68 XOTITIA TENATICA. 



tops of the nettles, as wlien the stalks become old aud hard, they are 

 unwholesome and difficult to digest ; a large sackful may be put into 

 the copper daily, and boiled up with the flesh. The best way of pro- 

 curino- them is to set one of the old women who may usually be employed 

 in garden or field work to gather them by the day, having first supplied 

 her with a pair or two of strong gloves ; she will be thus enabled to 

 provide a constant succession of fresh nettles. Hounds, when heated, 

 are remarkably fond of vegetables boiled up with their food ; prompted, 

 no doubt, by the strong inchnation which nature never fails of exciting 

 in scorbutic disorders for these powerful specifics. The boiler's or 

 feeder's ^rsi care on entering his kennel in the morning should be in- 

 variahhj to take out two-thirds of the broth from the copper, which 

 should be perpetually simmering, and pour it into a tub kept for that 

 purpose, and then fill up the copper again previous to lighting the fire ; 

 he wiU then have plenty of good strong cold broth to cool the newly- 

 mixed food at feeding time, instead of waiting for it to cool while half 

 the morning is lost, or mixing it with cold water, which is a bad plan ; 

 as long as the broth is not sour nor burnt, it cannot be too strong nor 

 too rich. The boilers, or coppers, as they are generally called, should 

 be made of cast-iron, and not of copper ; if any liquid of a greasy or 

 oily nature is allowed to remain in a copper vessel, it Avill produce verdi- 

 gris, than which nothing can be a more deadly poison. In the year 

 1823, Mr. Shirley, of Eatington, Warwickshire, lost about twelve 

 couples of hounds in one night, from eating flesh and broth which had 

 been allowed to stand in a boiler which was made of copper. 



There are some hounds which, more from habit than from constitu- 

 tion, have learned, from the method pursued by injudicious feeders, a 

 trick of continually leaving the trough and passing behind the other 

 hounds, while they slop the feed about in all directions, instead of filling 

 their bellies, as they ought, with a good appetite ; this is taught them 

 by making a continual practice of indulging them by drawing them in 

 four or five times, and coaxing them to feed because they are naturally, 

 perhaps, shyish feeders. The best plan is to draw a lot of all the deli- 

 cate feeders first ; before you begin put them away, and, by making 

 them wait till last, taking care to have some of the best food saved for 

 them, you wlU soon perceive that they will become as good trencher-men 

 as the rest of the hounds. 



With regard to summer-feeding, the system of using potatoes, cab- 

 bages, mangel-wm-zol, &c., is excellent, provided it is not carried to 

 excess. Oatmeal puddings should be made for constant use in the same 

 manner as in winter ; and the vegetables, nettles, &c., shoidd be put 

 into the flesh copper, and not boiled separate ; and when the feed is 

 mixed up, the first lot shoidd be for the puppies, chiefly consisting of 

 the pudding, and only sufficient vegetables to form a cooHng diet, for 

 if they are fed daily on potatoes and other rubbish, as is the case in 

 some establishments, they will never throw out muscle, and furnish into 

 foxhounds as they ought to do, particularly when recovering from the 

 ravages of the distemper. But with the old hounds it does not so much 

 signify ; if the contents of the meal-bin are fast diminishing, potatoes 



