than two bushels and three pecks of ground oats, peas, and barley per week.
Parkinson, in his Live Stock, vol. ii., gives some extraordinary accounts of the size and weight attained by individuals of this breed, and the profit yielded by them, and also of their aptitude to fatten at grass.
They are not, however, generally of an enormous size, being much smaller than several of the older breeds; their ordinary weight averages from 250 to 300 pounds, and some will at two years old weigh 400 pounds.
BERKSHIRE SOW.
It would be impossible to give an account of the numerous crosses from this breed; the principal foreign ones are those with the Chinese and Neapolitan swine, made with the view of decreasing the size of the animal, and improving the flavor of the flesh, and rendering it more delicate; and the animals thus obtained are superior to almost any others in their aptitude to fatten, but are very susceptible of cold from being almost entirely without hair. A cross of the Berkshire with the Suffolk and Norfolk pigs also is much approved in some parts of the country. A hardy kind is thus produced, which yields well when sent to the butcher; but even the advocates of this cross allow that, under most circumstances, the pure Berkshire is the best.
