BABBITS. 113 



average of five at a litter is forty, which, at Is. 6</., will 

 amount to 3l. ; at which rate forty does will bring 1201. 

 yearly. The manure (which is very excellent) will pay 

 half their food, and the extra prices at which the breed- 

 ing does and bucks are sold will cover losses. 



Proper food for tame rabbits is the sweetest, shortest, 

 and best hay you can get ; one load will feed two 

 hundred couple a year, and out of the stock of two 

 hundred, as many as are sold in the market may be 

 used in the house, and yet a good stock maintained to 

 answer all casualties. The hay must be put to them in 

 little cloven sticks, that they may with ease reach and 

 pull it out, but so as not to scatter or waste any ; and 

 sweet oats and water should be put for them in troughs 

 under the boxes ; this should be their ordinary and con- 

 stant food, all other being given medicinally. Two or 

 three times in a fortnight, give them green victuals, to 

 cool their bodies, but sweet grain should be seldom used, 

 as nothing rots them sooner. 



In hot weather use pollard with pea-meal, instead of 

 grains, as they must not be given when sour; young 

 clover, tares, &c. When they get pot-bellied, give them 

 young green broom, and some bread well toasted. 



Great care must be taken when any grass is cut for 

 them where there are weeds, that there is no hemlock 

 amongst it, for though' they will eat it greedily, it is 

 present poison, and suddenly kills them. Their huts 

 must be cleaned every day, as the stench arising from 

 their ordure greatly annoys them. 



