GREAT FEEDERS THE RABBIT-HOUSE. 159 



or forty years ago, there were one or two very con- 

 siderable feeders near the metropolis, keeping each, 

 according to report, from fifteen hundred to two 

 thousand breeding does. These large concerns 

 have ceased, it seems, long since, and London re- 

 ceives the supply of tame, as well as wild rabbits, 

 chiefly from the country. 



The only considerable rabbit-feeders of whom 

 I heard, some years since, were two gentlemen, 

 the one resident in Oxfordshire, the other in 

 Berks. The former fed some hundreds, and 

 then, it was said, intended to double his stock. 

 The HUTS were placed in a small building set apart 

 for that purpose. The then stock produced one 

 load of dung per week, two loads of which were suf- 

 ficient to manure an acre of land. Three dozen of 

 rabbits per week were sent to the London market, 

 but keep and attendance reckoned, no other profit 

 accrued, excepting the dung, the price of which 

 used to be eight-pence per bushel, and I believe 

 thirty-six bushels are reckoned a load. The Berks 

 gentleman, according to the survey of that county, 

 fed white rabbits on account of the superior value 

 of their SKINS, from their application of late years 

 to the purpose of trimmings. Twenty does and two 

 bucks were my largest stock. 



The RABBIT-HOUSE should stand upon a dry foun- 

 dation, and be well ventilated. Exposure to too 

 much humidity, whether externally or internally, is 

 fatal to rabbits, which are liable to the rot like 

 sheep, and from the same causes. The rains of 

 1799, which continued nearly four months, destroyed 



