52 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Treatment of Young Hounds. 



recourse to other breeds of undisputed merit, if from a 

 distant part the better perhaps ; but if his neighbour's 

 dogs stand in no degree of affinity, he need not be at the 

 trouble of seeking for greater strangers. 



The foregoing remarks are not exclusively appUcable 

 to animated nature, but may be very justly extended to 

 the vegetable world : hence the farmer never sows corn 

 on the land where it was produced ; and hence seed 

 potatoes grown in Scotland are imported into Lancashire, 

 where this useful vegetable attains the utmost possible 

 perfection. 



A bitch will become proud very frequently before she 

 is twelve months old, the first symptoms of which are 

 the red appearance and sweUing of the vulva; but she 

 will not, for some days, suffer the dog to ward her : 

 however, as the heat advances, she will play and dally 

 with him, and manifest every inclination to copulate. 

 But as these animals grow generally till they are two 

 years old, they ought not to be suffered to breed before 

 that period. Nor is it a little remarkable, that, if you 

 suffer a bitch to receive several dogs, such as a terrier, a 

 greyhound, a bulldog, &c. she will frequently produce 

 puppies of all the different kinds. 



Young hounds should be tied up or confined as little 

 as possible, as it spreads their feet, and they become out 

 at the elbows, and bandy-legged. The same effects will 

 be produced in a full-grown dog, but in a much less 

 degree. Dogs of all ages should have free access to 

 good clean water, a clear stream if possible. 



The period of gestation in the bitch is about sixty- 

 three days. The young are brought forth blind : the 



