The Pig

The Pig, with the subtitle Breeding, Rearing, and Marketing, is by Sanders Spencer. The contents list names chapters such as Selection of the Boar, Selection of the Sow, Weaning Pigs and The Rearing of Young Pigs, among others. A frontispiece caption says the Middle White Sow in the forefront, the property of the author, was one of the best ever bred, Holywell Countess Victoria.

The text says that the habits and pursuits of the inhabitants, rather than the soil and climate, as with horses, cattle and sheep, have the greatest influence on the form, size and quality of the local pigs, whilst use and custom appear to determine the colour of the pig. The text says it is not on the surface why the American cousins should have decided to call these sheeted pigs Hampshires, since the oldest writers on pigs give to the county of Sussex the credit of being their original home. The text says that among the most distinct of these local breeds is that which is variously termed the sheeted or saddle-backed pig, which in the United States has a society to look after its interests.