1080 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



daily, and without any other trouble than what occurs in restraining them when a little wild. If tiieir 

 breed is very good, their stopping and backing will commence towards the end of the first season, and dur. 



ing the periods between this and the next autumn they may be steadied and practised in fetching their 

 game, &c., as directed in good sporting works. At the commencement of the IbDowing season, if they have 

 l)een well attended to, although only fifteen months old, the whole may be sold to the London or country 

 dealers, to average six or seven guineas each : or if sold privately, they will fetch from eight to twelve and 

 fifteen guineas each, out of which, perhaps, not more than half a guinea can fairly be deducted for keep, 

 &c. Tlie trouble occasioned to the master will be trifling, because connected with a pleasing employ to 

 him as a sportsman, and who will thus have his own sporters for nothing. 



7400. Setters, as more valuable, will fetch a higher price ; but they do not always command so ready a 

 sale, and are more troublesome to break. 



7401. Spaniels are commonly thought,but most erroneously, almost to break themselves. A really well 

 broke spaniel, however, is so rare, that instead of being worth two or three guineas, which is the usual 

 price, it will fetch from five to ten pounds. It would be even less difficult to the farmer to rear spaniels 

 than pointers ; and by following him continually about the grounds they might be taught perfect obe- 

 iience, and close rangings, which are the grand requisites, without trouble or expense. In this way, four 

 or five brace might be easily brought every season to market, and would always command a ready sale, 

 and a price according to the perfection of their breaking. 



7402. In the breeding and rearing of dogs for the above purposes, it is necessary to observe the greatest 

 care in their original selection ; that the breed be of the very best, and one which as it were breaks itself, 

 for this shows the purity of the breed. It is likewise no less necessary that the breed be carefully pre- 

 served so; to do which, the moment the dogs begin to smell at a bitch, shut her and the intended' male 

 closely up, in a confinement inaccessible to other dogs, and there let them remain a fortnight It is like- 

 wise almost equally necessary, that the dogs peculiarly appropriated to agriculturists, particularly the 

 shepherd's dog, should be bred as pure ; for no animal is more liable to sport into varieties. No crossing 

 can on any account be permitted j but choice may be made among families of the same variety. In the 

 rearing of this dog, his education should be early and carefully attended to, to make him hardy and fami- 

 liar with all the signs of the shepherd, who ought himself to be equal to the regular education of his own 

 dog. 



7403. The diseases of dogs are very numerous. The following are described by Blaine 

 as the most prevalent, with their methods of cure. 



7404. The canine asthma is hardly ever observed to attack any but either old dogs, or those who, by 

 confinement, too full living, and want of exercise, may be supposed to have become diseased by these de- 

 viations from a state of nature. It is hardly possible to keep a dog very fat for any great length of time, 

 without bringing it on. This cough is frequently confounded with the cough that precedes and accora- 

 panics distemper j but it may be readily distinguished from this by an attention to circumstances, as the 

 age of the animal, its not affecting the general health, nor producing immediate emaciation, and its less 

 readily giving way to medicine. 



7405. The cure is often very difficult, because the disease has in general been long neglected before it is 

 sufficiently noticed by the owners. As it is usually brought on by confinement, too much warmth, and 

 over-feeding; so it is evident the cure must be begun by a steady persevering alteration in these parti- 

 culars. The medicines most useful are alteratives, and of these occasional emetics are the best. One grain 

 of tartarised antimony (i. e. tartar emetic), with two, three, or four grains of calomel, is a very useful and 

 valuable emetic. This dose is sufficient for a small dog, and may be repeated twice a week with great 

 success, always with palliation. 



7406. Of diseases of the eyes, dogs are subject to almost as great a variety as ourselves, many of which 

 end in blindness. No treatment yet discovered will remove or prevent this complaint. 



7407. Sore eyes, though not in general ending in blindness, is very common among dogs. It is an afTec- 

 tion of the eyelids, is not unlike the scrofulous aflTection of the human eyelids, and is equally benefited 

 by the same treatment : an unguent made of equal parts of nitrated quicksilver ointment, prepared tutty 

 and lard, very lightly applied. Dropsy of the eyeball is likewise sometimes met with, but is incurable. 



7408 Cancer. The virulent dreadful ulcer, that is so fatal in the human subject and is called cancer, 

 is unknown in dogs; yet there is very commonly a large scirrhous swelling of the teats in bitches, and of 

 tlie testicles (though less frequent) in dogs, that as it sometimes becomes ulcerated, so it may be charac- 

 terised by this name. In the early state of the disease discutients prove useful, as vinegar with salt, and 

 camphor and Spanish flies, with mercurial ointment, have sometimes succeeded ; taking care to avoid 

 irritating the part so much as to produce blister. But when the swelling is detached from the belly, and 

 hangs pendulous in the skin, it had better be removed, and as a future preventive suffer the bitch to 

 breed. Scirrhous testicles are likewise sometimes met with ; for these no treatment yet discovered suc- 

 ceeds but the removal of the part, and that before the spermatic chord becomes much aflTected, or it will 

 be useless. 



7409. Colic. Dogs are subject to two kinds of colic ; one arising from constipation of the bowels, the 

 other is of a kind peculiar to dogs, apparently partaking of the nature of rheumatism, and also of spasm. 

 From a sudden or violent exposure to cold, dogs become sometimes suddenly paralytic, particularly in the 

 hinder parts ; liaving great tenderness and pain, and every appearance of lumbago. In every instance of 

 this kind, there is considerable affection of the bowels, generally costiveness. always great pain. A warm 

 bath, external stimulants, but more particularly active aperients, remove the colic. Colic arising from 

 costiveness is not in general violently acute from the pain it produces; sometimes, however, it appears 

 accompanied with more spasm than is immediately dependent on the confinement of the bowels. In the 

 former give active aperients, as calomel with pil. cochise, i. c. aloetic pill and glysters j in the latter castor 

 oil with laudanum and ether. 



7410. Cough. Two kinds of cough are common among dogs, one accompanying distemper, the other in 

 an asthmatic affection of the chest. (Sec 7404. 7411.) 



7411. Distemper. This is by far the most common and most fatal among the diseases of dogs ; hardly 

 any young dog escaping it ; and of tlie few who do escape it in their youth, three fourths are attacked 

 with it at some period afterwards : it being a mistake that young dogs only have it. It, however, generally 



