Training Hounds. 165 



of health and muscular development necessary to 

 keep him full of fox fire and ambition. 



A too sudden reduction in flesh from under- 

 feeding may injure his vitality and impair his 

 constitution; surplus flesh should be worked off 

 by degrees. Feet and pads should be hardened in 

 the same way — by degrees. 



Babbling, running mute, and "cutting" or 

 running cunning, are unquestionably hereditary 

 qualities, and in breeding great care should be 

 exercised to see that these defects are not com- 

 bined, as they will be but accentuated in the off- 

 spring. 



Hounds should be broken to sights of city or 

 village, accustomed to roading in "couples," and 

 their minds disabused of the idea that they must 

 make the acquaintance of every cur of high and 

 low degree they meet on the road. 



If possible, hounds should not be kenneled, 

 but allowed to run at large ; this, of course, is im- 

 possible in many localities. In the South on 

 large plantations they are seldom kenneled, with 

 the result that their noses are moister and colder, 

 as can be demonstrated by placing the back of 

 the hand against the same. This means increased 

 power of scent, a hound's nose being a true index 

 to its condition, and as trailing qualities depend 

 exclusively u^Don a sensitive nose, the importance 

 of keeping this organ in condition can not be 

 overestimated. 



