ses.
During the last thirty years comparatively few of these pretty, but
useless, pigs have been bred.

BLACK PIGS

The description given of the two main types of white pigs would apply
equally well to the Black pigs common in this country, save with respect
to colour. The long flat-sided black pig was found in Essex, Suffolk,
Cambridgeshire, Sussex, etc. These pigs were noted for their
prolificacy, hardihood, and quick growth, whilst the sows furnished a
full supply of milk to their youngsters, but they were such slow feeders
that it became necessary to cross them with pigs which matured more
quickly. A type of black pig similar in form to the Small White was also
found in Essex and Suffolk, whilst in Devonshire, Dorset, and one or two
other counties the colour of the pigs was blue rather than black, and of
a somewhat larger size, but possessing the same weakness, too large a
proportion of fat to lean meat.

CHAPTER II

PURE BREEDS

The task of writing a description of the various breeds of swine has
been rendered less difficult by the formation during the past
half-century of societies for the registration of the pedigrees of the
pigs of the different breeds, and by the setting up of scales of those
points which pigs for entry in the particular herd books should possess.
The first of these societies was the National Pig Breeders Association,
of which the present writer was the honorary secretary for two years. At
the time of its formation the breeds of pigs most generally recognised
were the Berkshire, the Large, Middle, and Small Whites or Yorkshires,
and the Small Black breed. It was intended that the pedigrees of the
pure bred pigs of each of these breeds should be recorded by the
Association and published in one herd book.

There is no doubt that this would have been an ideal plan, and would
have resulted in a saving of much labour and expense, and decidedly more
convenient for those connected with the export trade. For reasons into
which it is not now necessary to enter, the breeders of Berkshires
determined to have a separate herd book; therefore, they started a
society which they named the British Berkshire Society, to distinguish
it from the American Berkshire Record.

Subsequently the Tamworth breed of pigs became recognised by the Royal
Agricultural Society, and the breeders of the red pig joined the
National Pig Breeders Association. Then the demand for Small White and
Small Black pigs cea