less have their guod qualities, although aptitude to fatten does not rank among the number, for they consume a proportionally much larger quantity of food than they repay; but the females produce large litters, and are far better nurses than those of the smaller breeds. They are, however, now nearly extinct, disappearing before the present rage for diminishing the size of the hog and rendering his flesh more delicate; points which, however desirable to a certain extent, may easily be carried too far. Low judiciously observes: "While we should improve the larger breeds that are left us, by every means in our power, we ought to take care that we do not sacrifice them altogether. We should remember that an ample supply of pork is of immense importance to the support of the inhabitants of this country. England may one day have cause to regret that this over-refinement has been practised, and future improvers vainly exert themselves to recover those fine old races which the present breeders seem aiming to efface."
It would be vain to attempt to particularize the breeds of swine at present kept in this country, for they are daily altering their characteristics, under the influence of some fresh cross; we will therefore content ourselves with enumerating those which are allowed to have been the chief and best breeds, and pointing out some of the alterations which have latterly taken place in them.
YORKSHIRE.
The old Yorkshire breed was one of the very large varieties, and one of the most unprofitable for a farmer, being greedy feeders, difficult to fatten, and unsound in constitution. They were of a dirty white or yellow color, spotted with black, had long legs, flat sides, narrow backs, weak loins, and large bones. Their hair was short and wiry, and intermingled with numerous bristles about the head and neck, and their ears long. When full grown and fat they seldom weighed more than from 350 to 400 lbs.
These have of late years been crossed with pigs of the new Leicester breed; and where the crossings have been judiciously managed and not carried too far, a fine race of deep-sided, short-legged, thin-haired animals have been obtained, fattening kindly, and rising to a weight of from 250 to 400 lbs., when killed between one and two years old, and when kept over two years reaching even 500 to 700 lbs.
Mr. Samuel Wiley, of Bransby, to whose courtesy we are indebted for the information, and who has paid much attention to the breeding of swine, keeps only the pure improved Leicester breed, which with ordinary feeding will, at sixteen or eighteen months old, weigh from 250 to 300 lbs.; and, when put up to fatten, attain the
