CHAPTER XI 



AVEIGHT IN BEAGLES 



ANOTHER subject that is dwelt upon about 

 this time, late in 1896 and in the early part 

 of 1897 is the amount that a beagle should 

 weigh, and if the opinions of some of the experts of 

 those days publicly printed are any criterion, there 

 was a difference of opinion on this subject also. 



Mr. Edmund Orgill, of "The Cedars," Bond, 

 Tennessee, opens the argument in Turf, Field and 

 Farm in reply to an inquiry by the editor, who said : 

 "Some beagle fanciers who own large and coarse 

 specimens avow that dogs whose weight is in the 

 neighborhood of 20 pounds are useless for working 

 purposes, while others who own the smaller sort are 

 just as emphatic in their opinion that the owners 

 of the big ones do not know what they are talking 

 about. Then there are the breeders of big Cocker 

 Spaniels, ever ready to condemn the little dogs 

 which are much more difficult to breed than the 

 heavy and coarse, or the leggy and weedy big ones. 

 If beagles weighing 20 to 23 pounds can do good 

 strong work, the senseless condemnation of the 20 



161 



