Of course, the soil, climate, etc., of the district in which pigs are reared have a certain amount of influence, but this is noticeable to a much lesser extent with pigs than with horses, cattle, or sheep, since under the present system of pig-breeding the greater portion of the food used in the different districts is of a very similar character--indeed, much of it has a common origin--having been imported from abroad. As a rule, comparatively speaking very little difference is noticeable in the development, form, and character of pigs bred in the various parts of the country, whereas with some of the other domesticated animals a very considerable change follows the removal of sheep of a pure breed from one district to another. The quality and quantity of the wool, flesh, and bone are all affected. An exactly similar effect is noticeable when horses of a particular breed are moved from one district to another. For instance, a Shire foal bred in the Fens may possess the characteristic bone, flesh, and hair, yet if it be moved into portions of the Eastern counties where the soil is of a totally different character, it will when matured have lost, to a very considerable extent, its peculiar characteristics of bone and hair. The changes wrought may be due in small measure to climate, but the predominant cause must be due to the variation in the food grown on soils of a different character. This question of the original cause or causes of the varying colour of the pigs in different localities appears to be equally difficult of solution. As to the continuation in certain districts of pigs of one colour, custom and even prejudice have a great effect. So strong is this prejudice that some persons will even declare that the pork of pigs of the fashionable colour in the neighbourhood is superior to that from pigs of any other colour. As this weakness is common in districts where black and where white pigs are kept it must be admitted that prejudice alone must be the foundation of the belief. Probably the safest conclusion to arrive at with respect to the variation in colour of the pigs noticeable in certain districts is that in the long ago the native pig in the wild state was of the colour of the soil and the herbage in which it sheltered, and was thus less conspicuous to its enemies, whether human or animal. A marked instance of this is to be found in the colour of the common or original pig found in some parts of the country where the soil is of a decidedly red colour. In the district referred to one actually hears some farms spoken of as "red land farms." What more natural than to find in the districts in which land of this hue predominates that the pigs should be a red rusty hue such as was the original colour of that breed of pigs now called the Tamworth breed.