GREAT FEEDERS. 181 



preserves ; but it is equally unfortunate for a farmer 

 to be fixed near to, or within some miles of a rabbit- 

 warren, since they will travel to a great distance, 

 to feed either upon corn or vegetables, and if the 

 soil and corn be to their liking, will always remain 

 in sufficient numbers to stock a new district. At 

 the same time, they are a good and profitable 

 stock, domesticated ; infinitely more prolific, under 

 good management, than in their wild and exposed 

 state, and their dung is extremely valuable upon 

 a farm. 



The old writers, perhaps, rather overvalued the 

 profits of this stock. Rabbit-keeping is practised 

 by a few individuals in almost every town, and by a 

 few in almost every part of the country ; but thirty 

 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 thou- 

 sand breeding does. These large concerns have 

 ceased, it seems, long since, and London receives 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 sufficient to manure an acre 

 of land. Three dozen of rabbits per week were sent 

 to the London market, but keep and attendance 



