HORSES AND HOUXBS. 89 



Bitches sometimes produce a gTeat many at a litter. I had 

 one that brought into the world the extraordinary number of 

 seventeen, but she died from exhaustion. Once coupling is 

 sufficient if the bitch is put to the dog when at the turn of her 

 heat. When the whelps are a few days old, the dew claws 

 should be cut off with a sharp pair of scissors, and a bit of the 

 tail. 



Puppies are very subject to worms, which, if not destroyed, 

 will prevent their growth, and often produce fatal fits. You 

 may give them occasionally a dessert-spoonful of linseed oil 

 when a fortnight old, and when a month or six v/eeks old, if the 

 worms are not destroyed, add a teaspoonful of spirits of turpen- 

 tine to the oil, and give it in the morning fasting. As soon as 

 the puppies can lap, let them have some milk and their oatmeal 

 mixed together three times a day, which will relieve the 

 mother. Give it them warm, and remove what they do not eat 

 at once. 



There is a little white louse by which puppies are generally 

 tormented ; they form into bunches on the neck and back, and 

 will produce mange unless speedily removed. Rape oil, thick- 

 ened with sulphur to the consistency of cream, will destroy 

 them, and not injure either the whelps or their mother. I have 

 heard of tobacco water and other things being used for this 

 purpose, but there is no necessity for any such noxious reme- 

 dies. If the first dressing of oil and sulphur does not destroy 

 the lice, dress again in a few days, and with the addition of a 

 small proportion of spirits of turpentine. At two months old 

 the whelps are fit to go out to walk. Many huntsmen keep 

 them till they are a month older, but I see no advantage in it. 

 They are certainly stronger at three months than at two months 

 old, but they are not likely to get a bellyful of good oatmeal 

 porridge, with plenty of meat and broth mixed with it, three 

 times or even twice a day at their walks, or perhaps none at all, 

 and will feel the want of this strong diet more severely. When 

 sent out to a farm house at two months old, they will get a 

 tolerable supply of milk and whey twice a day, which at that 

 age is more suitable to them, and I think they improve faster, 

 and are not so likely to be checked in their growth. There is a 

 very great difference in quarters. Some farmers take a pride 

 in sending the young hounds home well grown and well fed ; 

 with others they have a very rough time of it. It must be con- 

 fessed that a fox-hound puppy is often very mischievously 

 disposed, and some little acknowledgment ought to be made to 

 the farmer 3 wife, in the shape of a gown, bonnet, or shawl, 

 when such has been the case. Giving premiums, also, is an 



