COUNTRY MANSIONS. 365 



themselves. There are two kinds of rabbits reared for the market ; one is 

 the common wild rabbit, which is kept in warrens, and the stock taken by 

 nets or traps, as it is wanted to be used or sent to market ; and the other, the 

 animal in a highly artificial state, kept in hutches or small boxes, and fattened 

 like fowls for killing : the flesh of rabbits of the latter kind cannot be consi- 

 dered as wholesome ; and, leaving the treatment of them to those who advo- 

 cate cramming fowls and stall-feeding oxen, -we shall close what we have to 

 say on this subject, by recommending the keeping of rabbits, of what are 

 called the wild or common kind, in a house with a small yard attached, to 

 serve as a warren or place of exercise. The house may form one of the same 

 range as the poultry-houses ; and the warren may either be close to the rab- 

 bit-house, or at any convenient distance from it, communicating with it by a 

 covered way. The artificial warren may be 50 or 60 feet square : if the sub- 

 soil be dry, the surface or floor of the warren may be sunk 2 or 3 ft., and 

 surrounded by a wall rising 3 or 4 feet above the natural surface of the 

 ground ; but, if the subsoil be moist, then the warren may be made in the 

 form of a raised ridge, and surrounded by a dwarf wall, surmounted by an 

 open fence. The use of the warren is for the rabbits to take exercise in by 

 burrowing ; and hence, when the soil is not sufficiently free for this purpose, 

 it ought to be made so by deep trenching, and by the addition of sand. In 

 order to admit a free circulation of air to the warren, and also to admit of 

 seeing it at pleasure, it should never be surrounded by a high close fence ; 

 but a sunk wall will always be necessary, to prevent the rabbits from burrow- 

 ing into the adjacent grounds. The rabbits should never be fed in the war- 

 ren, but always in the rabbit-house ; and this should be done at stated times, 

 in order that the rabbits may acquire the habit of appearing there regularly. 

 452. The apiary is another source of interest to all who live in the country, 

 and fortunately it may be indulged in by the humblest labourer, no less than 

 by the wealthiest citizen, provided there are fields and gardens in the neigh- 

 bourhood containing flowers. A beehive, when there is no room for it any- 

 where else, may, like a pigeon-house, or even a garden of pots, be placed on 

 the roof of the house. Much has been, and continues to be, written on the 

 subject of bees; and the kinds of hives are proportionately numerous. In- 

 stead of pointing out what we consider to be the merits and defects of the 

 principal of these, we shall limit ourselves to observing that, where little or 

 no attention can be paid to the bees, except perhaps at the swarming season, 

 the common hive of the country, whatever that may be, — for example the 

 straw hive in Britain and on the Continent generally, the trunk or pipe hive 

 in Poland, and the cork hive in Spain and the Canaries, will, in our opinion, 

 be found the best, because everybody understands it ; but that, where there 

 is leisure, and a disposition to attend to bee culture, Nutt's hives are by far the 

 best that have been yet invented. It has been a great object with the inven- 

 tors of hives to devise means for taking the honey without killing the bees ; 

 and Mr. Nutt not only effects this, but what is of incomparably more impor- 

 tance, he prevents young bees from being generated, except when they are 

 wanted, and consequently prevents swarming with all its attendant troubles. 

 The principle upon which all Mr. Nutt's improvements are founded, is that of 

 regulating the temperature of the hives, so that the bees may breed in one 

 temperature, and make their honey in another. Under a certain degree of 

 heat, the queen bee will not lay eggs, nor will these eggs be hatched ; while 



