EFFECTS OF PHYSIC ON HOUND AND DOG. 181 



eyer, be fed on flesh too far gone in decomposition. 

 A huntsman or master of hounds had better throw 

 it away, or put it to the manure heap, when, 

 if they had land, it would not be thrown away, 

 than give it to hounds in whom they expect to 

 find health, pace, and endurance to kill, if required, 

 a brace of good foxes. There is only one descrij)- 

 tion of food that foxhounds should hunt upon, and 

 that is, the best Scotch oatmeal, coarsely ground 

 and kiln-dried, and kept close packed in bins till 

 it became two years old. This, when carefully 

 boiled and constantly stirred in the iron boiler, 

 — a copper boiler always gives fits, — should then 

 be ladled out into a broad, shallow trough, on 

 legs as high as those of a dining-room table, 

 where it should be left to cool, for use on the 

 following day. If the oatmeal is good and old, 

 it, when thus dealt with, will cool into a hard 

 and consistent pudding, and may be cut out like 

 cake, and be carried to the feeding-troughs, to 

 be mixed with water, to any consistency deemed 

 necessary to condition for the work in hand, and 

 its modicum of finely-mixed flesh. When the soup 

 in which the meat has been boiled is very fresh, 

 a little of the soup may be mixed with the meal. 



