46 TREATMENT BEFORE 



lap again in the evening ; but this should never 

 be done if you hunt early.* Hounds, I think, 

 should be sharp-set before hunting; they run 

 the better for it.-f- 



If many of your hounds, after long rest, 

 should be too fat, :j: by feeding them for a day 

 or two on thinner meat than you give the others, 

 you will find it answer better, I think, than the 

 usual method of giving them the same meat, 

 and stinting them in the quantity of it. 



If your hounds are turned into the grass-court 

 to empty themselves after they have been fed, 

 it will contribute not a little to the cleanliness 

 of the kennel. 



I have heard that it is a custom in some ken- 

 nels, to shut up the hounds for a couple of hours 

 after they come in from hunting, before they are 

 fed ; and that other hounds are shut up with 

 them, to lick them clean. § My usual way is to 



* Hounds that are tender feeders cannot be fed too late, 

 or with meat too good. 



•^ Vide note, page 45. 



J Hounds that rest should not be suffered to become fat. 

 It would be accounting very badly for the fatness of a 

 hound to say, " He is fat because he has not worked lately;" 

 since he ought to have been kept lower on that account. 



§ If hounds be shut up as soon as they come in from 

 hunting, they will not readily leave the benches after- 

 wards; for if they be much fatigued, they will prefer rest 

 to food. 



