the creek that ran through the 
pasture, and from which the hogs had 
obtained their water, became dry, with the 
exception of a few stagnant pools along its 
bed. Instead of digging a well, their owner 
waited for rain, and early in September paid 
the penalty of his folly. The entix-e lot died 
within ten days. 
Two men living near this place raised, and 
commenced to fatten. S3 head of hogs. About 
Vick’s Prize Potato.-—From Nature.—Fig. fill. 
ears now hang down and protect his auricular 
orifices against the stones of the small boy, or 
perhaps the unmusical bawl of the man who 
owns the corn field, or they may serve as 
wings for his more daring flights, or perhaps 
wise Dame Nature is preparing these con¬ 
venient holding-ou-plnces for the future dog 
that shall lie smart enough to catch him. A 
change of climate has given him less coarseness 
of skin and hair. A change of food has length¬ 
ened his body a little. He is uot so high over 
the shoulders, probably liecause he doesn’t 
‘get his back up” so often. He has a cousin 
in the South, similar in uppen ranee, and 
equally noted as a steeple chaser, this qual¬ 
ity being necessary in a country where “no 
pig will pay that can’t outrun, a uiggor.” 
When it was found that the pig couldn't be 
fenced, the uext step was to put him in a pen. 
And there the two or three next liuks in the 
chain are seen, viz.: the early English, the 
early Berkshire and the Berksliire-Ghinese 
cross. The pen is just behind the bushes ou 
the right. 
The next type shown is the early Improved 
Berkshire, show iug plainly the effects of the 
Chinese cross as well as the result of improved 
conditions. The white markings are smaller 
thau in the first crosses; lint have uot yet be¬ 
come the i*egular markings of later times. 
The chauge here is very marked: the head 
and legs are smaller and finer; the body more 
even and fleshy; the hair and skin finer and 
softer, and there is more space for the diges 
tive organs, in order to enforce the import 
mice of food, shelter and quiet in the produc¬ 
tion of u good pig, we would like to be able to 
attribute this great chauge, like those that 
preceded aud followed it, wholly to change of 
reatmiut; bat the tru th is too apparent that 
this type owes its character largely to the 
cross with the Chinese boar, an animal as far 
removed in muuy respects from the wild boar 
as the Berkshire of to-day. 
Next comes the sow on the right, represent- 
tavm (Topics. 
JOTTINGS FROM KIRBY HOMESTEAD. 
J disposed of all others. From mm sne was 
afterwards purchased by her present owner, 
Mr. Fulford. Breeders in England have 
since stated that they were unable to produce 
her equal. She is the most valuable factor 
in the celebrated Hood family, and uumbers 
a long list of celebrated prize-winners among 
her descendants, the best known, perhaps, 
being Bob Hood, her son. To enumerate her 
good points would be to describe a perfect 
Berkshire. While her head is not so short as 
those of some more modern pigs, it is short, 
very wide, and approaching a dish-form. 
Her ears are not so small as some, but they 
are not large. Her legs are not over-fine and 
very short; her body is long and deep. As 
regards back and hams, she stands pre-emi 
nent, especially in the width and squareness 
of the hams on either side of the tail. 
HOG CHOLERA. 
“ PICKET.” 
State orM Nature. -Fig. <572, 
COL. F. I). CURTIS. 
AN EXPERIMENT WHICH CHEAPENS THE COST 
OF PORK. 
I am quite enthusiastic over the gratifying 
results of an experiment in feeding pigs. 
They are now ready to butcher, and have 
been contracted for at $7.75 per 100 pounds. 
Early in May they were turned into the or¬ 
chard-gross pasture, which is the old apple 
There is very little complaint of cholera 
among the hogs in this and adjoining States 
this year. Is it an exceptionally favorable 
season for swine, or are farmers learning how 
to properly care for them? I hope the 
latter is the case. In this matter it has been 
repeatedly and conclusively proven that a 
grain of prevention is worth a ton of ern e. I 
have never known of a ease of cholera origin¬ 
ating among any herd of swine that were 
properly housed and supplied with wholesome 
Improver Pkachblow Potato.—From Nature.—Fig. 670. 
November 1st they* ran short of feed, and 
bought 40 aex*es of coni in the field from a 
neighbor. They built a pen close by the corn¬ 
field. moved the hogs into it, and began husk¬ 
ing and feeding. All went sw immingly for a 
couple of weeks, and theuthe cold rains set in. 
The hogs were without shelter of any kind, 
and they suffered intensely*. Their owners 
persisted in husking and feeding in the mud, 
hoping for better weather. The rains con¬ 
tinued, however, the weather growing con¬ 
stantly colder, and one morning they found a 
dead hog in the yard aud two or three others 
moping about with scarcely any life in them. 
They immediately moved the pen and provided 
better shelter and buildings, but the hogs 
continued to die, and they lost all but nineteen. 
In this case the loss w as especially severe, as 
the hogs repx-esented nearly their entire 
i capital. 
Whether or not the disease was identical in 
each of the above cases is a question I cannot 
answer. The cause of the disease in each case 
is indicated plainly enough. It is also very 
evident that no disease would have been gen¬ 
erated in either instance if the hogs had 
received proper care; lack of this, 1 am fully 
convinced, is the cause of fully* three-fourths 
of all the losses from so-called hog cholera. 
