204 THE NOBLE SCIENCE. 



Milk is an invaluable article of kennel consumption, and 

 one or two cows are greatly advantageous, if not neces- 

 sary, to the establishment. In the spring, when there 

 are dozens of litters of puppies at the same time, — all of 

 which should be well kept, indeed forced, like young 

 foals, with abundant sustenance, — milk will avail, when 

 nothing else would serve the purpose. No bitch should 

 be allowed to suckle more than four puppies. If you 

 are strong in numbers, and can afford to lose the ser- 

 vices of two for one of bitches whelping early, it is easy 

 so to arrange as to have wet-nurses ready for the pro- 

 geny of those which you are most anxious to rear ; and 

 this plan is far preferable to the attempt of bringing 

 up by hand, or introducing mongrels as foster-mothers. 

 In selecting walks, it is certainly a great point to get 

 puppies out, where they will be well fed; but it is of 

 still greater consequence, to ensure their having liberty. 

 What cruel instances occur, of hounds coming in from 

 walk, with feet like the brood of ducks with which they 

 had been inclined to gambol, and therefore tied up, or, 

 at least, confined in some narrow space, to keep them 

 out of mischief. This confinement is utterly ruinous 

 to their shape ; by bearing perpetually on the foot, it 

 becomes elongated ; legs, which would have been fault- 

 less, grow crooked ; and the whole symmetry of a fine 

 young hound is destroyed, by contraction of the scope 

 which he requires for the development of his daily 



