Page:The Hog.djvu/79

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SWINE IN ENGLAND.
77

pigs and shots (pigs from six to eight months old) are brought over from England every year, and fattened in Scotland.

ENGLAND.

The original breeds of this country are now rapidly losing all traces of individuality under the varied systems of crossing to which they are subjected. Formerly they might have been divided into two principal classes, the small and the large breeds: the former having ears tending to the upright, being dusky in hue, and greatly resembling the wild boar in form; and the latter being long-bodied,

THE OLD ENGLISH HOG.

long-eared animals, mostly white or spotted. The former were chiefly found in Scotland, and on the northern hills; and the latter in the lower and more midland counties of England, where the hog had been more domesticated.

Where individuals of the pure old breed are met with, they will be found long in limb, narrow in the back, which is somewhat curved, low in the shoulders, and large in bone; in a word, uniting all those characteristics which are now deemed most objectionable, and totally devoid of any approach to symmetry. The form is uncouth, and the face long and almost hidden by the pendulous ears. They neverthe-