274. REARING, ETC. 



which ought to be carefully preserved. On the other hand, 

 if retained at home, or near home, they should never be 

 more than six, or, what is better still, four in one yard, 

 and they should be let out into a field or paddock for a 

 quarter of an hour before each time of feeding. After they 

 are six or seven months old, whether at home or ' at walk,' 

 greyhound puppies, I am quite satisfied, should not have 

 their entire liberty. They only become lazy, never gallop as 

 they do when just let out, and get so fat as to be an incum- 

 brance to themselves; and they are very apt to accompany 

 the farmer's sheep-dog, and assist him in finding hares, rabbits, 

 &c., by which many a well-bred dog learns to run cunning. 

 From the third to the sixth month whelps should be gradually 

 accustomed to a liberal allowance of flesh, boiled in water, and 

 mixed with their meal ; and the milk should be entirely, but 

 gradually, discontinued, and its place supplied by broth. My 

 reason for this is practical rather than theoretical, as, judging 

 from its analysis, milk ought to be equal to anything as a food for 

 young dogs. I am, however, quite satisfied that dogs fed on milk, 

 though they look fat and healthy, are not likely to turn out so well 

 as those fed on good broth and meal, and they are frequently 

 deficient in bone. This change should be made gradually, keeping 

 at first to the mutton broth as before described, and gradually 

 substituting for it oatmeal stirabout, with flesh cut up, or, still 

 better, torn up, and mixed well in it. The stirabout should be 

 made by stirring into the broth in which the flesh has been boiled 

 enough oatmeal and undressed wheat flour to thicken it, so that 



