66 NOTITIA VENATICA. 



jiuppies at Quorndou. Barley-flour by itself makes hounds scratch 

 themselves aud stare iu their coats ; and oatmeal which has been too 

 highly dried on a kiln will have the same effect upon them. When 

 oatmeal has been adulterated with barley-flour, it is easily perceived 

 when hounds are out, by their constantly leaving their work to lap 

 water from the pits and ditches near at hand ; it is also frequently 

 adulterated with maize or Indian corn, a remarkably heating thing. 

 The only plan to prevent being thus cheated, is to go to a really re- 

 spectable tradesman, and give the best price. The Scotch meal is the 

 best — that is, if procured genuine ;* the Scotch are better farmers than 

 the Irish, their harvest is generally better carried, and the oats are 

 better and cleaner winnowed, f 



Good wholesome flesh, well boiled down and mixed with the pudding, 

 is indispensable ; and when I say good wholesome flesh, I mean not 

 those poor devils that are more than half putrid before they are killed. 

 The circumstance of hounds going suddenly off in their condition during 

 the hunting season may be attributed, in nine cases out of ten, to their 

 having been fed with improper flesh. I know it is the practice to boil 

 down everything that comes to some kennels (particidarly such as are 

 served by contract) in the shape of flesh, good or bad ; and some hunts- 

 men even put those hounds into the copper which have been destroyed, 

 and declare that it is a certain cure for the distemper ; but that is no 

 reason why bad and tainted flesh should be used, when a good, fresh- 

 killed horse can be obtained. I know one master of foxhounds who 

 boasts that he has become quite callous to all that can be said about bad 

 flesh, <fec., and told me he once had a porpoise sent him by a neighbom'- 

 ing farmer, 'which he boiled up, blubber and all together, and that the 

 hounds were not injiu-ed in any way during the time they were enjoying 

 this most exquisite supply of turtle. I had a long conversation some 

 months since with Mr. Cross, the great wild-beast proprietor, upon the 

 different Idnds of food used for the support of animals in confinement ; 

 and amongst the much useful and rational information imparted to me 

 upon the subject was, that putrid or tainted flesh was one of the first, 

 if not the chief thing to be guarded against in feeding animals; the 

 next was to avoid feeding them to repletion. A less quantity of flesh 



* The mealmen who supply the London tradesmen from the Scotch markets have 

 been detected, as I was informed by a master of hounds in Scotland, in regrinding 

 sand into the oatmeal. 



t The weight of a sack of oatmeal is twelve score pounds. There are eight sacks 

 to a ton, deducting forty pounds for eight empty sacks. The following memoranda 

 may be found interesting, and even useful, to the amateur kennel huntsman. Oat- 

 meal, at 2s. 3d. per stone, is £^2s. 5s. per sack, or about i,'16 per ton ; at 2s. 6d. 

 per stone, £2 10s. per sack, or nearly X'18 per ton ; at 2s. 9d. per stone, £2 15s. 

 per sack, or about i^O per ton. There are 142 st. 12 lbs. in a ton. The quantity 

 of oatmeal produced from a bushel of oats is as follows : — 



42 lbs. of oats produce, in meal, 25 lbs. 2 oz. ; in husk, 16 lbs. 14 oz. 



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