446 THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 



appearance. It may be worth our while, therefor e^ 

 speak of a circumstance so indispensable in the sub- 

 ject before us. As puppies, after weaning and tailing 

 they should be fed often ; indeed, until they are three 

 parts of a year old, and upwards, at least three times 

 a-day. Provided the proper means be used to pro- 

 mote their stamina, their native courage will fully 

 meet the almost incredible fatigue and hardships they 

 will generally have to cope with ; and this, at times, 

 in the most inclement season of the year. For this 

 purpose, they should have milk several times in the 

 week, be allowed clean water to lap ; and, if possible, 

 a dry green to sport and play on by day, with clean 

 straw, but not hay, to lie on at nights. Nor must we 

 omit the precaution, that children be not allowed to 

 play and toy with them, and that they be by no means 

 allowed to bask before the fire. Much self-command 

 and patience as it requires, it is well worth the sports- 

 man's while himself to enter them, and this should be 

 done before they are a twelvemonth old. They should 

 not, at first, be allowed to range the open fields after 

 larks, and every other incitement to the reverses of 

 control and order. On the contrary, they should be 

 taken directly into cover ; and if they range and hunt 

 the same, it is enough. At first, they should only be 

 whistled to, nor should they be either chid or en- 

 couraged. Kept constantly in good humour, they will 

 soon learn to work before you, and try the ground 

 with regularity ; but flagellation, and the sowing the 

 seeds of ill habits at an early age, should be avoided 

 as much as possible. Various are their dispositions 

 as far as concerns their regard to work at the first 

 onset ; some are froward, and others meek ; and the 

 howlings of one under flagellation may for ever cow 

 another, whose powers it were possibly worth much 



